The problems I faced whilst shooting the models vs the solutions
Aris
From shooting Dave and Katy first, I was able to find solutions to problems with the lighting and camera settings. When shooting Dave I hadn't quite got to grips with using the speed light yet. Therefore a lot of the lighting and exposure I had to alter in post-production. I also found that with the images of Katy I had a lot of noise in the image due to having to put the ISO up.
I found a solution to this by using a 50 mm lens instead of a 15-85mm lens. However when taking the images of Drag Queen Dave I found that with the model changing positions so frequently I couldn't get the lighting and the composition right every time so I switched back to using the 15-85mm lens. I found that using the speed light on 1/64 and then altering it by putting it up ½ a stop on the flash itself was the best option and I got the desired effect of direct flash with a relatively small shadow round the outside of the subject.
I kept the camera settings to the lowest I could go in terms of aperture at F5.6, the ISO at 320 to avoid noise in the image and Shutter speed at 1/125.
I found that the closer I got to the model, the higher the exposure, so I directed the model to stand as close to the background as possible. This also ensured that the nice thin shadow was visible around the model. I remembered this technique from years a go when I used to shoot in a similar style. It was nice to know that I had remembered these techniques. Even though in this shot of Ffion I do quite like how it turned out.
When it came to post-production, I found the easiest and quickest way to edit the series was to use bridge, 5 star the best ones and then only show those using the filter option. Click and command all the images and open them up into camera RAW. I found a great filter option for each series. I used modern, vintage and variations of these to edit the images of Drag Queen Dave, Ffion, Beth and Oscar. However for the Katy and Dave shots, I hadn't found this option by then so just edited them individually. This took a lot more time so I'm really pleased that I found a quicker way of batch editing. After this process I opened them all up in photoshop by command clicking them all, after changing the exposure slightly on each one if it needed it. The only images that needed retouching in my opinion were the ones of Drag Queen Dave as we realised 50 images, in that he had crumbs on his lips! This was something that I learned from this shoot - to always check the models face before I start shooting! In the end I only retouched a few of his face. The rest were good to go!
I then batch saved all my images by clicking 'Choose File > Scripts > Image Processor' and then clicked the action that I wanted, 'save as jpeg' and saved them all into a new folder. I also realised I could do this by the time I edited shots of Oscar, which was my last series to edit! This is also something I will use in future photo shoots I do.
Having a blank background worked really well for each shoot, this was in-keeping with my original inspiration of Terry Richardson‘s style of shooting with direct flash. Having models that had a range of expressions worked really well and the fact that they all held their own versions of gender was great as it allowed them all to explore this without judgement. I believe they all did an excellent job and I feel I directed and styled them well.
If I had more time, I would have liked to have done a shoot with all of them together in one shot then manipulated their faces onto each other to see how this would look.
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