I have to be honest with you guys…Rachel is one of my favorite models that I have worked with so far. This girl just knows how to work in front of the camera. If you want her to look soft and elegant, she nails it. You want dramatic and bad ass? She’ll nail that too. What more can you expect from a former “America’s Next Top Model” contestant? Not only is she a very talented model but she’s also just a great girl to hang out with in the studio. She’s able to run with the jokes and crack a few of her own. And, if you saw the Behind The Scenes Video that I posted last week, you know she’s got some dance moves too (after the credits). Simply put…I love working with Rachel.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from our shoot in Brooklyn at 3rd Ward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTOGRAPHER’S NOTES

 

If you watched the behind the scenes video closely, you may have noticed that I was using a few different lighting set ups during this shoot.
- The first shot in this series was lit using a Elinchrom BXRi 500 and 69″ Elinchrom Octa fairly close to Rachel, maybe 4 feet away at camera right.
- The next two shots are with the Elinchrom BXRi 500 bare bulb with a 7″ reflector. The light was around 10-15 feet away which gives that nice hard shadow. If I had more room in the studio (or just remembered to actually move it) I would have had the light a bit farther back from Rachel to get a clean hard edge on the shadows.
- The photo of Rachel getting makeup touched up by Mayra is backlit by the bare bulb BXRi and the main light is an Elinchrom 39″ Deep Octa. I LOVE this modifier…it is suhweeeet!!!
- The jump shot, close up and three shots of Rachel on the stool are all lit with the 39″ Deep Octa, about 5 feet away from her at camera right.
- The last three are my favorites I think. I was using two Elinchrom BXRi 500′s shooting through small strip boxes. The lights were angled at 45 degrees on either side behind Rachel, about 4 feet away. I love this setup. The amazingly beautiful shadows and highlights this gives just blows me away.
- You may notice how dirty the CYC wall was during the shoot. Typically this would bother me and I’d have it repainted but for this shoot, I was cool with it. I think it gives these photos (where you can see that part of the CYC) an extra touch.

tags