Studio Shoot With the Fabulous Baker Girls

Four beautiful women were in my new studio today for the first paid photo shoot there. Jessica, a friend of mine, asked me to take some photos with her sisters and mother before one of her sisters moves overseas for three years.

Jessica is a very bubbly and fun girl, and the rest of her family were no different. The shoot was a lot of fun, and we made some great photos. Check out some of them below, and following that, some lessons learned that others contemplating a small home studio might want to read.

This shoot really put the new studio to test. There were a few problems encountered:

• Unreliable triggering by the cactus flash triggers.
• Too slow recycle time on the flashes, despite having fresh batteries.
• Wrinkles in the backdrop showing up.
• Not being familiar/comfortable enough with lighting beyond standard portraits – “atmospheric” lighting was hit-and miss.
• Had to get others to hold reflectors etc.
• Dining table chairs make poor posing stools.

The answers to most of these questions is getting more gear, but I really need to practice more portrait shoots in the studio so that I’m not stopping to think “ok, what else would look good, and how do I do it?” I need to have a whole bunch of lighting configurations tried and tested and filed away in my mind, ready to set up and go when I see the use for them.

Anyone living in Melbourne wanna come over and pose for me? :)