Vizualization
Heather and Camille lighting it up always. Such a gorgeous mom and daughter, right??
A few years ago this chair just showed up at my mom’s house looking like it needed to be photographed. She got it at the church garage sale. The. Church. Garage. Sale. Y’ALL. Peacock chairs are a beloved accessory for some photographers, and I love the boho look they have. Certainly not an everyday accessory, but just right on occasion.
So, I’ve been dreaming of setting this stylized shoot up with Heather and Camille. And the chair. I took to Pinterest first to find some inspiration, and there was so much of all the beautiful things that inspired me. So I saved my pins and started thinking of how to execute my vision.
Mother’s Day 2020 seemed like just the right time to execute the shoot. But there’s a lot that goes into shooting. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that planning and preparation make for a good shoot. That means visualizing your set up first and taking action to prepare. So, I knew I wanted the white backdrop. And honestly, I’ve just about decided that I should buy 12 rolls of white paper because it always looks timeless.
Note: To get a completely white backdrop, I would have set up additional speedlights to light it separately and moved the rest of the set away from the backdrop, but I wanted more warmth and tonality in the paper, so I lit everything with the two lights.
Below, is a sketch of my plan. We took these photographs at my parents’ home in Lydia. We set up the light stand and backdrop in the garage adjacent to the sun. I chose plants that complemented the dress and also brought thick greenery to the scene. My parents have beautiful tropicals in lovely pots, so I knew it was just a matter of bringing a few into the scene. They have the green thumb. Look at that orchid. Look. At. It.
Not part of the plan: how hot it was. Notes in plan.
I used the AD400 double diffused* to fill in a little on the sunlight and the AD200 to even out the light on the darker side. The Photek Softlighter is an absolute beast of a modifier and while it was hitting the top of the garage, it was also dropping beautiful diffused light onto the scene.
The flooring is a flokati throw I picked up at Home Goods a few years ago, and on top is a creme Amazon throw that I use all the time for photography. Edited with Tribe Summit 01.
I’m using the Sony Zeiss 55 lens. While it’s “older” (it was released in October 2013) it is zippy and light. Autofocus is soooo good. I shot at 1.8 because I wanted to take out any imperfections in the backdrop, and I didn’t need the plants entirely in focus. I wanted there to be a somewhat dreamy effect to the end result, and I think the low aperture helps accomplish that.
*I lost my inner diffuser for the Glow a few months back, and when I recently found it, realized just how integral it is to producing soft light from a powerful light like the AD400.
The results are almost exactly what I wanted. In hindsight, I might have gone with a solid dress, but I still like how this one photographs. I actually ordered a solid pink dress, but it was the color of Pepto-Bismol when it arrived, so it’s getting sent back to Amazon. I also could have brought in more plants. If I had elephant ears or more fake monsteras I would have popped those in as well. Maybe next time.
Photographing Heather and Camille may have taken 15 minutes. Camille lights up with the camera, so for a child, she’s pretty awesome to photograph. Having everything set up exactly as it should have been makes to shooting so much simpler.
The second to last picture is a little of the BTS, but as usual, I forgot to take a whole set up shot. The last image was actually one where my lights didn’t fire, but I wanted to edit it anyway just to see what difference the lights made. As you can see, there is a lot of shadow in it and a noticeable gradient as the light tapers towards the back of the garage. It is possible that I could edit a gradient filter and balance it, but I didn’t.
In all seriousness, I really love this set, and had I not taken the time to visualize it, I would have not gotten the same results. So, I think with every intention and plan you have, you have to visualize the end, and work on piecing all the elements together to get to that end.
Also, Heather MADE Camille’s dress, y’all. Straight made it the day before! She’s talented and generally amazing, y’all. So happy Mother’s Day to her and all the moms out there killing it.