Andrew is a local Vancouver hair stylist/makeup artist who recently approached me to help him create some photos for his new website. We had actually went to high school together so it was great to reconnect with him again. The primary shot he was after was a portrait/headshot in which he wanted it shot against a black background. I wasnt sure where we would find a black background but figured that a good way around it would be to shoot at night.
We headed to the elementary school down my street to do the shoot because I wanted to make use of the gravel field there. It was important to have a big open space so that there would be minimal bounce from my flash other than the light which was directed at Andrew. To light him I had my friend hold a large foam core board behind me and I just shot my flash backwards for the bounce which helped create a softer light as compared to a direct flash. The biggest challenge was the fact that we were shooting in almost complete darkness so AF was out of question. I ended up having my friend who was holding the foam core board, also hold her iphone with the flash light on at the same time so that I could see what I was trying to shoot. Even still, I pretty much had to manual focus and snap off a bunch of shots hoping that we had something in focus. We're very glad that things turned out!
Afterwards we went around the school to grab some more shots. We chose some spots with a bit of overhead light which made it much easier to work with. For a few of the shots I decided to just leave the light as what was available, while I added flash into some others. It was definitely nice to play around with some alternative lighting as I normally, with the exception of headshots, only shoot with available light. Look forward to working with Andrew again in the near future!
-w
