Bea for Sala Chaussures

My gorgeous friend, Bea, modelled for Sala Chaussures in our last photoshoot. You can check out more photos from that shoot here.

We wanted to make her photos look graceful and ethereal to match her awesome hair and of course, the heels.

A/W 2014 Sala Chaussures

When I first started this blog I would write about my thought process when I would edit photos or was out on shoots. Eventually I stopped doing that because I was thinking to myself: Does anybody really care? And what makes your “insights” so special.

More recently, I realized that it was a helpful learning tool, not just for myself but for anyone reading this. So in case you’re interested, I’ll walk you through the AW 2014 shoot I did for Sala Chaussures. And if you can’t be bothered, just look at the photos. ;)

First of, credits:
Styling and Creative Direction: Trifina and Celyn Sala
Model: Leslie Booc
MUA: Liz Cinco

I like to start any shoot nice and easy. Even if I have worked with the model before, I find that there’s always a period or getting used to one another again. So, we find a good location, and just play around. I have her move around the space and see what she’s comfortable with, what her angles are, and how much direction she needs.

When it comes to scouting for locations, I like to find places where the backdrop doesn’t compete with what should be the main focus of the image, which in this case are the shoes.

Here I have Leslie against the white marble that extends into super bright concrete and in her simple outfit your eye goes to the most colorful thing in the image, the shoes.

It’s the same idea in this image as well. Against the black gate the white dress stands out but throughout the image all the colors are very neutral except for the pop of color in the shoes.

In this shot I wanted to frame her with the blurry foreground to add depth to the shot.

Another way of directing the viewers attention is to have the model looking at what you want your audience to look at.

Or to have complementary shapes. I like how the ruffles on her dress mimic and match the wings on the shoes.

Props are always fun, but you have to be careful that they don’t end up taking over your image.

In the end you have to make sure you’re getting the product in the shot. You can have a beautiful image but if your client can’t use it to show what they want to sell then they aren’t going to be very happy with you.

Sometimes less is more. I love this image more than the two that came before it because it’s so simple but it tells the same story as the first two shots.

This part largely depends on how much time you have and how open your client is to you experimenting. The great thing about working with the Sala sisters is they aren’t afraid to play. So once we got the romantic, ethereal shot above, with the same shoes we tried a more dark and moody look. Majority of this look was achieved in post processing. The lighting is largely the same but the color and the fog was added later on. The color of the shoes are exactly the same though, that’s important, don’t mess around with the product.

Then it was time to move indoors. If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you know that I really struggle with studio lighting. For product shots and things like that I’m fine, but for telling a story I’ve always found it hard to use artificial lights. After lots of practice I think I’ve gotten the mix the way I like it. The images below were all shot with one or two lights mixed with whatever ambient light was available in the room.

If you made it all the way to the end and through all my rambling then yayy you! Let me know what you think, what I got wrong and if you have any suggestions or thoughts of your own that you’d like to share.

Till next time!
Jack

Cesa Swim 2014

 

Here are some of my favorites from my last beach shoot for 2014. Again we have the gorgeous Kim Maitland-Smith in Cesa Swimwear.

This was a challenging shoot, rocked with stormy weather and a slight mishap at our location. Thankfully I had a great team with me to keep things cheerful.

Model: Kym Maitland-Smith
MUA: Noe Villagonzalo
Stylist: Kathrynn Sy

Island Girl 2014: Body Jewelry

Another set from my Island Girl shoot. This time featuring the gorgeous Kym Maitland-Smith. Check out other photos from this shoot here. And the BTS here. x

Photographer: Jacklyn Kaye Uy
Stylist: Anna Lu
Models: Kym Maitland-Smith Ayana Jimenez Cassandra Yu
Make-Up: Raisa Bercede

Island Girl 2014: Straw Cap

I had so much fun shooting at a gorgeous beach here in Cebu for Island Girl Philippines. You can see what our day was like in the BTS video here. As you can imagine, we took soooo many photos that day. Which is easy to do when you love the brand you’re shooting and you have a team of such lovely people inspiring you. I didn’t want to just throw everything into one post so I’ll be spreading these out and showing your some of my favorites (because I have so many!). Starting with this awesome straw hat!

Photographer: Jacklyn Kaye Uy
Stylist: Anna Lu
Models: Kym Maitland-Smith Ayana Jimenez Cassandra Yu
Make-Up: Raisa Bercede

If you’re from Cebu or visiting, be sure to check out their showroom in Mactan (Punta Engano, near Sutukil), all their products are 100% sourced and made in the Philippines.