Here’s some of the final shots from the photoshoot that Alex and I did for an upcoming makeup company in Waterloo. It was a great experience for me personally. I believe it was the most extensive photoshoot I have done so far: we had multiple models, make-up artists, hair stylists - the whole shebang.

The most important thing that happened in this shoot was having Alex catch ourselves get caught in tunnel vision, which allowed us to escape and get some useful stuff. We started by focusing on just some model headshots and 3/4 shots. I ended up spending a lot of time trying to perfect these; trying to show the model in their best light (see main shot), etc. Alex realized that we had got way off track with the purpose of the photoshoot, which was to off this company’s product, not the model. We took a step back, thought about what we needed to do, and ended up with content which both looked good and was useful (see other shots).

I also learned (aka was embarrassingly reminded of) the importance of preparation. The main reason I tunnel visioned on getting some decent headshots was because I had no idea what type of content I needed to produce, so I just defaulted. An understanding of how the make-up industry works, what lifestyle and image the company is trying to portray, and what competitor content looks like is essential.

Finally, I played around with a new technique with involved using heavy Neutral Density (ND) filters (basically, dark grey pieces of glass) with strobing to get a shallow depth of field and controlled lighting. The first shot was me experimenting with that. I liked the end result, and I think it’s a sweet trick to have, once I get it fully figured out.