This shoot was shot in Golden Hour along a quiet river bank. Fern, the model, is a close friend and this shoot helped me develop working with people who are not used to being in front of the camera. It was easy to put Fern at ease, being friends, however she still felt awkward having her pictures taken in public. The approach I took to counter this was to simply talk to Fern, give her directions of where to stand, sit or go and time my photo capturing to capture natural expressions.

This photo of Fern was shot with a really low sun. Due to this the light is only hitting Fern and a small portion of the background where you can see the long shadows Golden Hour causes.

As Fern is the only thing illuminated in the frame the background is underexposed helping Fern stand out from the surroundings.
However you can see the light doesn’t reach below her waist causing her lower half to be underexposed too.

As it was a very clear day, though golden hour, the sun is hitting Fern with a hard light causing her to squint.

Here I’ve moved Fern slightly so her entire body is in the shade creating a much more even lighting across her and the background.

She is also able to open up her eyes and relax her expression as the sun is no longer in her eyes creating a more relaxed looking model and image.

As the photo was taken relatively photojournalistically ferns angled 90 degree to the camera making for an image that doesn’t really connect with the audience.

I could move to remedy this but in this specific situation we were on a riverbank with tall grass and wildlife making it difficult to move safely.

Moving into open shade, here Fern is evenly lit, able to keep her eyes open as has very soft shadows under her chin.

The soft light helps to smooth her skin and fill any flaws giving a natural and flattering look. Her hair still has highlights given contrast and texture which has been enhanced in post-production.

I asked Fern to keep a neutral expression to keep the tone of the image quite serious which I think fits well with the neutral tone. I find Fern’s dress sense and hair colour fit the out of focus background colours quite well.

However, the background does present a bit of distraction for me, the houses in the background are still in the sunlight highlighting the white windows.

As Fern is facing out into open sky from the open shade, she has nice catchlights in her eyes making her eyes pop.

As light was fading quickly, I felt a bit rushed throughout the shoot and ended up with shots and poses that simply don't work. Here Fern is looking uncomfortable, I've asked her to sit on the wall and relax but she looks very tense. The harsh sunlight in her eyes is causing her to scrunch her face, her coat and bad are just hanging off her and there is no connection with the audience.

Compositionally I've cut off her leg mid-calf, I would've perhaps had better luck shooting in landscape to fit all of her in the frame. But generally I think this pose and positioning simply wasn't comfortable enough for Fern to look relaxed.

Stray Hairs are highlighted by the rim light

This is my favourite image from the shoot.
As mentioned previously, fern has been turned away from the hard light giving her a rim light highlighting her hair.

This unfortunately highlighted the stray hairs on Fern causing a distracting and messy look. I’ve remedied this in post-production by cloning out the hairs creating a cleaner and more presentable look.

I also removed my lens hood for this shot hoping for a lens flare, though nothing quite as dramatic as intended the images has a very slight washed out look and mild flare artefact on her lower half.

Looking back I wish I had kept a better eye on Fern’s hair to help save time in post and also reduced the messy look of her hair on her coat sleeve which has proven harder to correct.

Final Set of images

Though Fern is squinting in this image I really enjoy the frame. Not filling the frame with just Fern you can see her surroundings, the affect the golden hour light has on the colours of her surroundings and that Fern's styling fits the colour tones of the nature around her and the toning of the image post production.

Though I wouldn't particularly say this image is very commercial, I feel it portrays Fern's personality quite well. Her over laughter gives a light tone to the image with I think matches the dreamy lighting.

With this image I decided to use a cooler white balance. The golden hour rim light is more white and the open shade in the background has a blue cast to it. The posing and angle of the image gives a moody and detached tone to the image which I find interesting given the usual conventions of golden hour lighting.

Here, opting for black and white i've decided to solely rely on the direction of light and composition of the image to try and make the image as opposed to the colour.

Here, the open shade is flattering Fern's skin and her expression gives a more relaxed tone to the image. The setting sun it casting it's light on the crown of her head which could be slightly distracting however I find the background helps this due to being a similar colour and exposure.

Utilising open shade, fern's very softly and evenly light, though her lower half is darker due to vignetting of the lens. I like the three quarter length shot and how Fern's style suits the backgorund autumnal colours.

Here is a full length shot, I find the grate on the floor mildly distracting however I like how the lens vignette seems to frame Fern nicely.

As a whole, I was really pleased with this shoot. It was amongst the first time I felt like I was consistent throughout the shoot and was genuinely pleased with the results. There are still a lot of things I can pick fault with within the set of images, such as composition, background distractions and posing however my chosen final set of images came out how I envisioned them.

Here is a link to see all the images from the shoot: https://adobe.ly/2EtP9XK

Golden Hour

Golden hour is the ‘hour’ just after sun rise and just before sun set.
Creates a directional warm glow of light (around 3000k) which is typically, though not always more diffused than midday sun.
Golden hour creates long shadows and as it typically occurs early or late in the day when shooting outside public places tend to be less busy.

Open Shade

Open shade is when the subject is stood in shade in an open environment so the direct, and therefore hard light providing sun, is not hitting them, they are however facing out towards the open sky. The open shade will provide a light that evens out the light removing harsh shadows and provide a more natural colour