Womanwise 13

23/11/09 22:40 Filed in: Technique

I decided to take Judette Coward-Puglisi up on her suggestion that I scout the location for the photo session with mature model and newbie fashion designer Patricia Tracey the day before the shoot.
Once Womanwise editor Essiba Small asked for photos of not just Tracey but of event sponsor Sheena Thorpe, I dropped an idle notion of photographing the model in the studio and shifted my thinking to making the most of an opportunity to do the photos at the Claudia Pegus’ Woodbrook office.

It turned out to be a really good idea. Pegus’ space is part showroom; part creative space and there isn’t a wasted square inch. Fitting the photographs into it was going to be a challenge of fitting stuff in as much as it was going to be a way to make decent photo.

Two spaces jumped out, a couch that needed careful positioning to avoid reflections from the mirror behind it. The other space was pretty much a cupboard space; a narrow roomlet with a bank of mirrors that would be amazingly tight for two grown people but would make it possible to create some beauty lighting with just two lights.

It’s a simple photo that leverages the environment to multiply the lighting, surrounding the practiced model with the flood of crisp light that’s characterised her entire career.
Shot wide open using a 24-105mm lens. Scrapped the 100mm macro because of the cramped space and the need to frame dynamically.

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PhotographyWomanwise