22 Jun Hardback Clothing Promo Shoot
Light, you know… that stuff we need reflecting off of everything around us to see. It’s awesome, but… it doesn’t tell nearly as good of a story as the shadows. Of course without light, you’d just have shadow, a black image, so I’m talking about a good mix of the two, it’s that heavy contrast between light and dark that I’m in love with. Just as much as I need the light in my shots, I need those shadows. In my mind, it’s not the light that tells the story of an image, it’s the shadows, the parts we can’t see. It carves out the subject, showing shape, telling a story all in it’s own. Sure, super bright, over exposed images are great for making people’s skin and faces look nice and clean, but it’s boring. I want some character, I want the person to be etched in their true form, not hidden in bright, over exposed images. I’m always looking for ways to bring deep, dark shadows into my images. I believe it tells the best story, it makes people stop and look at it. Obviously, there will always be exceptions to the rule, I will shoot bright, happy images when it’s called for, but my preference is like the image below.
These images are from a promotional shoot I did for the Hardback Clothing company. They’ll be promoting their gear at a upcoming MMA fight. I decided to stick with the whole MMA theme, and propped Stephanie here in hand wraps and fake sweat. Found a grungy lookin’ wall that reminds me of something you might find in a really old, rundown training gym, and hit it with some dramatic light. Looks pretty badass if you ask me.
We went through various poses, angles, etc. capturing the logos on the apparel, then changed out colors, and did it all over again.
Love these close-ups, you can see all the detail and lighting shining off of the skin.
I used some side lighting, and gelling the lights, giving it some color. These small photos don’t give it nearly enough credit, but the lights shining off of Stephanie’s legs, arms, and back look amazing on a larger version. Like the left pic below, you can see all three lights reflecting – white, red, and orange.
Per usual, I had a blast shooting this. Came away with some nice images, something new. I love location shooting, it’s kicks the shit out of shooting in the studio any day of the week. Stephanie was a champ. Of course, you can always count on rain in Washington, even in June. Luckily we were undercover, but it wasn’t the warmest of days, and Stephanie had to get sprayed repeatedly to keep that sweaty look going on. She was freezing her little booty off, as indicated by the goosebumps.
