The thoughts, the where and how - photo exhibition

​The photo exhibition, 'Hot Summer, Cool Black and Whites' comes down tomorrow. I am showcasing the portraits online for the next month. Showing the thoughts, the where and how behind the shots. With the rainy weather, I thought it would be perfect to start with the window lit portraits with model Panda Harteman.

THE WHERE
This was the last shoot I did for the exhibition, right on the end of Summer. It was the end of daylight savings. It had started to cool down, there were rain showers on and off. The shots were taken by the big front window of my home/studio with the road and lake scene outside.

THE HOW
Camera: Canon 50d
Natural lighting taken outside through the window.
Lens: Canon 50mm
F 2.8
ISO 400
Shutter Speed 1/250
I used the monochrome camera setting so I could preview the photos in black and white in camera.  When shooting in RAW though, you will still be working with the original colour versions in Lightroom and Photoshop, which you then convert to black and white.

THE THOUGHT PROCESS
I had all ideas for all the sessions for the exhibition thought out before I did any shooting, and Panda was a perfect fit with her natural, cool look.

I knew  I wanted a naturally lit, window shoot, making use of the reflections windows created.  It was interesting doing a bit of online research before the shoot, that most of the photos and tutorials with windows, were trying to get rid of the reflections!  I definitely wanted reflections, so I looked at different angles and times of day, to produce the reflections I wanted prior to the shoot.

For the exhibition, I needed to narrow the session images down to 1 for a display frame, plus 2 extras for a 3 image spread in a book.  I was able to narrow each session to my fave 5, but needed to call in a second pair of eyes to choose my final 3, one of which would be my display image.  James Sales (James Sales Photography), was a huge help in choosing images that went well together and fitted the theme.  This image of Panda was my framed exhibition piece from this session, because it most reflected the Summer time feel.

Comments and questions are most welcome as I go through each photo.  I will do my best to answer them all.

Today it is raining and cold.  Bring on Summer 2016/2017!

xox
​Calico Jo