Loxs Photoshoot

Last night I worked on a photo shoot for Graham at Loxs Salon in Leicester. It’s years sine I’ve done a proper shoot, and it was a really enjoyable experience. It’s a real challenge to set up a studio in a working salon, but it went pretty smoothly and I’m happy with the results. Out of the five models, we think that we have got one usable shot of each of them – which is a relief for me at least.

I’ve invested in some lighting, which gave me loads of confidence going into the shoot, however, it’s either me, or the equipment, but I couldn’t get the two lights to synch together. One could be triggered with the attached cable, but I’d assumed that the second unit would fire from the flash of the first. Obviously I’m doing something wrong, because I could only get one to trigger. So, I dug out my Metz hammer head, attached it to a tripod and dangled a flash sensor from it. It worked, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do.

Having reflected on the problems over night, I’ve realised that I’m going to have to buy an adaptor to fire off the lights. Perhaps I’m an idiot, but I’d assumed that the kit that I bought was all in one! Anyway, the girls were great, and looked glamourous and fabulous. I’ve got a couple of good shots that I’m happy with, and can’t wait to see if Graham is happy with the end results, once I’ve processed them and touched them up.

Anyway, the real challenge with hair is introducing enough highlight so that the texture of dark hair stands out. It’s really easy to get the exposure right for blond or red hair, but black and brunet hair is considerably more difficult. getting the exposure right for the skin tone, while still retaining detail on the hair is a considerable challenge. It took a lot of minor adjustments and experimentation to get the balance even close, and I’m still a million miles away. The blacks end up looking like a solid block while the face looks bleached and stripped of colour. I’ve got some work to do in Photoshop to correct some of the imbalance, and since I’m no expert in Photoshop, it’s better that I’m careful. Any hints and tips would be appreciated.