My 1st bikini & bar shoot

[Photomart]

I got a call from a model friend who wanted me to shoot some pictures of her for a calendar. I only had three hours to pack my equipment, drive to the bar, shoot the shots, and get out of the bar before their customers arrived. My audience included the model, her mom, the client, his assistant, the bartenders, the waitresses and the bar owner -- no pressure. On top of that, one of my Alien Bees wouldn't work ... so all these shots were taken with two lights and an SB-800 hairlight ... plus a lot of sweating bullets. Looking back -- there's a lot I'd have done differently, but the client and model love the shots. Lesson learned = alwqays bring more equipment than you think you need!

[cifcap]

I like the natural look of the last shot. The blur in the other two looks too deliberate IMO.

Keep shooting,
JW

[RobArtLyn]

Originally Posted by cifcap

I like the natural look of the last shot. The blur in the other two looks too deliberate IMO.

That is the first thing that came to my mind, too. It would have been better to just shoot wide open.

[jimmyd]

Originally Posted by Photomart

On top of that, one of my Alien Bees wouldn't work ...

uh oh! might be the wrong forum to make that admission. maybe the "effective watt seconds" got overloaded? either that, or the AB's flux capacitor crapped out on ya.

[glhstudio]

great may ask what camera and lenses that was used

gary

[UltimateAppealPhotography]

Originally Posted by jimmyd

uh oh! might be the wrong forum to make that admission. maybe the "effective watt seconds" got overloaded? either that, or the AB's flux capacitor crapped out on ya.

I think the Bee was just in awe of the pretty girl and wasn't able to perform!

[TheGoldy]

Can I ask why you flipped the 2nd shot? It wouldn't have been noticeable except for the Sierra mirror (or whatever) in the background and that makes it really noticeable.

[David_L_Brown]

look again...its not flipped

[ARTFORMS]

Maybe the bulb burned out? 8>) Anyways, nice shots with what you had to work with and I can see that the second image is not flipped. If it were, the Red Bull lettering on the poster would be backwards.

[Photomart]

Originally Posted by RobArtLyn

That is the first thing that came to my mind, too. It would have been better to just shoot wide open.

great may ask what camera and lenses that was used

I would have LOVED to shoot more wide open and get a more natural shallow DOF, but I wanted to see a lot of the bar and I couldn't stand back far enough to comfortably use my 70-200 f2.8 ... so I used my old Nikkor 24-120 f3.5-5.6. And even though I set it for the widest aperture, it doesn't provide a very shallow DOF (so I decides to fake it in Photoshop rather than stop the shoot and try to rent another lens.)

Lessons learned: scout the location in advance and bring the correct equipment.