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Fall Leaves

On October 24th, I worked with the lovely Beatrixz Xclusivez. This shoot revolved around a fall leaf headpiece I made to match the season. We shot at Phillips Park in Beavercreek, I like this location because it has three nice features a big red barn with silo, a pond, and a gazebo.  For this shoot I focused on using the barn and the pond as a background

For this shoot I used:

  • Canon 80D
  • 2 Speed lights
  • Light stand
  • Small soft box

I shot 205 frames between ISO 100.  My aperture varied between F5 to F20 with a majority of the shots taken at F5.  My shutter speed ranged from 1/60s to 1/250s with a majority of the frames being shot at 1/200s.  My focal range varied from 18mm to 80mm with the most common focal length being 18mm followed by 20mm. 

Since this shoot was focused on the headpiece, many of my shots were beauty shots.  Two of my favorite shots are a beauty shot taken using walls of the barn as a background. In the first shot, I used the outside wall, because like how the red of the barn wall complements the oranges and yellows in the headpiece.  In the second shot I used the inside barn wall to give the photo a richer feeling and really make the colors stand out.  In both cases the flash was set to my left, raised up, then pointed down at the models face.  The model had lovely skin, so I did very little retouching, just removed a few stray hairs and a few threads from the flowers.  I adjusted the highlights and shadows slightly on both images, then added a vignette to finish the images.

(ISO 100, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/200s, Focal Length 35mm)

(ISO 100, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/200s, Focal Length 28mm)


This final image I love, because it is a quintessential beauty shot. The headpiece and the leaves frame her face and just surround her in a nice fall colors.  To get this shot I had the model stand in front of the silo, which is white, to have a clean background. Then I gave the model some of the leftover leaves I had from making the headpiece, to hold up to here face.  I explained I wanted to frame her in leaves but without having to find a pile of leaves for her to lay in.  For this image the flash was set to my left and almost at eye level with the model. When editing this image, I cropped it fairly tight, to eliminate the background and ensure the focus was on the model’s eyes.  I adjusted the exposure slightly and enhanced some of the highlights.  I did have to go in and clean up a few teardrops because it was slightly windy and the model’s eyes were watering a little bit.  I will say the model was a trooper to get through the shoot, with the chilled breeze wearing a corset as a top.  To finish the image, I added a slight vignette.

(ISO 100, Aperture F7.1, Shutter 1/100s, Focal Length 70mm)

Overall, this shoot went well, and Beatrixz is a lovely model to work with.  You can see the full set of final images from this shoot here: Fall Leaves

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