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Session at the Jefferson

On March 8th, after several reschedules due to weather, Enchantedwithkahlia finally got to work with her to shoot her female version of Captain America in front of the Jefferson Memorial.  The Jefferson Memorial was picked because it is one of the movie filming locations. Though it will only ever look that empty early in the morning, that is why we shot at 7:00AM on a Sunday.

For this session, I used:

Photography Equipment

Props/Miscellaneous

Cannon R6

24-105 mm Lens

Transmitter/Trigger

1 Speedlight

1 Light stand

1 ¼ CTO gel

Assistant

The set up

This was an early morning sunrise shoot on location, so the setup was rather simple.  A single speed light with a ¼ CTO gel mounted on a light stand held by my assistant.  This setup meets the guidelines for shooting at the memorials.  I went with the ¼ CTO gel to meet better blend with the golden hour sunlight.  Unfortunately, we had a ton of cloud cover, so we didn’t get a beautiful sunrise, but more of a moody wake-up call.

Camera Settings

For this session, I went with ISO 400 and ISO 500 due to the lighting conditions. I used two primary apertures, F5 and F8, depending on what I wanted in focus.  My shutter speed ranged from 1/50s to 1/200s, with several shots being taken at 1/50s. I’m thankful for image stabilization at those speeds. My focal length ranged from 24mm to 105mm, with my most common focal length being 24mm, too for the wide shots of the monument and the Tidel Basin.  

The Photos

The day of the shoot, we ended up with a very cloudy sky, which was suited more towards moody portraits, as opposed to the brilliant sunrise we were hoping for.  When shooting at this location, I tried to capture a variety of wide shots that showed the monuments, along with close-ups that still offered hints about the location.  Note, we did not shoot inside the rotunda, only on the steps of the monument. 

When editing the photos, I used Adobe’s new culling application that helped me quickly identify blurry shots and shots with eyes closed.  This has slightly sped up my culling and made it easier to eliminate images.  I then did the basic adjustments of white balance, exposure, and clarity.  The other tool I used was the transform tool to ensure the pillars on the monument were straight; however, I had to make sure it did not distort Enchantedwithkahlia.  I also used Adobe’s remove tool to remove people and orange cones in the frame.  Finally, I applied orange(shadow)/blue (highlight) color grade to several of the images to make them feel a bit more cinematic and a vignette.

My favorite image from the session is the one of Enchantedwithkahlia looking out over the Tidal Basin towards the Washington Monument and the Capitol (not in shot).  In this image, she is sitting on a white piece of plastic, because the ground was wet, which I removed during the editing process.  I also removed several construction cranes that were in the distance to have a nice clean shot. This image does not have a color grade on it, with the contrast in color mostly coming from the CTO on the speed light and the blue in the sky.

ISO 400, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/50s, Focal Length, 24mm

This next image shows the monument and a very moody sky. It actually started to drizzle a little as we were heading home, thankfully not during the shoot.  This is a very wide shot, which I considered using a transform on to straighten out the building, but it distorted the model, so I did not use the function.  I selectively masked the sky and darkened the exposure to make it a bit moodier and added a bit more blue to the white balance. I went with a square crop to eliminate the trees on the sides of the monument and to place the model close to one of the main points of interest, using the rule of thirds.  Finally, I used the remove tool to eliminate an orange cone, and the bit of the light stand that was in the shot. 

ISO 400, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/50s, Focal Length, 24mm

Finally, you can’t do a Captain America shoot at one of the D.C filming locations without doing a running shot.  While we couldn’t do the famous “on your left” image, we were at least close to one of the images from the movies.   To get this shot, I stood on the steps of the monument and panned my camera as the model and my assistant ran past.  An extra shout-out to my assistant is in order, as he ran backward holding the light stand and flash as the model ran towards him, so we could get good action shots. When editing this image, I removed my assistant and cropped it long to give the model a place to run to.

ISO 500, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/160s, Focal Length, 35mm

The Wrap Up

It was a pleasure to work with Enchantedwithkahlia at the Jefferson Memorial.  While we originally planned the shoot for the fall of last year, the weather and colds got in the way, forcing several reschedules.  There is nothing you can do about the weather for an outdoor on-location shoot because no one wants to work in 50mph winds, temperatures in the low 20s, or the rain. Also, it is important that both the model and the photographer are healthy, because stuffy, runny noses don’t look good on camera or behind the camera.  So, I didn’t mind rescheduling it.

Shooting early in the morning at the monuments is important, because they get really busy starting around 9:00 AM and into the evenings in the spring and summer.  It is all the school tour groups and general tourists, especially as you get close to Cherry Blossom Season.  While I’m disappointed we didn’t have a grand sunrise, I think the moody sky worked well for the images, making them more dramatic. 

Credits:

Cosplay: Female Captain America

Model: Enchantedwithkahlia

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