Shooting the Living at Preston School of Industry Ione, CA Part II

Welcome back!

In my last post, I was telling you all about Preston Castle in Ione and how I came to FINALLY start learning how to work with models.  This post continues my adventure but, instead of focusing on the Castle itself, it's going to contain what I feel were my best photos of the day.

Caveat: Some of the photos/poses were somewhat or complete duplicate of another shot and I couldn't really tell which was better.  So I split some of the photos between posts so as to avoid too much duplication in either post.  So you may experience some deja vu (or deja VIEW)! And actually, there are still some similar photos in this batch...some with a wider view or different edit - but in all cases, a different photo and all taken by yours truly.

And, just to help you remember where these photos were taken...

This is one of those similar photos I was talking about.  In my last post, you will see a photo that I took where a couple people happened to walk in front of the window just as I snapped my shutter. 

I asked Aubrey and Sarah to recreate it by holding hands in front of the window while I shot from two rooms over (sitting on the dirty floor I might add!)

While shooting Aubrey in the ambient light of the basement, I loved how the light shown on her face and thought it would be perfect for a "low-key" treatment.  So I shot this photo and only had to adjust the darkness around her a little in Photoshop Elements 11 (yes, I need to upgrade!).

Tim, the photo docent, helped me with this as I having some trouble with the light when Aubrey wasn't facing the window.  He had me adjust my ISO to 1600 which helped with the shadows.  The graininess works for a lot of these photos, although I wish had had remembered to readjust it when we went into the brighter rooms upstairs.

 More similar photos.  But I love how Sarah just literally matches the walls.  And the walls themselves, along with the angles of the rooms, are amazing!

 I edited Sarah with some luminosity to make her slightly ghost-like.

 I like to fool myself into thinking that these next two photos of Aubrey could be from a fashion-spread.  haha!  This one is for an accessories line...

 And this is a high-fashion ad for boots!

And I just love this one! Again, there is one in the last post almost exactly like this. But I had had her turn her head just a little and I think that makes the picture better.  

Original edit (different colored clothing on reflection in last post)

 This is one of my favorite shots of the whole day.  I was sitting on the floor and asked the girls to skip down the hall towards me.  I added some motion blur into the back to enhance the motion of their hair, feet, and clothes.  Flove!

This is a closer shot of a portrait-style shot in the last post.  I actually really like the way that the line of the banister leads to Aubrey's face and the direction in which she tilted her head (her idea) mimics the lines in the holes in the wall.  By that one thing she made the photo better!

 Here I shot Aubrey through holes in the wall as she sat in the next room.
You know I love my gimmicks!

 The ambient light in this room was very blue.  I like it and the way the sink point up to her.  Again, using your props and surrounding to enhance the object of the photo.

Me trying to get my damn Helios 44 lens to work!  Love the soft focus it created though.

 Ditto!  I had trouble getting that Russian knockoff to focus.  Just to be clear, I'm talking about the Helios lens.

 Steampunk vibe in High-Key edit.

I confess that I saw another photographer shooting a model in the infirmary and it gave me the idea for these last few photos.  She had her model's back to the window and was shooting down on her face, which was lifted up to catch the light.  But I saw the 'light lines' on the floor and asked Aubrey to sit mimicking the lines.  I then tried to catch the line on her eye while keeping the rest of the photo interesting as well.

 Definitely called for a "Low-Key" edit!

But the natural light looks just as awesome, if not better!

My unending thanks to Sarah and Aubrey for making a great day amazing.  Especially Aubrey who let me follow her around and ask her to do some really awkward things!

xoxo

Nikon D3300