Photoshoot: Change the Perspective

In this article I´d like to show you photos from my latest photoshoot and share with you some tips I´ve learnt and found them very useful. 












We finally get the location!
Two weeks ago I and Chrysses did a photoshoot in the location we wanted month ago but we couldn´t because there was some church camp. (You can read about that photoshoot in the article "Photoshoot Near Water? Never Ever Forget A Repellent!".

This time we had luck because the place was empty and what was even better was the lighting because we caught a golden hour - time before the dawn or after the dusk where the ligh is beautifuly golden and simply looks awesome! It also showed up that it was one of the last warm, sunny days of this year.

To show you why I was so eager to take photos in this place you can take a look at the photo I shoot last year there.

Location where we shoot
I wanted reflector really badly
Since I sew my own reflector (you can read about it in the article "DIY: Silver Photo Reflector For Only $6") and started to using it almost no photoshoot can be done without it. And I wanted to use during this photoshoot too. But the problem was that I didn´t take it home.
So we had to improvize...

Firstly we wanded to go to some store and bought silver foil and attached it to a wooden desk but we didn´t have enough time and for a while it looked like that we were going to take photos without it.

But when we arrived to our location we found that the church camp let us there very pleasant surprise - white notice board which is excellent reflector! Chrysseis didn´t hesitate and borrowed it.

Look at this amazing reflector!
Forgotten behind the scenes
After the photoshoot I realized that we didn´t take any photo from our preparation so I forced Chrysseis to make some false "doing makeup" photos. She was really thrilled about it ...

"What is this crucible for?"
...and she´ll probably kill me to see it :)

Finished Photos
I have many photos from this photoshoot because the lighting was as I said before georgeous. All photos are taken with my Canon EOS1000d and 50mm f1,8 lens.



I didn´t do many post processing because it wasn´t necessary. Most of the time I just increased contrast with Gradient Map (you can read about this method in the article "3 Favorite Tools in Photoshop"), sharpen it with High Pass filter and played with colors a little to get the mood I wanted to achieve.


Change the Perspective
I´ve read it in so many books about photography: "If you want some interesting photo, change the perspective!" In all my previous photoshoots I changed angles of shooting or perspective but very gently. But in this photoshoot I decided to REALLY change it so I lay on the ground and took most of the photos from that possition.


I shoot through the grass and thanks to 50mm f1.8 lens and it´s small DOF I get really nice foreground. 


Different point of view
Chrysseis wrote about this photoshoot too. You can read about it on her blog in the article "Last summer day".
She shoot many amazing photos during the photoshoot. I especially like the one below.


How do I complete my resolution?
Do you remember the resolution I gave myself after one of the previous photoshoots?
  • Wait for better lighting (it showed up that the "magic hour" is at these time one and half hour later than I thought).
  • Be more careful about the light.
  • Use artificial light (especially as fill light during backlight shots).
  • Use different color palette than violet/yellow I´m using now.
I was trying to focus on them and did some progress thanks to it. In this photoshoot we really waited for the magic hour and I really focused on the light. And I´m also trying to do my best with using more colors during the post processing.
But there are still some things I want to improve:
  • finally shoot in RAW (I don´t know what I´m waiting for),
  • make the photoshoot les spontaneous and more prepared,
  • add some conceptual twist to the photos,
  • make photos more fashion looking.

Thank you very much for reading the article! Do you like the photos? See some mistakes? Have any tips for improvement? Do you have your own resolutions? I would love to see your opinion in comments!
- Jarka