After completing my studio shoot I was left with 300+ images which I sorted through using Adobe Bridge. I then selected my favourite in terms of lighting, subject matter and the models expression. Once this was narrowed down to 3-5 images I began editing them.
I found that because I was using a black backdrop I was having a lot of issues with reflection as the background was gloss and not matt material. So it was reflecting light and turning into a grey background.
I managed to solve this problem by increasing the distance from my model to the background so in the end there was around 6ft between the model and background. I was using low key lighting to add drama to the shots and I think this has worked well. I was using 2 studio flash heads with no modifiers apart from a reflector.
This was the lighting setup that I began with and I kept this pretty constant throughout the shoot as it worked from the off. The only thing I changed was the height of the fill flash depending where I wanted to emphasise. In some shots the shoes were a large part of the outfit so the flash was lower and directed towards the lower half. On other shots I wanted the chest to be the focus so the flash was sitting level with the models chest. I often found that keeping the flash powers the same was the best as I was happy with the look of the lighting and if I wanted something brighter or darker I changed my aperture. I kept my ISO at 100 throughout the shoot to get noise free images and my shutter speed was around 1/180th which is below the max sync speed of my camera (1/250th) just to make sure there was no chance of the shutter being too high to sync with the flash.
Once I had selected a few of my favourite images I began editing them in Photoshop CS6. I first got the image looking how I wanted composition wise and then focused on the look of the image. For the below image I added some contrast using a curves adjustment layer and then desaturated to achieve the 'Nike' look by adding a black and white adjustment layer and setting it's opacity to 40%.
Before: After:
So far this is my favourite image and a strong contender for my final image. I think it's quite a strong image and the model shows good presecene and confidence. I've added some text to show what it would look like as a promotional piece which was my goal. I think the image ticks all the boxes my only problem is that the legs are a little dark and fall into the background too much, I would have been better lowering my fill light or using an umbrella to throw the light across the whole of my subject.
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