[Model Shoot] Thuy Tran – 6 Different Styles (8.16.12)

geez, i can’t believe it’s been 3 months(!) since the last time i updated!  see, this is what happens when i fall into my vicious cycle of not shooting (if i don’t shoot often i start feeling down which leads to getting lazy which leads to not shooting which leads to, etc)

but then it occurred to me “wait, it’s been a year since the last time me and thuy have worked together! it’s time!” (since we seem to only get together to shoot once a year LoL)

so i hit her up on facebook and, since you’re reading this post it should come as no surprise, she was more than down for another shoot.  so we met up at the CUPS in Lakeland to plan out what we wanted to do this time.

since the last shoot was outside, we both wanted to shoot in an inside location this time (plus, y’know, it gets really hot during a mississippi summer and we both wanted to avoid melting)

we also wanted to try and shoot more than just one style this time.  we kinda played around with that during our first shoot but we really wanted to go for it this time.  so, after hashing some ideas out (and leaving some stuff vague so we could see where we wanted to go during the shoot) we just had to figure out a day and location.

enter my friend J.Diddy!

i’d had a photoshoot at a friend of her’s apartment a few months back, right in the heart of downtown Jackson, and just fell in love with it.  so i was really hoping i could use it again and, after a few back and forth emails with J.Diddy, discovered that he was cool with letting us shoot there!  with that locked down me and thuy set a date and got to it!

so, before we get started, some quick stats!

Model/MUA/Hair: Thuy Tran

Camera: Pentax K100D

Lights: AlienBee 1600 w/a Westcott Apollo 28″ softbox as a modifier (along with just a silver field reflector sometimes).

ok, let’s get to it!  we settled on six styles for the shoot!

Casual

Faces (inspired shoots like this kate moss one)

Red Hair

Classy Black and White

Classy Color

Business Woman 

so, we got to the apartment around 10am and for the first style we went with casual.  kinda just giving the feel of just a day spent lounging around your place. minimal make-up and just regular clothes.

after this shot, i shot a few more with a continues light on her, but i just think the ones i shot with only available light are the best so those are the ones i’m gonna be posting 😉

i love how much light this apartment gets

after this shot, we switched locations from the hallway to the living room and thuy changed into another around the house outfit.

still all available light

after this shot we walked back to the guest bedroom (where thuy had laid out all her various outfits) to try and figure out what the next style was gonna be when i noticed how nice the light was coming in and falling on a chair by the window. so we shot a few more shots before wrapping this style up.

and this will wrap up casual!  (heh, i made a joke to thuy, while we were shooting it, that it felt like we were shooting an Apple commercial LoL)

after this we started to get set up to do the faces style.  we pretty much just needed an empty wall for the background so i just set up my AlienBee with just the silver field reflector in front of a wall in the same guest bedroom (i knew that the light from the AlienBee would make the beige wall go white) and when thuy came out of the bathroom after changing up her make-up and outfit, we were good to go.

here are some of the full sized photos.  only gonna post a few of those but then i’ll show how we put most of them together to make that kate moss style montage 🙂

and here’s how it all came together!

we both really liked how it all came out!  thuy liked it so much so me it her FB profile pic so i consider that a win! 😉

after that, we shifted gears to get ready for the next style, which was red hair.

i kept the silver field reflector on my AlienBee as my main source of off camera light.

to be honest, i think (and i think thuy does too) this was our weakest style out of all of them sooooo, probably only gonna post one or two of these LoL

yeah, that’s about it with these.

the main problem was, we just couldn’t figure out a way to make that wig not look like a wig.  anyway, sometimes you have to punt but i have no doubt we’ll come back to this one day and figure out a way to make it work.

next up a style that we both really liked shooting; classy black and white!

the artwork hanging on the wall there is by my friend William Goodman

when i saw her walk out in that black dress, i knew i was going black and white with these.

man, thuy really pulls this look off.  the only direction i gave her (aside from the usual “turn this way, turn that way” etc) was “ok, just looks as regal and classy as you can”

boom.

for the off camera lighting, i used my Westcott Apollo softbox on my AlienBee, using it as my main light and the sun as fill.

love that softbox light

after this shot we changed location from that corner with the sweet piano and even sweeter art to the hallway.

the lighting set-up has stayed the same.  AlienBee with a softbox camera right, sun to the left.

for a little contrast and compare, i actually changed the lighting for this.  i simply didn’t have the AlienBee fire and just shot it all with available light.

back to the off camera lighting.

this was, actually, a bit of a candid moment, but when i saw her in this pose i snapped it as quick as i could.

love it.

a slight shift.  i moved her farther away from the window and more in the middle of the hallway.

my AlienBee is still camera right and the sun filled window is still to the left.

full body shot to see more of the hallway that we were in.  and i really like her pose here.

after this, another slight shift.

this time to the floor though 🙂

this hallway was a pretty good “sweet spot”

of course, it helps to have a great model to make that “sweet spot” really sing.

i love that little smirk.

after this another location move before we wrap this style up.

this time to the master bathroom, which just had kick ass lighting and a really cool wall background.

see, told ya so.  i didn’t bother bringing my AlienBee in here.  i just used the available light.

and after this location we wrapped up this style!

next up, back to the living room, but this time with off camera lighting as we change styles to from black and white to classy color.

i just can’t say enough about thuy.

hair, make-up, clothes, accessories, that was all her.  all i had to do was hold the camera and snap.

i really like this shot.

man, that living room was a pretty “sweet spot” too.

and this wraps up this style!

by the time we got to this next, and last style, we were both starting to run on empty.  all the snack foods in the world couldn’t hide the fact that we’d been shooting since 10am and now it was closing in around 2pm LoL

so there won’t be as many shots in here as most. not because we didn’t like it, just because we didn’t shoot that many.

next up, business woman

we changed locations to the study.  my light source is still the AlienBee in the softbox, but now it’s camera left.

and that will wrap this style and this entire shoot!

man, what else can i say.  i was great to be shooting again and great to be working with thuy again

she’s a freaking chameleon, man!  each style she was that style.  i hope that makes sense LoL.

anyway, here’s to hoping we don’t wait another year before getting back together.

once again, many thanks to my friend J.Diddy for helping to arrange the location.

and here are some words i’m really glad to be typing again:

have a good one everybody!

see ya next post! 😉