Behind The Scenes – Final Shoot In My Studio

Last month I had to say goodbye to my studio and workspace in Rotterdam. I really enjoyed working here for the past 3,5 years, but because we moved outside of this city it was better to stop the rent and to invest in our home, including the home office. At home I’m not able to do shoots, but when I want to create a studio shoot, I’ll rent a good studio somewhere. And my desk is much better and more professional right now, so I’m very happy to start this new chapter. Of course I asked a filmmaker and behind the scenes photographer to capture this final shoot in my studio!

Thanks to Tether Tools for the interview questions.

What was the concept of the shoot?

The concept for this shoot was a to create a beauty shoot with lines. I wanted to create a natural but creative look so together with makeup artist Meltem Sahin we made a mood board and soon we knew we wanted to use natural colors. She decided to go for black and white makeup lines and I used a beige backdrop and collect white items and statement earrings to use as styling. The good thing about creating shoots for your portfolio is that you can do whatever feels good at that moment, so we just let everything happen and we had a fun shoot.

What setup and lighting did you use to get the shot?

For this shoot I worked with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera and the Sigma ART 85mm f/1.4 lens and the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L lens. My favorite lenses for beauty and portrait shoots like these because they are very sharp and they have the perfect focal length for close-ups like these. During the shoot, the makeup artist and I wanted to see how the images turned out, so I shot tethered to my Macbook Pro with the Tethertools cable and Capture One to import the images right away.

I started with two Profoto D1 Air 500 lights. The first one with a Profoto Octa 5” in the front right of the model and the second one with a small strip softbox in the back to use as a hair light. But this wasn’t the right vibe where I was looking for and I decided to only use the Octa softbox in the front right of the model and a black reflector screen to add extra shadow to her left side.

How did shooting tethered help you achieve the shot you wanted?

Since I discovered the Tethertools cable I don’t want to work without it anymore. It’s so easy to use and my clients and team members are always happy that they are able to see the results at my laptop directly, then they don’t have to stay behind me all the time and watch on my small camera screen anymore. In combination with Capture One, they can zoom in, add a crop to see if it will fit their magazine/website etc and already see how it looks with an edited layer. It makes it more easy for the client to know when they have the right shot. 

What was your biggest challenge?

It’s always a challenge to create different kind of poses when you are shooting only the face and shoulders of a model. But luckily, we had an experienced model so we told her the vibe we were looking so together we were able to find the right poses. Fashion photography is all about teamwork, and that why I love it!

What type of post-processing was involved?

For the colors and contrast I used one of my own presets from presetgallery.com and tweaked it until I was happy. Then I removed a few spots from her skin but I wanted to keep it as natural as possible so I didn’t edit that much. I always try to shoot it in a way that I don’t need a lot of retouching in the end. 

What was the logistics and/or gear needed to achieve this shot?

• Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L
• Sigma ART 85mm f/1.4
• Profoto D1 Air 500 
• Profoto Softbox Octa 5”
• Menik Reflector Screen (black side)
• Profoto Air Remote
• Macbook Pro 15” 
• Capture One
• Tethertools cable
• Eizo CS2420
• Wacom Intuos Pro L
• Adobe Lightroom CC

Who was involved and how did they play a part in the shoot?

This time it was a very small team, let’s start with the model Vivianne @ Max Models, she was lovely to work with. She really knew the right vibe and helped us to find the right poses and expressions. Then makeup artist Meltem Sahin @ Angelique Hoorn Management was very important for this shoot. We both shared our inspiration images and she created the looks that we both wanted to capture. It always a pleasure to work with a team that is involved with the shoot and are able to go for the best results! Sander Pieters created the behind the scenes video and Julia van der Vegt captured the behind the scenes images for us.

And the results:

photography: Liselotte Fleur
makeup artist: Meltem Sahin @ Angelique Hoorn Management
model: Vivianne @ Max Models
bts video: Sander Pieters
bts photography: Julia van der Vegt