Shoot the Beauty Shot!!!

Heather Betchan for Electric Frenchie

I did a fashion shoot for the boutique Electric Frenchie a few weeks ago and had the wonderful opportunity to shoot with Heather Betchan (our model), Sabrina (our make-up artist), Chonie Bradley (the boutique owner), and Leo D'Almagro (our wardrobe stylist).

Sabrina did Heather's hair and make-up in Chonie's dining room before we went out to shoot.

To give us multiple "looks", we divided the shoot in to two parts with a rework of Heather's make-up and hair at Chonie's apartment half way through the shoot.

Before we headed out for the second part of the shoot, I took the opportunity to shoot the "beauty" shot (a type of portrait focused on the beauty of a woman's face and make-up) you see above. Here's how I did it:

Beauty shots are usually taken in a studio environment where the lighting and background are easy to control. I had a small kitchen to work in--not a studio--so I made do by shooting down a hallway into a dark living room. That gave me an almost black background that I further darkened during post processing.

To get the classic "clam shell" lighting of a beauty shot, where the main light is soft and comes directly from above the model and the fill light comes from directly below, I bounced an on-camera flash off of the ceiling for the main light and had her hold a reflector in front and below her to act as a fill light. For a quick two minute shot, I think it came out pretty well!