I got commissioned for another intimate shoot by a return client the other day and she mentioned wanting a different vibe this time around. So having remembered a conversation about alternate shoot locations from a past MUA that I was working with, I decided to follow up on that lead.
Went for a tour and everything looked nice & hit it off nicely with the owner. The studio owner had a nice space with a small but usable natural light area as well as a bunch of gear, backgrounds & furniture for use. Along with the private space, we also had access to the public areas with absolutely gorgeous natural light pouring in from long banks of windows. I talked with the client about the space, generally went over some outfit & look ideas and we decided to go for it.
The Red Chaise
I ended up settling on the sweet red chaise that was there along with the black fabric blackground to start things off with. The model wore a fastastic red lacey underwear set along with a black glossy robe. For lighting this scene I ended up booming an 86" parabolic umbrella with diffusion directly overhead and close to the subject and to the camera left at around 6'-7' total height a 47" octobox as close as possible to the model. I additionally had my assistant man a 50" silver sided bounce perpendicular to the octobox to pick up a little more fill light on her left rim. Everything was shot with a Canon 70-200IS, f/2.8 at around f/10, ISO 100 and maximum shutter speed sync at 160. We went though a series of both sitting and standing poses using the red chaise.
The Narrow Storage Room
Next we moved onto what little natural light the private portion of the studio had, the narrow storage room. A passage of maybe 48" wide but with a very nice bank of tall windows. For this area we decided on a blue lose sweater and black fringy panties. With such little room to work with, shooting here generated a few laughs from everyone as it was a bit comical all of us plus a C100 MkII high on a tropod squeezing in here. The model worked the window fairly close and I had my assistant with the big bounce directly in back of her to provide some fill. It was hilarious as I was smashed in the corner shooting between the tripod legs while in one half of the picture frame was my assistant's butt. Tight stuff. Shot everything here wide open at f/2.8 with the 70-200 and around ISO 1600 and pushed the envelope a bit with a slower shutter speed of around 40-125, thankful for the IS here.
The Open Gallery
We were fortunate enough to have the open gallery virtually all to ourselves which gave us a much more comfortable shoot in this public area given what type of shoot this was. The light that came through the tall warehouse windows was absolutely beautiful and at this time of day we had all the soft light in the world. Started off with a series of posing maybe 6 feet from the window with plenty of open perspective to the rear. I extended myself out often for full length shots with the 70-200 at f/2.8 for that compressed and gooey background blur. ISO ran in the 320 to 800 ranges. I had my assistant pick up much fill with the bounce using the silver side on the opposite side of the window light. We moved all around this room exploring different background textures and light conditions. We easily could have spent the entire shoot in this room alone. After a couple of quick and cautious outfit changes and a nod from my assistant, we reached our remaining 30 minutes left of the 2 hour rental space. There was one area left that I wanted to explore...
The Upper Floor
As we approached the the uppermost level in the warehouse we noticed the door was shut & with a piece of paper in the door latch. I twisted the handle and suprisingly it opened. I'm not really sure we were allowed to be in this area but I thought with 30 minutes left, let's just go for it! It was essentally a 6 foot hallway along the exterior wall of the warehouse with a tremendous amount of colored light from the slightly tinted glass. It was beautiful. We did a quick scout of the area looking for random people walking about and gave it a clear. My model did a quick change and we were off in a frenzy of shutter snaps right up to about 15 minutes of my rental time. Pleased with ourselves, we headed back to the main space to start packing up.
In the end, I was very happy and my model was comfortable with this new rental location. I will definitely be using this space in the future for these types of shoots. Good networking pays off.