Coogee Beach Swimwear BTS

Hey guys, today I am going to show you how to use Godox’s Parabolic Light Focusing System for portrait photography.

Equipment used:

•Sony a7IV • Sony 85mm 1.4 GM • Sony 35mm 1.4 GM • Godox AD1200Pro Flash • Godox Parabolic Reflector P88

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Tips to get your photos published in magazines

G’day, guys, it’s your mate Aries Tao here.

As you guys know, I recently tried to work with magazines to push my portrait work to the next level. This editorial photoshoot was done for the Cover of Offtown Magazine. 

Editorial work is made up of teamwork.  it requires a stylist, hair stylist, makeup artist, props, lighting assistants, and a photographer. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my teammates.

My first tip is to make sure you have a good team and communicate through the use of a lookbook. This will ensure that the hair, clothing, makeup, and lighting all work well together.

Take the first scene as an example, we are aiming for a Sahara look (.. if that makes sense) so curly hair, smoky eyes, a Persian-style mask worked well. We couldn’t find any suitable cloth, so the fabric is simple, cheap and works really well.

I couldn’t control the weather, but I can choose the right modifier to match the cloudy day.

I used a reflective umbrella with a diffuser, which delivers a very subtle and soft light to match the over cast day.

Zimmerman Swimwear Beach Photoshoot

So todays topic is how to make a petite model appear taller? Or have a more flattering better body ratio

There are 3 factors that can be used to make a person look taller than she actually is:
1) lens distortion

2) camera angles

3) posing

And that’s why a 24mm or 35mm lens can make a big difference here.

We are going to look at all the factors in this video.

Posing Tips: Dragging the string up makes the leg appears longer in the image

Midday Campaign Photoshoot Tips

As you guys may or may not know, I am a big fan of Annie Leibovitz. Her work has had a huge influence on me.

The Rihanna Vogue cover she did is one of my all-time favourites.

The thing about inspiration is that you are inspired by someone, but when you go out and shoot, you should always create something different. Because at the end of the day, your image is about who you are, not who you follow on Instagram.

At the beginning of the day, I originally wanted to create a series of images to pay homage to Annie’s work. 

Then I was quickly distracted by the beautiful purple weeds. It has been raining for about three weeks, I guess the gardener hadn’t had time to mow them yet. Well, a bonus for me!

My thought was: I can’t repeat Annie’s work better than Annie anyway, so why not take a risk and try something new?

So rather than using a beautiful soft light as I originally planned, I put the model under the Sun, as a harsh light source.

Even though soft light can be safe and pleasant, to me, the harsh light and shadows deliver a sense of “living in the moment”. Through the images, I can still feel the wind swaying the flowers, and the sun kissing her skin.

Because I live in Sydney, the sunlight can be very harsh. 

When you compare the image with and without flash,  you can see that in this context it is very critical to have a fill light in place. So that with all the highlights and deep shadows going on, her skin still looks pleasant.

What do you think? Do you prefer the soft light or harsh light?

This is your mate Aries Tao. I will see you in the next video.