Photographic delirium #6: The big lie

I did not want to tell my girlfriend that I was going to do my first photography session of a 24 years' old model during the beautiful fall season with three others photography aficionados. The point is that I did not want to miss a wonderful opportunity to learn a lot from other people experience. But how do I convince her of that when the model is very photogenic!

Anyway, I leave it here to test if she actually looks at my home page and I will think about some flower arrangement for forgiveness. Meanwhile, my first experience with model photography has seen me discovering positive films (by opposition to negative!?) and ever propensity to shoot more and more pictures per minute. While positive films really have an amazing color texture, degree of exposure (or subject brightness) cannot be modified during printing on paper. My friend Enya simply suggested me to stay at 0.0 with no modification of exposure, hence the safest way considering that so many factors influence brightness (even the type of camera used)!

I also experienced with reflectors and bounce flash (into that reflector). This produces gentle, even lighting in this blue-sky big sunshine day. Also, since the reflector can be seen indirectly in the model's eyes, these are much brighter!

As can be seen in the picture, I realized that my photographing style is more oriented toward face expression, which convey a feeling of intimacy with the viewer. On the other hand, my friend Koga tends to take picture of the model with long shots that provide a sense of distance and depth. His use of lines for interest and unity was striking and directed attention in his pictures. Whichever style, in one busy 5-rolls a day (both Enya and Ishikawa took 7 rolls and Koga, 10 rolls!), it is difficult to concentrate on all the small details (the cozy smile or the framed background) that make a perfect picture. There is often a matter of fractions of second between a marvelous shot and a flop so chance has to be there to inspirit the innocent liars!

I was surprised by the freedom of expression of Miss. Matsuda. Was I naive to think that any young girl would not be able to strike so many different exquisite poses for our cameras when they gaze at women's magazines almost everyday? I never really had to tell her anything about how to place her hair or look at that specific direction which is good when you have to concentrate on so many other things about your own camera. Finally, I found that simple and natural poses are the most realistic. For example, I took pictures sometimes when she was smoking during a break. I also took good pictures at the end of the shooting period, which last about 10 minutes during which she would stay in only one position. At that time, the model is more tired and is more likely to be natural than at the beginning when she is making that "artificial look-at-me-am-I-pretty" face.