My New Life: Exciting New Chances
After giving up my life in Switzerland and relocating to Prague (CZ), I had to start over small.
The strategy I had was to rent a flat where I also could integrate my first local small studio.
I wasn’t keen to live in the suburbs near the beautiful city of Prague – I wanted to be in the center.
New life, new game. But like in every capitol I had to learn that rents are expensive. Even though they are much lower than in Zurich, for a photographer’s income they are still pretty high.
Modest Beginnings in Prague
I was fortunate enough to find a new home and studio near the main station and there I was:
make up & wardrobe preparation in the kitchen, studio in the main room (office, shooting space and living room combined – OK a big living room). Well, at least everything was in place to produce good photos in decent setups.
Kyla Cole the Star: Keep Your Nerve
After shooting and living there for almost 1.5 years, I had a job to produce Kyla Cole. Budget was small, responsibility huge. Now what to do? Rent a bigger (more professional looking) studio for this job or just go ahead and act as if everything is pretty normal? I decided to go for the latter.
The result: with Kyla being a god blessed natural open person, we had a great shoot, good fun, the client was happy – and I got amazing results. They were published in different print media and online.
So if you start out: don’t be afraid about how “professional” your place looks. You need good equipment, the right space for the results you want to achieve, charm, persuasiveness and quite some nerves of steel as well as the impertinence to simply go for and finish that job.
The Bed, The Art & The Peacock’s Feather
Team
- Model: Kyla Cole
- Make up & Hair: Kira
- Assistant: Jan Prerovsky
- Photographer: Dan Hostettler
Tech DNA
- Lighting: Multiblitz Monolights (400/600 WS)
- Noname speedlight
- Manfrotto stands & grip
- Nikon body & lenses
- Pocket Wizard
Behind the Scenes
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- My flat, my studio: Starting my new live in the center of Prague (CZ)
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- Pre production talk. MuA Kira & Kyla joking around
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- Kyla in make up, me preparing clothes
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- Wondering about eyeshadow color
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- Kyla & Kira
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- “Interim result”
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- Explaining some ideas
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- Kyla’s getting ready
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- 1st set – the bed. Cool.
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- Relaxed atmosphere
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- Explaining lighting directions and head positioning
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- And here we go…
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- Fiddle around with strip light
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- More bed shots…
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- Make up change for set 2
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- Explaining set 2
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- Kyla already starts striking poses
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- Poses discussion I
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- Poses discussion II
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- Poses discussion III
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- …and shoot
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- Showing results, involving the model, communication is key
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- Some beauty updates…
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- Playing around & shoot. Best condition for great facial expressions
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- My t… are your t…
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- …yepp!
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- Pose baby, pose!
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- Another pose, baby, another pose!
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- Yeah. We are getting there…
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- Schmooze :-)))
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- Posing discussion next set I
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- Posing discussion next set II
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- …and shooting set 3
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- …and…
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- …and…
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- Again something to talk about
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- Almost finished. Just need one more special pose…
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- I think she gets bored…
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- ..but here we go: the last one. Thank you!
Hi.could you restart me from the begining as my tablet seems to have erased them.I find al the info very good and I’m enjoying the quality of the advice very good.looking forward to the rest.
Kind regards.
Hi Michael, thanks for your comment. Restart with what exactly?
Hi Dan, I think what Michael is saying is that the original email messages that you sent with the link to the protected blog posts have been deleted from his tablet, and he can’t find a way to go back and access the prior lessons without them. Without the original email links, the only way that I have found to go back to a prior post is to click on the “latest comments” links on the right hand side of the page, but this only works for the pages that have comments associated with them.
Maybe there is there another way to navigate back to past lessons once we are inside the protected portion of the blog?
Hi Dan, The results are fantastic! I love this set with Kyla, I know that I have seen the peacock feather set published somewhere… I just can’t remember where.
The expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” applies very well to this lesson. I have observed several other pro photographers work with models, but none that seem to do all of the things that I can see you doing here… like getting into the bed and explaining the lighting positions and how to best position the model’s head, and demonstrating and discussing other ideas/poses ( BTW-Your posing skills are pretty good, but your wardrobe needs work! Just kidding!)
The progression of behind the scenes photos posted here really shows how involved you get in the production, and that you try to inject some fun to keep things interesting. What is even more interesting to me is your honesty about not having all of the studio/equipment resources that you might like to have had to shoot with Kyla, and that you decided to go ahead with a “home studio” shoot and just get the job done. Bravo!
QUESTION: How much time did you spend on this shoot? How many looks or costume/set changes did you make? Other than the peacock feather set, where there other images from this shoot that were published?
Hello Dana,
THANK YOU! Happy you like the insights. It’s just a great way to explain things without many words.
Everybody can observe, draw their own conclusions and ask questions here in the comments. I am very glad to answer those!
Now…
Wardrobe: TRUE! I am aware that my sloppy look is not too suitable for marketing, but that’s me 🙂 For a planned tutorial next time I will be better fitted, lol. The shoot was while summer time and there was no A/C in my “home studio”. And working with socks only makes it faster to be in bed with Kyla…
“Home Studio”: Yeah it was a though decision but well assessed on the concept of what results I have to deliver. Afterwards it was worth to give it a try. Regarding lighting equipment I had all what I need and lighting is not an exact science and there are million helpers you can use to tweak things. So I did.
“Involvement”: Interacting with models is an integral part of my job execution. It’s not that models would not understand what I basically mean – but the devil is in the details. Most of the time this approach helps. And I’ve never had any complaints from a model about stretching a point. It basically makes the shoot more lively and during the breaks we have always a relaxed atmosphere.
I probably would not follow that strategy when e.g. shooting Nicole Kidman. Well, who knows…probably I would. Just the outfit would be more accurate.
Sets/Duration: we worked 7 hours in total. I did three sets, the peacock/bed is the only one I’ve retouched as this got published. It’s a shame but the other ones are still dormant and untouched somewhere on my hard disk…
And yes, the peacock feather series was publish on GQ.
PS: I love my posing skills :-))))))))
Dan,
Two questions about this behind the scenes look. First, was the speedlight on the camera just to trigger the strobes or was it used for some fill? Second, What were using for the background, a frosted plexiglass?
Joe
Hey Joe,
thanks for your questions!
A) Speedlight: I actually used it as an additional “pop-in” light on the face/upper body. Relatively low powered but still created the bit more defined/harder light in her look. The overall light with the softbox/strip was very flat but at the same time appealing to her curves. So I thought I just try to flash in a bit. Never did it before, but it went well quite fine. I also did a series without that – just to be on the safe (“normal”) side.
B) The background was actually a real glass. In my opinion it creates another diffusion than a plexi; but that’s a very personal empiric opinion. Anyhow: It’s a heck of a heavy work to put that there (together with a fiend of mine). And there is another – much more delicate – thing: the safety. It’s totally a risk to produce with a real glass near a model as I did. A wrong, jerky movement from the model – and we would have a problem with Kyla’s nice and soft skin…
But hey, I still love the results 🙂 …
You have taken beautiful pictures of a Kyla. I am actually a huge fan of hers. What was she like to work with? It must be hard to be professional when taking pictures of such a beautiful woman.
Hey Sal,
thanks for your comment. Kyla has a beautiful personality and is just lovely. She is very down to earth and just without any allures during a production. So, beautiful women like her makes it easy to shoot good.
Regarding “staying professional”: I have something like a “switch” when it comes to the shoot itself. I do not really experience the model anymore as a stunning beauty, it just start to flow everything and there are million things to control and have in mind (curves, light, talk, composition, making sure the image is sharp, story etc…) – I am like a director then, trying to get everything in one place (photograph). I certainly recognize later on the photos in the post how stunning the model was :-))
Best, Dan