Studio Workshops - Talia White

In November last year we were lucky enough to have a Workshop led by the talented Talia White.

Talia started at as a student at Solihull College where she studied for 5 years.  She started off in art and design but did want to do fashion and textiles (this wasn’t an option, eventually she went onto went on to study photography).

She has a love of fashion photography.

She has worked in portrait studios, which she has also managed.

She produces work for the likes of TK Maxx.  She also does social media photography for other companies. 

Talia was entered into Young Fashion Photographer of the Year at the Clothes show but she didn’t win.

Talia has contacted different models and celebrities who have consented to model for her.  She photographed one of the stars of Hollyoaks, she did this for free, but the images were finally shown in a magazine, which is good for both the photographer and the model.  Models can be paid for but sometimes they will model for you in return for a selection of images for their portfolio.

Talia has a friend who models for her, and in this case many of the photo shoots are last minute, and under these circumstances Talia will do her own make up and hair.  Talia did use to plan photo shoots quite meticulously, but she found that things didn’t always go to plan, so now she works of the premise of a theme, and generally works around this.

Talia generally works in the studio with one light.  If she wants a white background she will then use more.  Talia doesn’t usually use the white background.  She will use one light, bring the model forward and the background will then become grey.  A white background does use more light.

When working inside and you are using your flash on camera, sometimes it is a good idea to bounce the flash.  When you bounce the flash you can bounce it off the ceiling but it is produces a better effect if you bounce the flash off a wall onto your model.

When doing a photo shoot it is a good idea to have a theme i.e. at Easter – bunny ears, Halloween – spooky costumes, and Christmas – red outfits, Christmassy jumpers, scarves etc.

Preparing for a shoot

Inspiration

• Mood board
• Magazine
• Pinterest
• Sketch ideas
• Books – research
• Colour swatches of tones you want to include

Call Sheet

• Date
• Time
• Shoot/Job
• Location
• Creative team details
• Photographer
• Make up artist (MUA)
• Hair stylist
• Wardrobe stylist

Checklist

• Charge battery pack
• Bring extra batteries for flash
• Format your memory card
• Prepare your camera bag the night before
• Provide food and water for the team (check what people eat!)
• Wear suitable footwear

Creative Team

• Stylist – Loan clothes, buy them, or they may already have them
• MUA (Make up artist)
• Hair stylist
• Photographer’s assistant (let them take some shots for experience etc. (they carry equipment about, make tea etc.)
• Digital assistant (if a tethered shoot they sit at a computer and can check if the shot are in focus)

Casting the Right Model

• Look at the model and see if they fit the style and theme of the shoot
• Talia does use agencies, but also uses Facebook and Instagram as a way of contacting models for shoot
• Agencies are generally happy to help if you ask about models doing test shoots, and you say to them that they will receive copies of the images

Lighting Pros and Cons

Natural Light

• Easily accessible
• Free to use
• Harder to control

Studio

• Need to book in advance
• Charge for use of the lights
• Easy to shape and control
• Talia finds it easier to work in the studio as show knows how it’s going to look, working outside you will have problems with the changing light

Working with Clients

• Be confident, even if you are terrified (fake it)(don’t show nerves), if you show you are nervous a client will tend to pick at your work
• Give feedback
• Be versatile
• Listen to what the client wants, and as you are being paid for the work you need to do
• what they want, even if you don’t want to (models probably don’t being dressed up like fairies but as it’s part of the job they will do it)
• Don’t be too insistent
• If there’s a problem, then offer an alternative
• Sometimes you will have to do a re-shoot because the client for instance won’t like the model you have chosen, and you will then have to find a model that the client will like

What’s in My Kit (Talia White)

• 28-135mm lens (location)
• 50mm prime lens
• Lens Baby (creative lens)
• Reflector
• Flash gun

Choosing the “right” image

• Narrow down to 10 images
• If the client is selecting, send over the contact sheet

Tips for selecting

• Don’t over shoot, try and limit yourself.  You don’t want too many images, or you could be there all day
• When shooting for say the millinery website and it a headshot she will take the main shot, side shot, and a shot of the detail
• Focus (Auto Focus)(Talia uses this because of her bad vision)
• Exposure
• Head Shot (Magazine – headshot – front cover.  Leave space above the model’s head for the title of the magazine.)
• Full length
• Mid shot
• Story flows – Editorial (Genre within fashion)(create a story)
• First submitted work to photography magazines, but you can generally go to magazines gallery pages and upload an image (World of Photography)
• Talia’s other work has been put on Instagram, and someone has noticed her work from this #editorial (even though the image wasn’t in fact editorial – she blagged it)
• Landscape (use for a double page spread)
• Need a variety

After our session in the classroom, we all had a chance to work with both Talia and the lovely model, Hannah Gardner.

Talia demonstrated how she shoots a session, giving us guidance.  Talia generally uses a 28-135mm lens but also uses a 50mm prime lens.  Talia uses a Canon camera.  There is no 28-135mm lens for the Nikon, and a similar lens would be a Tamron 18-200mm lens. 

As with Claire Seville’s workshop we took it in turn to do our photo shoot.

I used my Nikon D7000 camera, with my 40mm lens.  The settings I used on my camera were Manual setting, F8, 1/160 sec., ISO 100, and AWB.  Talia does tend to use ISO 200, but the results using ISO 200 will vary from camera to camera.  Usually when working with flash in the studio I will set the WB to flash, but in this session Talia advised us that she uses AWB, and with this in mind I set my WB to AWB. 

Talia showed us that when using a white backdrop if we brought the model forward, and had the softbox slightly forward of the model, and at approximately a 45 degree angle, that the backdrop would not be white, but a grey.  If you want a white backdrop you then need to light the backdrop so that the backdrop comes out white in your photographs.

I used my 40mm lens so that I would again get in close to the model.  We did two set-ups with Hannah, one with the white backdrop and the square soft box, and one with a fabric backdrop and using the octobox.  We took several images of Hannah in each set up.  I used the steps to try and get different angles of Hannah.  I have a problem, in that in some images I did tend to get the top of the backdrop frame in focus, and this will obviously need editing out in post-production (Photoshop).

Part way through the photo shoot Talia did actually get the light meter out to check the lighting, F-stop etc.  We were using F8, and the light meter was registering F9.  Talia thought that using F8 would still be ok.

I did take 21 images using both the softbox and octobox.

It was a fantastic workshop, and I really felt that I learnt a lot from Talia.