Editorial Studio Portraits

I have been wanting to do a Calvin Klein underwear shoot for SO long and am so happy I got to bring this vision to life with this rockstar of a model, Harmonyé!

When you’re working with slender subjects who have extremely defined facial features like Harmonyé does, you can get away with more of a broad lighting pattern.

For this shoot, I started with a Westcott FJ400 with the Joel Grimes Beauty Dish on camera left, with the Westcott FJ80 as a hair light behind my subject, camera right.

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

Behind the scenes

After a few shots, I decided I wanted to add a little pop of color and pulled from her blue eyeliner to choose what color gel I wanted to add. I used some gaffer’s tape and a deep blue creative gel sheet to cover the light on the FJ80 to just give a little pop of blue to the edge of Harmonyé’s hair.

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

With editorial portraits, you always want to mix things up so you have a good variety of looks to choose from. Motion in your subject is a great way to give you some extra variety and if your talent can pull it off, a small step or jump in the air can bring an extra feeling of life to your final shots.

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

I tried having Harmonyé sit on a bar stool, but with someone as long-legged as she is paired with the giant heels of the shoes, the look I was going for just made her upper body look too scrunched. As I was thinking through an alternative setup, she naturally leaned forward on the back of the bar stool and it was such a casual and relaxed expression, I ran with it. I love the look in her eyes in this shot, she looks so confident and powerful.

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

Now once the first set of images were solid, I knew I wanted to add a 3rd light somehow. I put a Westcott FJ200 with the reflector behind the backdrop and firing down at the top of Harmonyé’s head from behind to create almost a halo effect with the top of her hair, but not spilling on to her face at all.

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

I took a few beauty portraits with the Canon EOS R5 and a Canon RF 50mm f1.2 then switched over to the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 to do some edgy wide-angle shots from the ground shooting up her body to really elongate her legs and bring more focus to the shoes. In the first image, I turned off the FJ80 with the blue gel, then added it back in for the 2nd shot.

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

Settings: f4 @ ISO 50, 1/200th

I hope you enjoy the final images. Let me know which scene and lighting is your favorite!

Equipment

Westcott FJ400 | Westcott FJ200 | Westcott FJ80 | Westcott FJ-X2m Universal Trigger | Canon EOS R5 | Canon RF 50mm f/1.2 L USM | Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM | Mud 10×20 Canvas Backdrop from Intuition | Blazer: Good American | Underwear: Calvin Klein | Shoes: Converse

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