Go behind the scenes on a professional portrait shoot at the most picturesque time of the day to see how these stunning images were created.
When I have been teaching photographers, giving newcomers advice, or just writing about the craft, I will typically recommend behind the scenes videos and tutorials. The best learning content you can get outside of a face-to-face workshop is a tutorial that includes behind the scenes footage of the shoots. I have watched nearly all of our Fstoppers tutorials, and one of the key selling points for me is the fact that it includes these peaks into the process as the images are being made.
However, if you don't have the money to spend on paid tutorials, you have to make do with the free content on sites like YouTube. There is great educational content, particularly when it comes to things like post-processing, but there is an area that this sort of content struggles with: practical and applicable lessons for the shoot itself. If you are being told what to do on a shoot to get better results, I find it is far less likely to stick than if someone shows you. Better still — or at least it was for me — was to see great photographers working on their own images; seeing how they work, their workflow, their process.
In this video, you get a glimpse behind the scenes with Irena Rudnyk, a superb portrait photographer, as she shoots a model during golden hour with only second-hand clothes and little to no overheads.
This is a nifty look at a shoot. I laughed WITH the photographer because she sounds like me as she tells the model to do one thing and then just goes with it as they do the opposite. The model IS wonderful and the results are fantastic. It was inspiring that someone can get such amazing front-lit results out of backlighting without reflectors or fill.