Melissa Rodwell is easily one of my favorite fashion photographers. It's not even because of her work, although it is phenomenal for sure. She is at the top of my list due to how involved she is with us mortals. If you're unfamiliar, she runs FashionPhotographyBlog.com, a site so popular it holds the number 1 spot on google when you search for fashion photography. That's not an easy feat. Every now and then she puts out a behind the scenes video from one of her magazine sessions. This video is from an editorial shoot for Ben Trovato, possibly the coolest fashion editorial site out there. What I love about this is how simple everything is. Fashion shoots tend to end up with crazy amounts of gear that may or may not be totally necessary beyond putting on a show for the client. In her own words Melissa breaks it down like this:
"The technical specs on this shoot can’t be any simpler. I shot with no artificial light. I used a large window to the right of the set as my key. That’s it. I shot with the Nikon D3 with my 85mm at 1/160th of a sec at about F4. I shot anywhere from 400 to 1000 ISO. I was inspired by a picture I found of Keith Richards. One picture. That’s all it took."
That's what I love to see. I'm sure there will be some disagreement but in my opinion it takes exponentially more skill to create amazing work with one light than it does with many.
Via FashionPhotographyBlog.com
View the full editorial on Ben Trovato
