How I Shot This 'Breakthrough' Fashion Campaign

I have been a photographer for almost eight years, and to be honest, it has not always been fun. No career path is without its ups and down, and certainly, the creative industry is no different.

Sometimes, you just have to take on the bread and butter jobs even if you feel like your soul is dying on the inside. However, just like in every industry there is always that creative and fun job and I was fortunate to get jobs like them. Every now and then an opportunity comes along where you enjoy every bit of it and still get paid. That last part is nuts huh? The best shoot and the best job is one where you feel fulfilled and can truly say that you are being paid to do what you love.

For this shoot the concept was "Breakthrough" where the girls literally break through a barrier. We had a paper artist come in during the shoot to arrange the cut for the background. Why you might ask? First of all he is a professional and perhaps most importantly because I certainly wasn't going to be responsible for ruining the backdrop! Forget doing it myself, just listening to the tear of the backdrop paper was painful for me.

We had two different color backdrops for each image and placed the darker one behind. That way the lighter backdrop gets well lit due to the distance from the source light and the darker one gets even darker. This helped to achieve a bigger contrast between the front and the back backdrops. 

Equipment List

• Canon 5Dsr
• Canon 85mm f/1.8
• Octa 150
• Softbox 60 x 60
• 2 Striplights
• 2 black flags

Lighting Setup

The octa was used as the main light. It was placed at quite the distance so we could evenly light most of the scene and have a more contrasty image. A smaller softbox was place from the bottom up to fill in shadows. Strip lights with grids were also placed on each side from the back to create a very subtle separation of the model from the background. Black flags were also put in the front on each side to give more contrast and volume to the model's faces.

Closing

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions!

Photographer: Shavonne Wong | Makeup: Cosmoprof Academy | Model: Mel Kasise, Jean Yong | Styling: Violet Foo | Styling Assist: Renee | Paper Artist: Afiq Pacheco