JESS

I've been a massive fan of Annie Leibovitz and I often wish I could find time to shoot something that would be in her style or at least genre. I got that opportunity when I got ex-colleague Jess back for this evocative period Hollywood movie style portrait. I moved what felt like a mile out of my comfort zone by not only using two strobes in this scene but I also threw in some room mist spray to add to this retro club singing movie styles set. As usual with strobes, all settings were manual on flash and camera. Had to change to my 24-70 because of the full-length composition but this lens is super sharp at f8 so no problems. The retro movie light is hollow so I placed my second strobe inside which gave an amazingly strong beam of light to replicate this on-set look. It was also responsible for the illumination of the room mist which was a vital element for the final look. I was hoping to have Jess interacting with a lovely bentwood cafe chair but the dress is so fitted she can't even walk let alone sit down or even pop a hip out! Thanks to Jess and makeup by Slavomira.
ps one more point, most of my gear up until very recently has always been second hand, used equipment which has served me really well. Maybe an article on buying and using used gear would be cool. I will probably get several prompts saying Fstopper do this on a regular basis. In which case I apologise.