Trying to make transition to daytime schedule and waiting to take my car in for oil change, so thought I might try to do a photo technique post based on what was talked about in the other thread. Using one of the Elle images because it's fresh in my mind having just done them. So, here we go:

Shoot -

Location is on the beach in Olympic National Park, Western Washington. Mid-afternoon, the sun is a little low in the sky. Completely overcast day on the coast. Even though it is overcast, light is relatively bright. Model is out on the beach, back towards water and the direction the sun is going down (West).

I've just swapped out my 28-135mm IS F/3.5-5.6 for a 70-200mm IS F/2.8L. I want to be able to swallow a little more light and the constant F/2.8 will give that to me. Also want to throw the background a out of focus.

Disadvantage of the overcast sky is that the colors won't pop and the image will look flat. Advantage is that I already know I'm going to be taking these to b&w and maybe toned so the somewhat muted colors won't matter. The flat part can be used to my advantage as it pulls the entire scene easily into the dynamic range of my camera and helps me to control my highlight detail and the shadows will be really nice and soft.

With the model's back to the light, I know I'm going to need to watch my shadows. The beach is reflecting some of the light back up, but if I meter the whole scene her face is going to be almost invisible. Manuever to put part of the rock spire between us and the bright overcast sky. That helps some. Quickly zoom in, meter off her face and then back out. Want to keep some shadow on her face to get a nice 3D feel, so I don't expose just for her face ... set an average exposure cheating more towards the expoure for her face. Adjust a little bit and fire off a couple shots.

Love the attitude in her stance and the intensity of her face so I zoom in ... tighter. While moving a little to my right. Puts rocks completely behind her, getting more texture in background while popping her face forward. She becomes brighter than the background. Concentrate on her eyes ... need them sharp. Gotta be sharp. Take one shot ... almost there. Then she moves her right arm, placing her hand behind the hip. Her right shoulder drops a little and she lowers her chin just a tad. Oh yea ... attitude. Very strong ... bingo .. love that comp. Pull the trigger.

Much of that is no longer concious. I know what I'm doing, but I'm not thinking through every step of it. It's not a mental checklist type of thing.

Next, postwork ...