I had the opportunity to be the photographer at Popina Swimwear Grand Opening eastside store. Aveda Institute Portland/ Dosha Salon provided the styling and models. Boy was it a big party bash with a photo shoot, live surf band, food and drinks, and of course the largest swimwear store in Portland. As you can see I setup a white seamless background and blew it out with two Bowens heads. My key light was a single Bowens head with my modified 3 foot octabank placed front and center of the model. For more on the light modifier look at my Modify the Modifier blog post. I’m really digging this modifier because of the nice versatile coverage and the quality of light. The light is somewhat soft but has a kick to it since I removed all the panel diffusion in the softbox. I metered the background light at around f13 and my key light was around f8-f9. I had the model stand close enough to the background so there was spill to wrap around the model’s body for rim light.

The hardest part of the shoot was directing the models while the band was playing, it was pretty loud. I instructed the model’s before they stepped onto the set so they knew what I and Aveda Institutes’s Creative Director wanted. The rest was sign language and a lot of guessing. Lucky for me the models were experienced and could guess my crazy hand signals. Oh and not to mention the hundreds of patrons shopping, eating, drinking, and getting in the way of the photo shoot. It was insane. Above are some setup shots and a few final edits.