What is a “Five-Star” photo? It’s a photo which looks exactly how you want it. The right lighting, the right pose, the right expression, the right background. Everything just perfectly representing you in the way you wish to be seen.
First, I’ll be adjusting the lighting. Everyone’s different. Their hair colour, the reflectivity of their skin, what they’re wearing. The studio lights illuminate you and bounce around everything in the studio as well, picking up colours and tones and bouncing them back onto you. So, although I have a standard lighting setup for each type of shot, I finesse the settings to get the lighting exactly right and personalised for you. Even if the lighting seems pretty good from the get-go, I experiment a little to double check that the lighting could not be improved even more in some way.
I put a red cross of sticky tape on the floor to mark exactly where you stand, stepping even a couple of centimetres away from this may mean the lighting is less than perfect, there’s a compact ball of perfect light I want your face to be in. I’ll be checking every so often on the screen that your face is in the right position relative to the lights. On bigger shoots, I’ll have my assistant, Matthew. He’ll be watching each photo pop up on the laptop screen and every 30 seconds I’ll be calling out “How’s my light Matthew?” as during the shoot we’ll have a very fluid situation with me directing you into different poses so sometimes I will be moving you away from the perfect ball of light and will need to move the lights a few centimetres.
For most shots, I generally have the lights as bright as possible without having highlights becoming so bright they are white. Actors or creatives sometimes want moodier, darker lighting.
The brief interval of a few minutes finessing the lights is no great loss. Most people – even professional models – need a bit of time to get used to being in the studio. I’m snapping photos and they pop up on the screen with me checking the lighting on each one until I’m satisfied the lighting has been perfectly calibrated for you as an individual.
Then I’m directing you to look your best, asking you to adjust your arms, posture, head and eliciting the facial expressions from you that will convey the image you want. We’ve already talked through the images you want before the shoot. As I shoot, the images pop up on screen. Every few minutes, we pause, I call you over to take a look at the screen with me and we rate every picture we like as a Four-Star picture.
All the Four-Star pictures are good enough to be used on your web site or anywhere really but we look at them to decide if one of them has that extra bit of magic – that’s our Five-Star picture and the one I’ll be retouching for you. Every photo from my studio is retouched (AKA Photoshopped). I regard post-production as important as taking the picture. They’re complimentary parts of the process of creating a great image. I don’t give clients un-retouched images for this reason.
Every photo, even of professional models, can be improved. If we don’t have a picture which makes it to five stars, we talk about what the Five-Star picture looks like and carry on shooting until we get it.
My method is to choose the photos during the shoot rather than shoot 500 and then share them for you to choose afterwards. This way, if you say “this photo is perfect except my mouth is open” we can shoot the same photo but with this corrected. If I waited until after the shoot to share the photos with you, then there’s no opportunity to finesse the shot to exactly what you want.
This means that shoots at my studio take a little more time (maybe 20-30 mins is spent selecting photos during a 2-hour shoot) but the advantage is you know you will get shots you are delighted with. If you’re not delighted, we carry on shooting until you are. The only limitation would be if I have another booking coming up. I’ve never yet had to rebook someone for a second session to get their Five-Star shots. Generally, it takes around 30 minutes per “look” to get a Five-Star photo or a sequence of Five-Star photos. Sometimes it’s 10 minutes, sometimes 40 minutes, the timeframe averages out so we usually finish on time.
My typical timeframe for a shoot is 2 hours, with three different “looks” ie different lighting, wardrobe, backdrop and possibly even location for each look. If it’s not raining, nipping out for some outdoor shots can add variety and a freer more dynamic look. I like to have enough time for you to relax as most people, including professional models, need a bit of time to get into the zone when they give their best. Everyone’s different of course, some people love being in front of a camera so take less time.
However, some shoots can take longer – or much shorter. I’ll fit with your timescales. Shortest shoot was 8 minutes! We got the exact image we wanted and wrapped the shoot. I often do 45-minute shoots too if the requirement is just a simple headshot.
I ask if a little flexibility if possible (another 20 mins leeway) for when we wrap the shoot (90% are finished on time) as the getting to Five Stars for each of the three “looks” will take a varying amount of time. I’m happy with all the photos that make it to Four Stars. They are correctly lit and make you look good. The Five-Star image is your choice out of maybe 5-10 Four-Star pictures – the one which stands out for you.
All the Four-Star photos are good (they’re the top 10%) so it’s a personal choice depending on how you wish to represent yourself to the world. I encourage variety in terms of mood and posture during the shoot to give you as many options as possible when making your selection.