Last Sunday I transformed the living room in my apartment into a studio for a business-themed model shoot.  The purpose was three-fold; first, it was a chance to try out my new background stand and seamless paper backdrop; second, it was an excuse to drag out all my lights and work with them; third, the end goal was to produce a series of images that could be posted to stock image sites.

I am lucky enough to have two (mostly) willing models, one being my girlfriend (who didn’t complain too much at the sudden loss of the living room) and the other being the wife of a good friend, who is himself a hobbyist photographer and came along to try his hand at studio work.

It doesn’t get much better than that, working with a friend and good models.  The afternoon went quickly and we shot for about three hours, with both the ladies in business attire and posing with various business props.

Most of the poses represent concepts; business person on a cell phone smiling, business people looking at a laptop with concern, etc.

Unfortunately, in spite of all the fun we had, this was not one of my most successful sessions.  And here’s why:

As you hopefully determined, it’s the background – or more accurately, the way the background is lit.  Good, successful stock photos (especially with models) almost always fall into one of two categories: shots taken on a set or shots taken against a pure white backdrop.

Pure white backdrops are the easiest setup to use – a roll of seamless, a muslin, or even a white wall all work equally well for torso shots (full length shots are easier with seamless, since the model can stand on it).  That’s from a photographer’s point of view; from a designer’s, pure white is easy because it offers nearly unlimited options for customization.

Now back to my shot, which has an ugly gradient across the background.  My problem was that I tried to get tricky and use one light on the BG and my other three on the models.  

Tricky, and ultimately not too smart.  Three lights on a model can look great, but it is also overkill, especially in this situation.  Here’s why: I had my lights setup so that #1 was the main (key) light, #2 was fill, and #3 was a hair light from behind – #4 was the background light and between its position and the fact that it was working alone, it simply wasn’t able to cover wide enough area evenly.

A key light will always be necessary, and a fill light can be useful, but when shooting against a properly lit white backdrop, the backdrop itself reflects enough light to act as a sort of hair light itself, making #3 completely pointless.

To see the correct setup, take a look at Atlanta photographer Zack Aries’ blog – he has an excellent five-part tutorial that covers everything you need to know to shoot white seamless.  Seriously, the guy makes it sound so simple that you’ll want to smack your forehead and say “d’oh!”

I just wish I had followed his directions for my shoot – if I had, I probably wouldn’t have 3 hours worth of useless photos!  This is one of those occasions where I really hope someone is reading this and takes the lesson to heart.  This was  dumb mistake that should have been avoided…