Portrait Session – Rachael, pt. 2

Rachael is a dancer. We got together in early August to take some dance images with no particular outcome in mind. I wanted to get in a few more traditional dance shots and then mix in some more experimental work with lighting. The session was divided in to 3 segments – first, a daytime outdoor shoot in an industrial area near my house; second, an intimate sunset shot on my living room floor; and third, a late-night light experiment focused on capturing movement.

I found the challenge in this shoot keeping Rachael in-frame while working on the right focus for each shot. I took a lot of images, and in post had to do a bit of cropping to get them framed right. I also found that in post, I don’t really like editing much, so adjustments are minimal. Finding the right workflow is something for me to work on and practice more in the future.

This second set of images consists of the second and third photo sets. For set 2, I tried to focus on more intimate, up-close portraiture and Rachael’s floorwork. Set 3 is was more of a lighting experiment in which I used long exposures and a timed flash in order to capture the blur of motion and a frozen shot mid-frame. For all sets, I switched between my digital and film SLR cameras to help compose shots and get the right exposure.

Cameras: Minolta X7-A | Nikon D5200
Lens: Minolta MC W.Rokkor 28mm 1:3.5 | Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6
Film: Ilford Delta 3200 Professional | Digital