Happy accidents

In September I had my most challenging beauty photoshoot so far. 

It all started rather regular – the MUA approached me with an idea, we found the model, set up the date and started preparations. Two days before the agreed date our model received a notice that she would have to attend some other event and had to cancel ours. 

Me and the MUA, independently, quickly found the replacement for the model. Since both of our candidates were as interesting as the original one, we decided we could pull it off with two girls.

Just the day before the shoot the original model let us know she would be able to make it anyway and asked if she could come. We looked at each other (figuratively, or rather – remotely), giving it a thought of a split second, and agreed. Not sure if it was more of an enthusiasm or terror. Probably both. 

The models had completely different type of looks – delicate, girly, olive-skinned Wiktoria, lofty, cold hearted Magda (just as her surname – Frost, haha) and fierce, red-head, pale and freckled Ola. I instantly knew it made *THE* perfect combination to create an interesting image. Yet what made it interesting was making it challenging at the same time. Everyone who tried to light evenly people of different skin tones evenly at the same time knows what I mean.

Since we are on the lighting – I had to admit, my main idea to light the models was to either use beauty dish or a big umbrella with a fill light coming from a bare bulb being bounced back from a celing. At some point during the shoot – as it usually happens, the key light did not fire. When we saw the results of the beautiful, soft fill we immediately knew that was the light perfectly emphasising the beauty of our wonderful yet so different models. 

As a photographer and a teamleader I found it challenging to maintain the discipline amongst the whole team on set: 3 models, the MUA and the stylists. Taming their enthusiasm while they were seeing out-of-the camera results on my display was already hard enough. To maintain their focus was even harder but it was my most important objective to get as much in camera as possible. It did not work out completely as I planned but thanks to a little bit of magic in Photoshop I managed to get the results I wanted. 

To conclude – we’ve got to embrace every obstacle and perceive challenges as opportunities. If Magda hadn’t had the sudden change of plans (and then changed it back) we wouldn’t have invited neither Wiktoria nor Ola. And if the key light was functioning perfectly I wouldn’t have the chance to notice the beauty of big, soft and most important – feathered – light bounced from the ceiling.

Big thanks to my wonderful team:

Models:
Wiktoria Wójcikiewicz @littlebitblack,
Magdalena Frost @_frostmagdalena,
Aleksandra Słaby @aleslabo 

HMUA: Ada Nowakowska @1.4.1.makeup 

Styling: Maja Malinowska @majkaaam