10 girls, 1 1/2 hours

Joe Dukovac · January 17, 2010

So, I was asked to help out at my wife's church with a little project they were doing with the young women there. The idea was to do a photo shoot, nothing fancy, and then they are going to make a presentation in a couple weeks for the girls. So I agreed.

So last wednesday, I got to the church about 45 minutes early, and setup my equipment. I lined up the girls against the wall and gave them a number each from 1 to 10. When number 1 was done, then they would call out the next number and the following girl would come up. We did 3 different lighting setups, 3 different runs with all girls. The poses were the same with all the girls, as I didn't have much time to experiment and work with each girl.

I am attaching various shots and a video which will be presented at the beginning of the presentation, although it's a special surprise that they don't know about.

Anyhow, enjoy!

C&C always welcome!

Thank You,
Joe

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l.k.madison · January 17, 2010

Yowza!!! I mean... wow, such beautiful ladies.

Beautiful shots, you'd never know that was for a church project!!

I might print one of those out and bring it as an example next time I go get my hair cut - I'm serious!!

CyberSteak · January 17, 2010

They look really good to me. Question: Why did you choose to have them facing away from center of the photo in the horizontal shots (or why did you crop them that way)?

Joe Dukovac · January 17, 2010

CyberSteak wrote:

They look really good to me. Question: Why did you choose to have them facing away from center of the photo in the horizontal shots (or why did you crop them that way)?

I'm not sure what you mean in your question. Do you mean why do I have them with their bodies turned a bit to the left and their heads turned to the right?

Joe Dukovac · January 17, 2010

l.k.madison wrote:

Yowza!!! I mean... wow, such beautiful ladies.

Beautiful shots, you'd never know that was for a church project!!

I might print one of those out and bring it as an example next time I go get my hair cut - I'm serious!!

Thank you very much! You're more than welcome to print one out for your hairstylist

I sent the girls just a couple shots via facebook and most have already switched their profile pics

. Some of them think it's very "Twilight-ish". Oh well, that's that the kids like these days

CyberSteak · January 17, 2010

Joe Dukovac wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean in your question. Do you mean why do I have them with their bodies turned a bit to the left and their heads turned to the right?

They're all facing away from the center of the composition. Was told once that it's always best to have your subject facing in towards the composition. Was just curious why you chose to do it that way.

l.k.madison · January 17, 2010

Joe Dukovac wrote:

Thank you very much! You're more than welcome to print one out for your hairstylist I sent the girls just a couple shots via facebook and most have already switched their profile pics . Some of them think it's very "Twilight-ish". Oh well, that's that the kids like these days

I don't see Twilight in them, but maybe it's just my it's-been-a-decade-since-I've-been-their-age self...

They're beautiful shots, I don't blame them for switching their profile pictures over, I'd do it!!

And I love Facebook and the "who took your picture, it's gorgeous" conversation starter ... it's the best word of mouth ever. And most of my gigs come from it anyway, so I won't complain. Of course, my own profile picture is a candid, not a "pro" shot, but that's ok

I didn't notice the "faces away from the center" until it was mentioned, I think you pulled off "breaking the rules" quite nicely.

Joe Dukovac · January 17, 2010

CyberSteak wrote:

They're all facing away from the center of the composition. Was told once that it's always best to have your subject facing in towards the composition. Was just curious why you chose to do it that way.

I wanted to put more light on the face & keep the shot off-centre. I looked at different poses with the girls, and this one felt very soft, so I went with it. I did some shot on another shoot where I did the landscape shot with the subject more off-centre and loved it, so I decided to re-create my shot here. I had a light camera left at 90 degrees from the subject to barely fill in some shadow. So I didn't want to lose too much detail from the face.

I try to follow some composition rules, or as I call them "guidelines" cause sometimes it's good and fun to break the rules

Joe Dukovac · January 17, 2010

l.k.madison wrote:

I don't see Twilight in them, but maybe it's just my it's-been-a-decade-since-I've-been-their-age self...

They're beautiful shots, I don't blame them for switching their profile pictures over, I'd do it!!

And I love Facebook and the "who took your picture, it's gorgeous" conversation starter ... it's the best word of mouth ever. And most of my gigs come from it anyway, so I won't complain. Of course, my own profile picture is a candid, not a "pro" shot, but that's ok

I didn't notice the "faces away from the center" until it was mentioned, I think you pulled off "breaking the rules" quite nicely.

Don't feel bad, I don't get the whole Twillight thing from these either, then again it's been about 2 decades since those days for me, maybe even 2 and a half decades

I'm trying to get word of mouth out on Facebook also, seems to be a good way to get some exposure, not to mention the cost....free (at least for the most part)

l.k.madison · January 17, 2010

Joe Dukovac wrote:

Don't feel bad, I don't get the whole Twillight thing from these either, then again it's been about 2 decades since those days for me, maybe even 2 and a half decades

I'm trying to get word of mouth out on Facebook also, seems to be a good way to get some exposure, not to mention the cost....free (at least for the most part)

I'm a Twilight fan myself, and I don't get it, but hey, if they like it, that's all that matters. Maybe it's because you made them look like the gorgeous, flawless Cullen vampires...

I took a shot of my in-law's celebrating their 50th anniversary in Chili's by sharing a malt (yes, like 'back in the day' with the two straws) and posted it on Facebook - the very first comment said "so, do you do weddings?" I don't know how she got the wedding feel from that, but I wasn't going to complain!!

We have a "we'll always shoot you for free because you advertise us" model we shoot about once every three months or so (she's great, she loves playing in the rain) so every time we post some of her pictures, we get a few more fans on Facebook from her friends finding the pictures. That tagging feature is a blessing in disguise.

I really love it when I shoot a "pre-wedding" for a friend and I tag the make-up artist in the shot, so now all of her potential brides can't help but see me, I haven't had any takers yet, but fingers crossed.

Odd story: I shot bridals and engagements for a friend of mine and while at her wedding, her GRANDMOTHER came up to me and said "I LOVED their pictures on Facebook, those were so great!" This woman's well into her 80s!

Mr. Quiet · January 18, 2010

CyberSteak wrote:

They're all facing away from the center of the composition. Was told once that it's always best to have your subject facing in towards the composition. Was just curious why you chose to do it that way.

I think when you have the subject facing towards the center of composition, if they are not 100% comfortable in front of a lens, most, if not all, of their expressions will look forced, and/or posed.

Mr. Quiet · January 18, 2010

One and seven are great! Out of all of them, she is the most relaxed, IMHO.

lfortier · January 18, 2010

WOW! So many beautiful girls all in one place.

You did a fantastic job on all of them. They should be thrilled.

Love all the unique poses!

met · January 18, 2010

I really like the lighting on the horizontal shots.

CTUphoto · January 18, 2010

simply awesome
Great work all around.

I'm curious what your set up was for several of the shots (1,3,4,5). I was trying to decipher it based on the catchlights in the eyes.

~jb

Joe Dukovac · January 18, 2010

Mr. Quiet wrote:

One and seven are great! Out of all of them, she is the most relaxed, IMHO.

She and I did some work before, whereas the others was their first time. She is just a laid back girl to begin with.

Joe Dukovac · January 18, 2010

CTUphoto wrote:

Great work all around. I'm curious what your set up was for several of the shots (1,3,4,5). I was trying to decipher it based on the catchlights in the eyes.

~jb

The lighting setup was actually extremely simple. I had two lights directly in front of the subject above and below the camera, with the shot being straight through. Then I had one light with a 20 degree honeycomb grid behind at about 45 degrees pointing downwards as a separation light.

Joe Dukovac · January 18, 2010

thank you all for your comments! I appreciate it!

CyberSteak · January 18, 2010

Mr. Quiet wrote:

I think when you have the subject facing towards the center of composition, if they are not 100% comfortable in front of a lens, most, if not all, of their expressions will look forced, and/or posed.

How would they know if they're facing the center of the composition to feel uncomfortable?

One could easily crop the picture so that they are facing in towards center.

Darren Troy C · January 18, 2010

6 and 7 are fantastic! Some of the skin smoothing is causing really weird looking eyes.....to me. Just an opinion, but some of them look to "done".

10 girls, 1 1/2 hours

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