A behind the scenes look at a model fitness photo shoot and Seiko Sportura watch promotion with Essex commercial photographer Phil Jones.
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Photography: Phil Jones Photography
Model: Kelly Amber
Filmed and edited by Brad Carter
In collaboration with Bellefontaines’ Jewellers
Music: Queen of Hearts by Darlia. No copyright infringement intended.
Blog content:
When planning a photoshoot, making decisions on wardrobe, make up, hair styling and props are an integral part of my creative thought process as is choosing the right model. For this shoot I decided to keep it all low key, no assistant or Make-Up artist.
Shot in the studio against a black background, traditional old school black cast iron York Fitness weights, a solid steel chrome barbell and dumbbell cutting through the darkness was all part of my vision. Creating an image that I could use as part of my marketing and use to make new business contacts would be useful, producing a behind the scenes movie to start my YouTube account would be awesome! Fortunately for me I work extremely closely with film and video guru Brad Carter, who offered to help out! Why, how could he resist?
I wanted the images to have a commercial look about them and create a series of images which could be used for an advertising promotional campaign, so the next obvious choice for me was to contact family run jewellers in Billericay, Bellefontaines, who I had already worked in collaboration with, helping to promote the Rodania watch brand. Not only are they a lovely bunch of people, they are also very supportive when it comes to helping and working with local businesses. A quick text, followed by a phone call, led to me visiting the shop. Sitting there in the window was a red, white and black Seiko Sportura Chronograph watch. As I’m slightly obsessed with colour coordinating my images, this was the obvious choice and would to be the focus of the shoot – no pun intended.
Any of you who follow me on Twitter, @PhilJonesPhoto, will know that on the day of the shoot I had an early morning start setting up the studio. A wise old photographer once told me to make time and set up the lighting before a shoot, if you’re in the studio alone, use the self-timer even if you’re as non-photogenic as I am! I use the set up time to visualize the end shot and think about poses and angles so I can give art direction to what I want to achieve.
Once I have created the lighting set up and mood I want to achieve, I can relax knowing the tricky stage is complete and all that is left is fine adjustment and tweaking of the lighting when the model is on set and the shoot is in progress.
It’s important to create your own style of photography and this can be achieved in many ways, such as through lighting. Look at other photographers work on Flickr, Behance and Deviantart. Read blogs and practice recommended lighting setups, then try new things. If they don’t work, so what? Learn from your mistakes and experiment.
The next stage for me is my favourite. The Photoshoot. As a photographer I believe it is important to build a rapport with the model. Not only does it make the shoot more fun but it creates better shots too. Again, every photographer has their own style and this is part of what makes me, me!
Take a look at the finished Behind The Scenes video and you’ll see what I mean.
