Cameras capture light. If there’s no light, there’s no picture, no matter how high your camera’s ISO goes. But, as a photographer, you control light. You use what you have available to best effect, and you make what you don’t have. That was the gist, at least, of our main photographic goal for the year: to not just capture light, but to be in control of it.
Our shoot with Kortney on a late afternoon in Binghamton, NY gave us our first challenge. It was the day after Christmas, and very cold. We met at our hotel and, after dealing with the wardrobe, styling and walking to the Washington Street footbridge, it was 3:30pm- sunset. The light was changing fast, but it was too extraordinary to mess with. So we started with natural light, manipulating it just a little with a gold reflector.
You can see the color temperature of the light cooling down, just as our fingers did. We decided to take a little break back at the hotel.
When we got back out, it was time for some edgier locations and lighting. We were travelling light (no pun intended), so we limited ourselves to one off-camera speedlight.
And, thanks to Christmas, there was a decent amount of fun ambient to play with as well.
Kortney was amazing to work with and a great sport about everything despite the cold. She even let TJ set up one more shot back at the hotel.
What this shoot didn’t help answer is which look we like better. It’s about equal at this point.
*****Kayt
Credits:
- Date: Friday, December 26, 2014
- Location: Downtown Binghamton, NY
- Model, hair, makeup: Kortney Miranda
- Photography: TJ Bynes and Kayt Silvers
- Styling, skirt, headpiece: Kayt Silvers