I have been asked to do a fashion shooting for a new upcoming Fashion magazine. I've suggested the editor to have the shooting at the central train station in Helsinki city during rush hour, and she really love the idea. The shooting is very important for me because it might help me to get into the market of fashion industry, so all feedback and suggestion will help.

My idea is to have the model sharp and clear in the shot, and the rushing people will become like ghosts, so a longer shutter speed is a must. People will walk towards the camera and I thought of using a shutter speed of at least 1/8 s, then I cannot have the model to do any movements.

I thinking of aiding flashlight with a snoot on pointed at the models face just to let her pop out from the background. I thought I will underexpose the background with 1/3 stop.

To my team I will have 1 stylist, 1 makeup artist and might use 2-3 models for the shooting. I have to produce about 9 pictures for a 3 page spread.

Any thought or comments on my thoughts?

Hey Robert! Where ya been? Welcome back. Great scenario as usual. You want to make sure that passers by are unrecognizable to CYA so the blur idea does two things--it emphasizes your models and protects you--just make sure that they are blurred enough. I really like the idea of a hard spot light to make her pop off the page, but you are right...she has to stay very still if you don't want the fashions to blur. Has anyone out there had success using the blur filters in Photoshop--isn't there a camera filter effect with a zoom blur in there? Use a layer mask to mask your models and apply the filter to the rest of the image and you might be able to shoot as fast as you like...

What do other members think of this idea?

Robert,

The filter is the radial blur filter in zoom mode. I posted an image in the gallery where I used it----I was just playing around with it so i wasn't very careful with it...It might just be the answer to your problem...

Thanks Stephen for your comments!

I have been busy with marketing myself, updated my website and I have taken couple of courses recently. It's quite frustrated not to get hired of any customer, that makes me feel that I in a low level as a photographer. I try to see what I can improve in my photography so I get better results.

Do you have any suggestions of placement of the snoot? I thought it would be best to have the snoot close to the camera or little bit to the side so I can light up whole face.

Aloha Robert!
I think very near or directly above the camera for the snoot, and shooting down at her face. That way you get all of her face that is in the lens, and any spill won't hit any passersby.

On the PS filter blurs, when you make it burry enough to hide people's identity, there's a pretty good amount of pixel overlap...(I guess that's what it is), and if you get a person walking past your model in close proximity, when you paint your model back in, assuming you're using a layer mask and the blur function, you'll end up painting in the person you want blurred also!

I think that if you do as you had explained with an 1/8 sec exposure you should be fine. As long as your model is fairly still, the strobes will freeze her, and a tiny bit of motion blur on the edges might even just give an edgier look to the shot! Personally I don't understand the fascination with it, but look at all the press that "Lens Baby" thing is getting......

Anyway, I would take at least 2 shots of every pose...one at 1/8th sec, and one at 1/125. You can do some combining if need be. Experiment and have fun!
Aloha,
SPC II

Hi Robert,

I think you and Stan have the position of the snoot down for this shot. I printed the shot I posted to check on any noise build-up due to the extreme blurring. There was a small area with blown out highlights that shows some noise build up, but it's not bad--and I used a pretty major blur amount. Remember, you are doing this on a separate layer so you could always lower the opacity of the blurred layer. You would need to be careful when painting the unblurred portion back in, but I still think that this could work. Like every other technique it will take some practice. Play with it on an image that you already have [make a duplicate image first].