Rayneisha's Editorial Style Shoot at St Georges

When I discussed this shoot with Rayneisha she said that she wanted to do an editorial style swimsuit shoot.  She gave me, as inspiration, a link to the June issue of Vogue Spain which was a shoot of Juju Ivanyuk on a beach in various dresses.
Shooting Rayneisha is really easy, she requires almost no direction, her poses are always modeled from head to toe (to steal Tyra's phrase) and of course her face photographs beautifully.  This shoot was also made easier for me as Rayneisha took control of the styling, all I had to do was find the right location and figure out how I wanted to light it.

I decided to shoot at Fort St Catherine beach and use the Fort and the Pier as props.   After we shot 3 outfits there we then headed over to Tobacco Bay to shoot in the water and use the volcanic rocks as a backdrop.

Lighting the shots at Fort St Catherine was fairly straight forward and we used a single strobe with a beauty dish.  Jonathan was my assistant once again and is getting really good at knowing how I work and knows my standard lighting set-ups.  For example, the height and angle that I'll want the strobe, and whether it should be direct or feathered.  Having someone competent at setting up the lighting means its one less thing for me to worry about and allows me to focus more on how I want the exposure and composition to look.

The shots at Fort St Catherine beach were all lit with a single Einstein and a beauty dish, with the exception of the over head shot of Rayneisha lying in the sand  which was just ambient light.  The shots at Tobacco bay were more complicated due to the fact that Rayneisha and I were about 50 yards from the shoreline waist deep in water.  Fortunately the power of the Einstein with a long throw reflector is sufficient to over-power the morning sun from 50 yards away, so Jonathan could remain on the rocky shoreline and try to aim the light on Rayneisha's face.  As we were shooting at almost full power the recycle times were about 5-7 seconds.   The strobe was too far away for me to hear the ready beep so Jonathan had call out when the strobe had recycled. 

Afroditi did an excellent job on the make-up.  I think this look she came up with is one of my favourite looks she has ever done for me.  She did such a great job and Rayneisha has such good skin that almost no skin retouching was needed.  Afroditi also came along on the shoot and did touch ups after each outfit change, making sure that the make-up stayed perfect for the length of the shoot.

Risk / reward.  The 3rd shot from the end of this set required Rayneisha and I to walk out to the location, which unknown to us required us to walk across about 30 feet of slimy rock which was really slippy.  I'm amazed that neither of us fell over, well I did, but fortunately I wasnt holding my camera at the time and managed to fall on all fours.   In hindsight, we shouldn't have tried to get out there as it was too dangerous, but no harm came from it, so a big sigh of relief there.

Technical Info.
Canon 5D mk iii
EF 24-105 F4
Einstein strobe


CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

45mm
1/125, ISO 100, F5.6
Einstein w' Beauty Dish

75 mm
1/125, ISO 100, F5.6
Einstein w' Beauty Dish

58 mm
1/125, ISO 100, F5.6
Einstein w' Beauty Dish 

58 mm
1/125, ISO 100, F5.6
Einstein w' Beauty Dish

58 mm
1/125, ISO 100, F5.6
Einstein w' Beauty Dish

35mm (cropped)
1/200, ISO 100, F7.1
Einstein w' Beauty Dish 

35mm (cropped)
1/200, ISO 100, F10
Einstein w' Beauty Dish 

84mm
1/200, ISO 100, F8
Einstein w' Beauty Dish

65mm
1/400, ISO 100, F4.5
Natural Light

35mm
1/125, ISO 100, F5
Einstein w' Beauty Dish

73mm
1/125, ISO 100, F5
Einstein w' Beauty Dish

105mm
1/200, ISO 100, F9
Einstein w' 11" Long Throw reflector

105mm
1/200, ISO 100, F9
Einstein w' 11" Long Throw reflector

105mm
1/200, ISO 100, F5
Einstein w' 11" Long Throw reflector

96mm
1/200, ISO 100, F5
Einstein w' 11" Long Throw reflector

105mm
1/200, ISO 100, F9
Einstein w' 11" Long Throw reflector

105mm
1/250, ISO 100, F6.3
Natural Light

99mm
1/250, ISO 100, F6.3
Natural Light

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