Chris Warkocki | My Latest Shoot – Story of a Headshot

The shoot itself isn’t very new, but it is the latest model shoot I’ve had and the last real photoshoot I’ve had besides random paid work. Basically, this is my latest shoot so stop arguing with me!

If you haven’t read the little write-up I’ve created for Sara you should totally check it out here.

Sara and I have been working together since the Summer of 2010 and continue to work together because some of our best work has come from our photographer-model relationship, plus we have lots of fun rocking the imagery. This shoot was so last minute we had plenty of embarrassing moments leading up to the inevitable shoot.

SaraTops and da Moose

I’m not going into too much detail here only because Sara would probably karate chop me square in the forehead if I even happened to mention all the tasty bits, but I will wet your appetites a bit.

The day begun as any other, a planned day to spend quality time with Ms. Sara, which is always a wonderful event since she is a joy to be around. She had been urging me to shoot with her again and I couldn’t help but feel the need to as well since she is pretty much amazing in front of the camera. After dinner we happened to need a few things and decided to stop of at the local K-Mart on East State. Oh boy do I love K-Mart and all the shenanigans that goes on inside of this fine establishment… Not to mention Sara is a nut and made shopping there quite a fantastical time.

We ended up walking through the lingerie section of said retail establishment and happened to find an article of clothing that would photograph really well. Mind you anything in that section would photograph well on the right person, but that is just me and my eye for a final product. After selecting the proper attire we skipped merrily through the rest of the store looking for other goodies, like razors and mouthwash.

After the joyful time running amuck in K-Mart it was time to head to the cash register and purchases our wares. Being the noble man I am I paid for the goods seeing as it was 99% for the photoshoot so we piled it all up for the lady behind the register to ring up. What was heard next left me laughing and thinking about this moment for days!

Oh, Hell naw! Ya’ll is crazy!

Totally worth the experience and the look and sounds that bellowed from the clerk. As embarrassing as it sounded it was a wonderful experience that led to the real meat and potatoes of this article which is the physical photoshoot. Onward and upward to the fun stuff!

Sara w/ Soft light camera right

After the prep time needed to get everyone situated for this last-minute shoot we ran the normal test shots and began the process of rocking out some sick imagery. I started using a lighting technique that I’ve been comfortable with and tend to use on most shoots because of its safety net feature. I’ve tossed in an example of it on the left just so you have a basis of what I’m trying to explain. This lighting technique involves a large strip box angled a little tighter than 45 degrees so it gets a soft touch with deep shadows to show more structure. Sadly it’s an effect I use often and I am currently trying to do different things and push the envelope… Not repeat previous good lighting techniques.

As I typically do in most shoots I stare at the subject, I look at my lighting and I start all over again till it’s right. This was the case here and we started all over again until I came up with something that inspired me to continue. It’s not the best technique for working with models since it could be portrayed as lack of knowledge, but I’m so used to working the way I have been it’s hard to break bad habits.

For the new setup I pulled the softbox right off the light and placed the regular reflector on and moved it from camera right to left and decided I would make this look more like an old vogue style setup and less of a portrait session. A+ decision in my book and it definitely shows in the final wave of imagery that came from the shoot. I’m a nut when it comes working with people and have realized that it takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for a model and photographer to truly build the chemistry in a shoot and achieve the quality of image desired. Even though Sara and I have a shooting relationship that spans over 14+ shoots there is still time needed to acclimate. I also start slow and work my way up and I recommend that to everyone in this industry especially if you’re new.

Hard Light Camera Left

With my new vision and change in lighting I decided to rifle off a few and see exactly what my hurdles to overcome would be. With every lighting setup there is a hurdle and it’s caused by the model and light working together. Some lighting setups work with many models while others only work with a handful or even one model. I’ve used similar lighting setups over a span of 5 or 6 different models and sometimes it works and sometimes it’s a flat-out failure. The reason behind this how the skin works with the light. Depending on the texture that your lighting it can come out grossly different subject to subject. Sara tends to work with 90% of the lighting setups I throw at her but I know hard light hasn’t been one of them. This time it merrily worked wonders and was ecstatically pleased with the results.

The balance of shadows and depth were well represented and I loved how her eyes just had this intensity I’ve never seen before. We ran with it and pulled out some great images that are still currently in need of editing, but will definitely get to before Sara kicks me in the rear. One of my favorite aspects of this lighting technique is the shadow in the background. Having that shadow gives the viewer more depth to where this is being photographed and how. It’s a blatant tell in lighting, but the added experience it gives is completely worth it.

The Headshot of a Lifetime

We changed the setup one last time before calling it quits that evening. Of course I’m one to get to work right away at editing, but I had other shoots backed up at the time and decided I would wait to edit the unknown gold that had been captured. A week or so later I went through the images in Aperture 3 and was stunned by a single image like I hadn’t been in previous editing sessions. I’m not sure if I was just sleepy or I had struck the mother lode, but I knew I had captured one of my favorite images of Sara or any model in quite a while. I frantically exported the image with minimal post work and shipped it straight to Photoshop CS5 where I dissected it, bit by bit and ran it through the necessary processing. The final outcome was a bold headshot of a beautiful woman who not only melted me a bit but every time I show it to people they are struck by the immense beauty and piercingly cool eyes.

She is a beautiful person to see live and in the flesh, but this image I believe truly captured her form and feature in a way I’ve yet to do in previous shoots. She has a magnificent face and those eyes are pure ice. I was so pleased that I hurried up and added it to my Model Mayhem portfolio and made it my profile image where it still is to this day. I’m not sure exactly what I did so right when I snapped off this shot, but the final product makes me so happy to do what I do each and every day. I can’t thank Ms. Sara enough for asking me to shoot her that evening and I also can’t help but say she is pretty amazing in every detail. Her passion and understanding of my abilities has truly made me a better photographer and I can’t wait to push the envelope on our next adventure.

Finally a smile

All of these images were captured using the infamous Nikon D700 and only 1 light was used triggered by the rockin’ Pocket Wizards. If you’d like any more details on how it was shot hit me up or comment with questions. You can check out more of the work Sara and I have done here on our gallery site.

In case you didn’t know you can click on any of the images here to enlarge them. Take a closer look please!