Diary of a Photoshoot - Riah
I thought I’d try out a new format for my blog and write up a short diary when I do a shoot, to give you a bit of a behind the scenes glimpse at the way that I work.
I’ve worked with Riah before, back in April of 2024, on a series of mostly black and white images that we made in a small studio in Exmouth, Devon. It was one of my first studio experiences and there was a lot to learn, but apparently, the experience wasn’t too horrendous for Riah and she got back in touch about working together again. Riah is a Hyrox athlete (look it up if you’re not sure what it is, but make sure you haven’t just had a big meal), coach and BSc Sport Science student and has a fair amount of modelling experience. You can see some of her work over on Instagram @_rayajessie.
She had specific ideas which revolved around a dark, fine art concept that was shot in the forest, so I set to work on image searching similar ideas on Google, Pinterest and Instagram, just to get a feeling and some inspiration for what our shoot might look like. I also began to think about locations. Luckily, living in Devon, we are not short of green spaces, woods and forests and have the Dartmoor National Park only an hours drive away. We settled on shooting in Bellever forest, as access and parking is straight forward and Riah settled on a large, red dress as an outfit. I didn’t see the dress prior to the shoot, but after seeing it on location, it immediately gave me the idea of a Red Riding Hood type character, or a character from an Austen novel who had run away from the ball into the forest.
Driving up to Dartmoor on the day of the shoot didn’t look favourable, it was raining intensely and the roads were quite frankly horrendous. Riah and I had agreed to go ahead, despite the weather and I was hoping for some epic mist to give the forest a more ethereal look. The conditions, whilst not pleasant, definitely added another element to the shoot.
Setting up prior to the shoot starting. Note the speedlite attached via a remote cable.
Whilst Riah changed into her dress, in the convenient toilet block in the car park, I set to scouting locations and getting myself set up, ready to shoot. As always, I had dragged all of my equipment with me and as usual, I ended up using very little of it.
I initially settled on a small area of rocks and tree stumps next to a stream, with an epic forested valley beyond it, as I thought that the depth would really add to the scale of the images. (As seen in the image to the right).
Due to the wet weather and high winds, I abandoned my initial lighting concept, which was to use a 90cm Octobox modifier and a single Canon speedlite, which I would balance with the natural light to enable me to have both the background and Riah correctly exposed. Instead, I attached a remote camera to the flash and used this handheld with a small diffuser attached to it. In order to work fast, mostly to prevent Riah from dying of hypothermia and me having to bury the body. I shot with the flash set to ETTL. This meant that I could expose for the background, in camera and then allow the flash to choose the power settings appropriate to correctly expose Riah in the foreground. Whilst this method can sometimes mean you get a little too much or too little light, I quickly analysed what the flash was doing and increased or decreased the flash power where it was needed. In some of the shots, the flash wasn’t quite as natural as I would have liked and I would have preferred it to be a little softer, by using a modifier, but the weather just really didn’t allow for it. The octobox would have acted like Mary Poppins umbrella for sure. Hand holding the flash however, did give me the ability to quickly make adjustments to get the look that I was going for.
A portrait of Riah, lit with a single speedlite and shot wide open at F/2 on the Canon RF 85mm/Canon R5 Mk 1. You can see the rain, captured in the background of the shot.
The weather during this part of the shoot was particularly bleak and Riah was very exposed, stood on a wet tree stump in her bare feet. Luckily she’s absolutely hard as nails, didn’t complain and refused my offer of a warm coat and a break. In some of the shots, you can pick up the goosebumps on her skin. The things we do!!
As with a lot of my work and as potentially cliched as it is, I shot a lot of the images with the lens wide open. Not because I needed to, but because I just like the way that it looks. The Canon RF 85mm F/2, paired with the Canon R5 make for, I think, beautifully soft dreamy bokeh that was perfect for this shoot. Whilst I did shoot some images with the lens stopped down, to make the most of the landscape behind her, images like the one to the right just really works for me.
After a quick rewarm, we moved across the wood, to a slightly more sheltered, but definitely not warmer, section. Where a huge tree trunk had been felled. After crossing some particularly boggy and wet ground (Riah still with her bare feet) we reset, ready to continue the shoot. By now, Riah was getting significantly bedraggled due to the rain, but actually, I feel that it really added something to the shoot. She already stood out against the drab, wintery backdrop, in the bright red dress, which I think is a great look, she was now also starting to really show the conditions, which for me, really added to the concept.
We worked through various poses and angles, fortunately Riah is experienced and so needs minimal direction. Also, having worked together before, I’m beginning to understand the angles and poses that work best for her. Often, she will either just hit a pose that looks great with no adjustment, or will, in the process of changing a pose do something that catches my eye and only needs minimal direction to bring it back. Working with a model like this, makes the shoot so much easier and therefore enjoyable. And on this day, with the weather like this, it was probably a good thing!!
I really, really enjoyed this shoot. It was challenging, but also allowed for great creativity and I’m really pleased with the results. I’m usually a huge fan of black and white edits, but I only went that way a few times with these images. For me, they just work so well in colour. The red dress stands out so much against the forest, it was a shame to lose it.
If you like the images from this series, please let me know in the comments, or if you have any questions about the shoot and how we achieved these images please ask and I will do my best to answer them.
