Christmas Light Session
Kaylee Johnson and I partnered up to make our Christmas light dreams come true! We both had been wanting to hop on the photography light craze that's been buzzing around Instagram through photographers like Brandon Woelfel. Thanks for the inspiration, Brandon!
And since it was already December (and the middle of finals week.... crazy!) when we did this shoot, we chose to use Kaylee's cute white Christmas tree in her apartment and a tub full of lights for our props.
After doing some research (aka watching Irene's Youtube video about portrait sessions with Christmas lights), Kaylee and I got down to business! We gathered Kaylee's roommates and friends to use as our lovely models. They were very patient with us the whole time while we were trying to figure out the lighting and placements in her tiny living room.
It was a big trial and error for me since I had never attempted to shoot at night with lights like this. And Kaylee had to reteach me how to use and shoot with artificial light which is something I still need to master.
Eventually I got the hang of it, and we were able to start trying new techniques until we both got a lot of images that we were proud of, especially for our first attempts with Christmas light portraits. Kaylee even found some time to take some cute shots of me! Thanks, Kaylee! (I've attached those images below.)
My favorite shots from the session were when Kaylee and I started experimenting with putting lights right in front of our lenses to create more of the bokeh effect in the foreground. You'll see what I mean with the pictures below of the larger blurred lights surrounding the subjects.
Thank you, Kaylee, for letting me crash your shoot and borrow your models! And thanks to all the new (and old) friends who modeled for me, you all are awesome! I had so much fun, and I loved every moment of collaborating and bouncing ideas around with Kaylee. I can't wait to see what new photoshoot ideas we come up with next semester.
Check out mine (and Kaylee's) pictures below!
Kaylee's Shots of Me:
Models: Erika, Miquie, Kaylee, Vivian, & Shea (& Christina who isn't pictured here but was there for the shoot)
Kaylee's Info:
Kaylee's Website: http://kayleebjohnson.wixsite.com/photography
Kaylee's Instagram: @kayleejohnson_photography
What do you think of our first attempts with this style of photography? Do you have any advice for us? Any questions? I'd love to hear from you! Message me, and let's get to chatting about photography!
