Atlanta Photographer Matthew Lane-

Assignment Time

Last month I had an opportunity to shoot Debi Blair, the wife of a friend of mine, for her hair stylist business. They are updating her website and needed some good portraits of her in the salon. We met at the salon on a quiet Sunday morning. The salon was setup in the usual shopping center fashion (...although much hipper) that provided a great "garage" light. I was prepared for using strobes but the light was so perfect that they were not needed at all. More on that later. So we put Abbie in the chair as a client model and did some working shots that came out really well. We then put Bill, her husband in the chair in attempt to attract the male clientèle also. Even though Abbie appeals to men much more than Bill does. After the chair sessions' we did some more environmental portraits of Debi in the salon. I was really happy with the shoot. I was quick, even though we all chatted quite a bit, and the client was very pleased. And I got paid which is always great.



See her site for more shots at www.debiblair.com ***Under Construction at the moment.***

To light or not to light? This was the first time I had been confronted with that question. Over the last year I had really become adept that lighting objects well thanks to David Hobbie and his Strobist blog. For this shoot, the ambient light was so good that artificial light was not a necessity. Strobes could be used with great success but it was not needed. For a split second, didn't know what to do. In the crunch of having to make decision during the shoot, I decided to do the simplest thing and shoot the ambient light. After some meditation on this, I decided that this was the best thing to do and I will use this philosophy on future shoots. (..unless for a Strobist assignment of course) Here's why. If the ambient is already great, there is no reason to not work with it. Using strobes takes time. Setup and exposure all have to be just right for the great shot. If he ambient is great, the work has been done for you already. So shoot it! used to consider my self a Strobist but after this shot I know that will always be more than that. Strobes are a tool. If they are needed they will be used. If they are not needed, they will stay in the case.

For now,
ML