AAD Fashion Show

I was given the opportunity to photograph the Australia Academy of Design fashion show which was part of the Stitches and Craft expo. This was the first time I’ve shot such an event,  but strangely I didn’t really feel the anxiety and pressure I usually do. I was probably just tired from walking to and from Minifest with lightstands and stuff 😀

Lighting was quite good, but I’d already choosen to bring my own lighting just in case that it wasn’t. Plus I wanted to make sure my ISO was low enough that to keep the fabric texture visible. I had plannned to use two backlights at 45 degrees with one fill but this plan foiled by a large flat screen TV other presenters had been using at previous shows. This would have cast ugly shadows.

Instead I had one key bounced of the ceiling camera right, one at the back of the hall as fill also bounced. One more far off to the left as a rim light,  all flashes on 1/4. This gave me f5.6-7.1 at ISO 800 with a flash recycle time of about .75-1 sec. This was a bit of a gamble as the distance between the models and the lights varied as they moved from the stage to the runway and back, I figured differences would hopefully be minor.

Nevertheless, this is what it looks like when the flashes don’t keep up. The image on the right is just the rim light firing.

Keeping up with the models was a bit more difficult than I first thought. I was forced to change to AF-C (Canon people call this AF-Servo?) which was much better. The runway was short, with only about 4-5 steps meaning only 4-5 opportunities to get a good shot of the walk.

I was forced to be close to the front, as otherwise I’d have people’s heads in the way, but this gave me a chance to get better 1/2 and 3/4 length shots during the poses at the end of the runway. It was a bit hectic for me, but this is nothing compared to what the models, stylists and designers have to go through backstage changing and restyling for each walk down the runway.

I was blown away by the great designs put on and really impressed with the dramatic changes different accessories makes to the outfits. The  show was very impressive, Annie did an amazing job pulling it all together 🙂

After the show, I had a few minutes for a shoot with Rose wearing one of Annie’s fabulous designs.

I’d being eyeing a spot on of the stair cases in the room, I took a picture with my iPhone which you can see above. There were some round portal type windows letting in the sunlight, you can see what I mean here. I used this as my key light, and used a big shoot through brolly as fill with a Sony HVL-56AM at 1/8th power.

I absolutely loved the contrast between the colours, and it turned out to be an ideal location. Despite the little time we had for the mini-shoot, it was also good working as a creative team with Annie and Rose to produce these images. I hope to work with Annie and Rose again soon.