I have been following the great photographer Joel Grimes for some time now. He has a distinctive look that really captures the beauty of his subjects. During one of his CreativeLive online courses, he demonstrated his high key beauty look for which he is known. I was fascinated by how simple he made this process look. Of course, with several willing subjects around me (i.e. my energetic twins and my perpetual motion niece Amelia), I had to attempt to see if I could mimic his awe inspiring photographs.
Here are some of the photographs from this modeling session.









So, what are you thoughts? Which are your favorites?
Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
If you would like to know how I made these photographs, keep reading below.
This photograph shows the lighting setup. As you can see, it is a makeshift studio with lots of toddler toys in the vicinity!

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Flash #1: Single Canon 580EX Speedlite in the 43" Apollo Orb by Westcott with diffuser; this speedlite was manually controlled at 1/4 power and zoomed out to 24mm. I also used a 8 AA battery pack to help with the flash recycling. I experimented with the flash power until the background (i.e. the Apollo Orb diffuser) was totally blown out and the light from the Apollo Orb nicely wrapped around the subject's face.
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Flash #2: Single Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite in the Cheetah Beauty Dish with the diffuser; this speedlite was manually controlled at 1/2 power + 1/3 and zoomed out to 24mm. Again, I also used a 8 AA battery pack to help with the flash recycling. I experimented with the flash power until I achieved minimal facial shadows and an angelic, glowing look on the subject's face.
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Both Flash #1 and Flash #2 were controlled by the on camera Canon 580EX II Speedlite (the on camera speedlite is used only as a controller and it did not fire). Flash #1 was controlled by the Radiopopper PX radio transmitter/receiver system while Flash #2 was optically triggered by the on camera 580EX II Speedlite.
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Light stand with a 42" silver reflector to bounce light back up and fill out the shadows under the neck
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Tripod: Vanguard Alta Pro 26AB100
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Light stand: Cheetah Boom with a 15 pound sandbag as a counterweight to prevent the beauty dish from toppling over
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Apple box for the kids to stand on in front of the Westcott Apollo Orb
I used the following camera and lens for this photoshoot:
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Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
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Lenses: 24 - 105mm f/4.0L
Remember, leave a comment below!
Remember, leave a comment below!