The first thing you need to know about Melissa is how inevitably cheerful she is. The couple of times I’ve worked with her on projects she has always been upbeat and positive, which makes her a great creative person to collaborate with.
As I was telling friends and family about my Hundred Person Project for this year, Melissa got in touch about creating some photos she would be able to use for headshots. Among other talents, she’s a voice actress in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is how I met her working together on audio dramas and radio voice work.
Planning for this shoot was straightforward. I work a day job for an internet radio station, so I had access to the voice studio to photograph Melissa, which worked perfect to illustrate her skills in voice over. We planned a natural look for makeup and a few changes of clothes for variety.
I asked my friend Joel Nickerson to advise me on lighting to bring this shoot to the next level. Joel is a far more skilled photographer than me, and he helped me plan lighting to create clamshell lighting for Melissa’s photo shoot.
On the day of the shoot I received two extremely pleasant surprises. First, I had asked Joel to bring some his lighting kit to complete the clamshell look, just a couple pieces that I didn’t have. Instead, he brought just about every piece of kit that he owned! Which was awesome because I got the chance to use equipment that I haven’t experienced before. In particular, using larger softboxes with grids to control the light, and studio strobes with more power than my speedlights. Plus Joel pretty well gave me a personal workshop on lighting, and I learned a lot from him.
The second pleasant surprise was Melissa’s sister Emily. I didn’t know that Melissa was bringing her sister, who is a professional model and stylist, to help bring out the best poses and attitudes for Melissa. Having Emily alongside helped Melissa relax and create a fun, collaborative environment. She was great to work with, and after we finished Melissa’s photos, we continued the shoot with Emily as the subject.
I chose to shoot an 85mm lens at f/4 for how well it flatters the face and brings the background perceptually closer to the subject. That worked well with the gray and black backgrounds to create a studio look, as well as with the environmental shots to show that Melissa was in a recording environment, reflecting her voice acting skills.
Melissa and Emily worked together with her wardrobe throughout the shoot and put together several different outfits to accentuate different moods in Melissa’s posing, which I in turn reflected in my style of shooting the different looks. Joel was invaluable throughout these changes, helping me build the lighting setups and adjust levels and strobe positions to achieve the best light for each look.
It was an incredibly fun photo session to bring together, and an excellent first experience photographing with a team. I will count myself blessed to work with Joel, Emily, and Melissa in the future.
