I can offer magazine quality portrait shoots for £150

 

If you're an aspiring model wanting to kick-start your portfolio, need some acting headshot photography, some images for yourself such a boudoir, or want them for an occasion such as bridal or maternity, then I'm happy to listen to ideas.  I'm also open to commercial portraiture based commissions.

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As an editorial styled photographer, I'd like you to have some example images of what you'd like to achieve (we call them mood boards).  You can pick just a few images off Dr Google that you love, and then I'll be able to get a feel for the vibe and then know I'm delivering on something rather than just standing you in a studio or next to a white wall.  Telling me 'I want some images of me doing Yoga', or 'in lingerie', doesn't give me much to sink my teeth in to as they could be lit and shot a million ways.  I am NOT a family photographer.  I like working one on one with a subject, and to work with lighting.  From there we can tweak ideas, tweak the light, the pose, and create a handful of beautiful images.  Quality over quantity!

 

Having said that, I have done volume in the past for life drawing and 3d rendering clients too, so as suggested, portrait photography commissions are welcomed too.  I actually quite like being free of the time spent in post-production - but remember, when you're paying for a professional photographer, not only is it their experience, their thousands upon thousands of pounds worth of equipment, insurance, and in my case a bespoke studio, but you're also paying for the post-production, and contributing to the time (and money) spent on organising the files and backing them up on a capable computer and hard drives.  Honestly though, if the lighting is good and the model is good, then the image will be too, but it'll miss that finishing touch of the high-end editorial stuff that you see in magazines.  Photographers will want to maintain their standards and vibe, so rarely will they be willing to hand over RAW photos for a non-commercial client and send them out in to the world without post-production.  Seeing a before and after will be immediately obvious to a trained eye, but you may not miss what you didn't have equally if you have nothing to compare it to, but we will compare it to our standards of course!  Even most models hate not being retouched, but thankfully, I think we're getting more and more open to reality and less heavily reliant on unrealistic photoshopped images. 

 

My philosophy on Photoshop is that it should focus your beauty, not create it!  I've always maintained the attitude that Photoshop isn't evil.  For example, If you speak to someone, you're encapsulated by their personality and beauty at first glance, and you don't study their fleeting skin imperfections while talking about the weather.  Photoshop should remove those fleeting distractions that are otherwise captured forever to be critiqued.. or sometimes, it shouldn't; it completely depends on the narrative!  We may have captured a stunning image where the light hits just right on 90% of the shot, but that 10% is slightly unflattering.  It's OK to fix that 10%.  To light an image with style and quality, you can't always be 100% flattering, that's just physics.. I mean, given unlimited time and money, sure, but in reality, those creative choices are going to leave an unflattering twist, shadow, bump of light, or it'll be that one pose you love and is near perfect, but you just can't recreate it with a tweak - "can you try this pose again" - it just never comes out better than the first take when everything is natural and unforced! 

 

Light is so powerful that it can completely reveal all your flaws.. or cover them up!  In fact, some people who complain about Photoshop are probably attributing it as the effect that the lighting and make-up is actually having.  Remember, too, that being a model is a job!  They are supposed to be looking after their skin to the nth degree in much the same way professional footballers these days are highly tuned athletes - please don't compare your kick about in the local park to playing at Wembley, and therefore neither your every day reflection in a mirror to Kate Moss.  Unless you're an aspiring player, you really don't need to compare yourself to Ronaldo.. or Ariana Grande.. or Naomi Campbell.. especially if they have a personal chef, great lighting and make up and the best coaches in the world!  But I digress, hitting that middle ground with lighting would leave all images flat, boring and lacking in atmosphere and feel, so marrying ideas to narratives, and narratives to lighting choices, and then lighting to post-processing choices; is what creates a professional image, and equally is what creates a photographer's style and the reason you're choosing them to do your images.  You are picking a photographer you like rather than one just because "they're a photographer".. right?