Photoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
I recently had a photoshoot with singer Natasha Benjamin from Trinidad and Tobago. I wanted to do some portraits involving extreme/creative make-up and so I naturally teamed up again with painter and make-up artist Megan Fox Carol Chen Poun Joe. I had previously worked with Carol on a test photoshoot involving the Cactus V5 flash triggers and you can read about that here. For this photoshoot Carol was again free to come up with an idea for the make-up, so the artwork you see on Natasha’s face is completely her idea. I only gave some input on the color combinations we would use in combination with Natasha’s outfit. Personally I think it all worked out very well in the end. All the colors match together, even with Natasha’s skin-color. And Natasha actually had a performance scheduled right after the photoshoot and she loved the make-up so much that she decided to leave it on for her performance.
For this photoshoot I used a Canon EOS 40D with the infamous EF 50mm F/1.2L lens. I’ve included a lighting diagram below detailing the setup that was used and some of the gear. Unfortunately I don’t have the power settings of all the flashes. I also had to adjust those settings during the shoot as I was switching from shallow depth of field portraits at f/1.8 to f/5.6 during the photoshoot. At the end of the shoot I also did some shots on a black background, and for those shots I removed the background light. All the lights were Canon 580EX II speedlites in manual mode triggered by the Cactus V5 transceiver. The Cactus V5 performed flawlessly here. I took about 250 shots and all flashes fired for every shot, so I’d say reliability is great. But that was already clear during my tests for the Cactus V5 review. I also used a 14″ bright silver beauty dish from Lumodi as the key light. Gave a nice contrasty effect with a quick fall off when positioned close to the model. I’ve done a few photoshoots with it now and can highly recommend it.
Lighting Setup (click for larger image)
Below you can view a gallery with some of the shots taken during this photoshoot including some behind the scenes shots of Carol doing the make-up on Natasha from start to finish. Click to view larger images.
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
Photoshoot with Natasha BenjaminPhotoshoot with Natasha Benjamin
And if you’re wondering about Natasha’s singing talents, check the Youtube video below. I think she has a wonderful voice. 🙂
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