It's always exciting to have returning clients!
This high school senior came to me last summer for her senior portraits, but this spring she came back for a graduation session. To make it even more interesting, she wanted to showcase what she’s doing after graduation, by wearing her military auxiliary uniform!
Since it’s still early spring and quite cold in Wisconsin, she decided to go the route of renting a studio space. For this session, we used Aspace in downtown Madison. It provided the perfect backdrops to create the dramatic portraits that my client was looking for.
We started with this brick wall that had some great natural light shining on it.
I loved the rugged look it created as a backdrop for her uniform. We made sure to get a variety of poses and mixed up whether she was wearing her graduation cap, or her uniform hat. I learned a bit about some of the rules for what’s acceptable when in uniform and how to wear it properly. One thing I love about photography is learning a little bit about my clients’ interests or hobbies.
The Aspace studio had lots of options for us to utilize when it came to backdrops.
I loved this movable solid wall they had, which we were able to move directly in front of the giant window. This meant my client was perfectly lit in natural light. I also loved how cohesive the colors of her uniform, grad cap and stole, and the backdrop looked.
One request that this client had was to create some photos with dramatic light.
I felt inspired by the giant window, so we started by testing out some different silhouette methods in front of all the bright light.
Lastly, we used the paper roll backdrops that the studio provides.
I also got out my flash. To create some really dramatic light, I placed it behind her, which only lit up a portion of her face. It was lots of fun to play around with light in different ways than I am used to.
For the white backdrop, I decided to put the light in front of her again.
I like how classic these portraits feel, and how the simple white backdrop makes her completely pop as the subject of the photo.
Overall, it was a lot of fun to use this space and create a gallery full of variety for my client. I will definitely use Aspace again in the future, as it was a beautiful space, the customer service was great, and it was easy and affordable to rent.
