Creating The Vintage Aviation Concept Shoot
I’ve always loved aviation themed concept shoots. I’ve incorporated various aircraft into senior portraits on many occasions and its a look that, in my opinion, never gets old. I love the angles, the texture, the colors, the faded old paint peeling off the side of the metal, and the challenge an aircraft brings. When working with something so large and with so many angles, its not an easy task to show the size or best angle of the aircraft while also creating an amazing portrait of your subject; getting the proportions just right and placing the subject against it can be major challenges.
When I found out I was going to be working with Alexa and that we were doing a vintage aviation concept at the Ghost Town in Las Vegas for the Seniors Ignite Event, I immediately starting searching for the right props and accessories to go with this look. Something you should all know about me is that I HATE FAKE STUFF… it’s got to be legit. For me, it adds so much to the finished images… not only does it look better, but it adds a great energy on set and helps the model really own the look we are aiming for.
After searching for a few weeks for the right props, I finally found a real World War II era leather flight cap and a real set of flight goggles. Both came in the mail the day before I left for Vegas… which had me majorly stressing out before the event! I knew these would pair great with our ghost town location where there just happened to be a old movie prop airplane crashed into the side of a desert hill, so I wanted to be sure they arrived in time.
As I mentioned before, I have done many concept aviation shoots so I decided to approach this one a little different. I wanted to treat each image as an individual standalone capture, meaning if you saw the group together I wanted each finished image to have a different look and feeling than the last. My goal was for them all to be able to stand alone as individual art pieces. The lighting and outfit stayed the same for the most part throughout the entire shoot, so I relied heavily on several techniques with the post processing to make each image stand on its own.
Scouting the Location
I get very inspired when I work at a great location, but being ready and prepared is vital so be sure to do your research on the location beforehand. This one was a little different than normal for me as I couldn’t just hop in my Jeep and drive to the location to scout out the lighting and the grounds, so I relied on Google maps street view to help me out. This allowed me to visually see which direction the light would be coming from at the time we would be shooting there. Knowing this ahead of time helped save time on the day of the session, as I already knew which lighting modifier I would be using and where we would photographing with the old plane. This way, I was able to jump right in and start creating epic images.
Here’s an article I wrote about how scout for locations.
Gear
• 48 “ Lastolite TriGrip Reflector, Sunlite/Soft Silver
• Einstein 640 powered by a Vagabond Mini paired with the Orb
• 43” Westcott Apollo Orb – my on location workhorse modifier, and all around favorite. This seriously throws some beautiful light! I chose the orb as it gives me a lot of control with the direction of light, as I didn’t need or want much artificial light spilling onto the the plane or background.
• Lens: 24-105 F4 L – This is my favorite lens when working with aircrafts because I can zoom in and out fast to help find the right angles.
Post
Color Toning and Fading
This adds age to the images, which adds to the vintage theme. I have a series of personal actions that I created to get this look.
Black and White
I wanted a couple of strong black and white images, so I created this look using the channel mixer, dodging and burning, and the curves layer to adjust the contrast and the tones.
A Sepia Toned Image (achieved with Nik Silver Affects Pro and my personal actions)
Adding and Layering with Textures
This was created using textures that I have photographed and created over the years. I used various blending modes to add age, color, toning, and fading to the images.
High Contrast: A Bit of Modern Mixed with Vintage
I also wanted a few higher contrast images that had a bit of a modern vibe mixed with the vintage concept. I created this look first with the lighting at the shoot, and then by making minor adjustments and tweaks to the contrast in Photoshop.
Going Analog with Instax
And of course I brought out the Fuji Instax 210 and created a few Instax for Alexa to keep. This is something I incorporate into every session with my seniors.
Seniors Ignite Model Alexa was absolutely amazing to work with for this concept, and I was blown away by how little direction I had to give her. I knew from the first capture that it was going to be an awesome session!
Seniors Ignite | Seniors Ignite - Education for the Modern Senior Photographer
