Earlier this year I decided to bite the bullet and book myself on to a photography and retouching workshop with two of my idols, Lara Jade and Ashlee Gray. Although it is crazy expensive and a bit out of my comfort zone it was something I'd been eyeing up since getting into photography.
I've always hated school and yet I've always loved learning and so for me this was the perfect opportunity to learn about the things I'm most interested in but in an exciting environment where I can actually gain experience and meet amazing new people.
In this blog post I'll show some behind the scenes, before and afters and some of the final images, happy snapping!
On the day we got to work with two beautiful models (Jemma and Kate) and a full team of makeup artists(Leah), hair stylist(Ranelle) and the amazing Ozzy Shah who styled the shoot. There were 5 different looks and a new lighting set up to match each one.
Look 1
The first look was a dark almost victorian style. The patterns on the dress where really contrasting to the plain black skirt and the pricey looking jewellery gave it the touch of elegance it needed.
The lighting set up for this was very simple with one large octobox directly above the models face. We also used screens and reflectors to catch the light on the right angles. 
Before and After for the first look!
Look 2
The next look was my personal favourite. The model was incredible, so animated and super easy to work with! The dress was a beautiful green with a lace skirt and the plaited up-do suited it perfectly giving it a bit of an edge.
The detail was exquisite and the flowing skirt was so fun to mess around with. The lighting for this set was a little more difficult. We used one huge softbox directly on the model with two panels/screens either side. Behind the panels where 2 more strobe lights pointing at the backdrop and lighting up the back of the model.
Look 3
Jemma absolutely rocked the third look. Her red hair looked incredible with the leopard print and the bright white. This dress was just incredible with all the different mixes of print and colour and the split down the leg just added to the beautiful crazy-ness.
The accessories where perfectly matched as the simple gold bangle and matching heels contrasted with the crazy mix of material on the dress. For this lighting we used one big softbox to highlight the models face and another one directly under it to light up her legs.
Look 4
This next look was my least favourite. We used the beauty dish and that made every feature extremely detailed and the image came out really over exposed and blown out. I did the best I could with editing to darken the image and smooth out the skin and was pretty happy with the result.
The model here is actually wearing an £80,000 couture dress and Queen Victoria's very own coronation necklace, it was incredible to shoot and so so beautiful in person.
Here's a quick before and after to show the difference the editing made.
Look 5
Because it was so incredible that Ozzy Shah managed to get Queen V's necklace and the £80,000 dress we got some more shots with Jemma using a different light. This time we used a giant Skrim and the light was very natural and pretty.
Behind the Scenes
I had the most amazing time on this course and am so grateful to everyone who made it the experience it was, especially Lara and Ashlee xx
Here's a quick before and after to show how much difference the colours made
