Expert beauty photographer Tina Eisen will be joining us at The Photography Show 2019 in Birmingham to show you how to enhance your photographic creativity and possibilities.
Finding beauty in the unconventional
Tina Eisen is an editorial and commercial beauty photographer based in London. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, she has worked with clients such as MaxFactor, Sephora, Ciate, EX1, Superdrug, Harvey Nichols and more.
"When I don't shoot, which rarely happens as I'm madly in love with my job, I teach workshops in Europe and North America or educate for my trusted photographic brands at trade shows and exhibitions. I draw my inspiration from shapes, patterns and colours around and find beauty in unconventional objects."
Tina's essential kit
I'm a die hard D1 user and have been for more than 10 years. A typical setup will involve 2 to 3 heads and 9 out of 10 times there will be a soft light reflector on my main light. Other than that I will always pack different sized octa boxes, strip boxes and zoom reflectors plus grids for all of them to control light spills. Lately I have been venturing outdoors more which requires me to pack lighter. For those times my mono heads get replaced by my A1s, their attachments and some umbrellas. In either situation you won't ever see me without my hand held reflectors as they are the easiest and most cost effective tool to add some fill and catch lights into any lighting setup.
Three key beauty set-ups
Tina talks us through three of her recent beauty set-ups and how she created the soft and beautiful portraits.
Set-up 1: Beautiful catchlights
"One of my favourite setups, simplicity is key here. A single D1 head with a white soft light reflector to my right, slightly above the models head and a silver hand held reflector in front of her chest for a touch of fill and those beautiful catchlights, done."
Set-up 2: Bold and beautiful
"For this shot I used 3 D1 heads, a white soft light reflector to my right as the key, a small 2" octa to my left as fill and a third light with a zoom reflector pointing at the background to brighten up the turquoise paper a little. Finished off with a silver hand held reflector and a fearless model!"
Set-up 3: Fractal crystal
"The model herself is lit with a D1 and a soft light reflector. Additionally I set up a second light with only the modelling light turned on to help me get those beautiful effects from the fractal crystal."
Tina's top tips for shooting beauty
Beauty is up close and personal, a good connection between the model and the photographer is a must to ensure that the image will be engaging for the viewer. My job during a shoot is not just to light a person and take images, it is just as important to build rapport with your subject, have a great time and ultimately create better, more engaging images.
Beauty is more than a close up picture of a face, beauty should be exciting, engaging and emotional too.
Communication is key, no matter how experienced the team is. Voice your thoughts, give guidance, show references, provide and listen to ideas. A beauty shoot can not and will never be a one man show, a team effort where everyone's skill and knowledge is appreciated and listened to is the key to a great image.
The Photography Show 2019
Thank you to Tina for telling us about her key beauty set-ups! You can visit Tina and ourselves at The Photography Show 2019, where she will be talking about six key set ups with the A1. More information can be found here. To follow Tina and see more of her work, visit her website or Instagram.
