There's been a lot of change in 2020. I'm usually booking portrait sessions like crazy at this time of year and traveling for out of town jobs. Instead, I'm going into my 8th week of Shelter in Place orders (along with the rest of Seattle) due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Being an introvert at heart, staying home all the time hasn't bothered me like it has some others. That being said, the weather has been unseasonably beautiful and I've been dying to photograph some portrait sessions!
Due to local restrictions, I am currently unable to operate my business in person. Most other businesses have moved to a virtual model but how do you do something like a portrait session over to a model like that? I had seen a few photographers doing virtual sessions over FaceTime so I thought I'd give it a try!
I called up my favorite test model, Kristina Morris and we planned a virtual session. She walked me around her house on Facetime until I found locations that I liked. When I spotted something I liked, I directed her on how to set up her phone in order to get the shot I wanted. From there, I could direct her verbally and take shots as I saw them coming. It was an exercise in patience for both of us but we've worked together for years so it didn't take long before things were running smoothly.
I've seen this method done several different ways over FaceTime. I've seen people using their actual camera to take photos of a phone screen, computer screen, and then I've seen others simply using the FaceTime screenshot feature. For this first run, I tried taking photos of my computer screen. It was really interesting because I couldn't move my camera to get different angles, I had to ask my model for that. The only thing that bothered me about this method was the banding I experienced from the computer screen. I plan on trying all the methods to see which one I like best so stay tuned!
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the results! This was exactly the creative challenge my brain needed during this downtime and I'm so excited to experiment more!
What do you think?
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