SARAH BERTHOLON - A PORTRAIT

feat. Make-Up Artist Mélanie Etchart.

It’s been a couple years since I met Sarah, she was playing tampura during a concert I was shooting and I was really intrigued by this young woman. Nasir Aziz, the artist she was playing with sent her some of my pictures from that night and she got back to me, saying she really liked my work, introducing her as a french actress based in Paris.

It took us a while to setup this first shoot, she’s been busy on the days I was free and vice-versa!

When we finally found the good time, nothing was really planned, we talked a little bit about what we could do and she was very open to my ideas.
A few weeks before the photo shoot I had a dream where I saw this gypsy woman making divination and I took this opportunity to try to replicate my dream.

I always start a photo shoot by something funny or unexpected, usually having fun with the Color Checker Passport, and that sets a relaxing mood for the day.
I suggested that we try this divination image first.

The make-up Artist for the day, Mélanie Etchart, who I had briefed before the shoot, started right away and a few minutes later I was ready to take pictures. I would take this opportunity to say how important it is to work with a good, efficient and creative MUA! Beyond the fact that it saves hours in Photoshop, it also proved to be an effective asset in the team during the shoot.
Mélanie, who works for a TV program has some nice understanding of light and she knows how to make people look natural. I enjoy working with her.

The smoke smells coconuts!

I’m so in love with smoke during my shoots that I decided to buy one machine years ago, it is dirt cheap for small sized one and could deliver some nice effects. You can even give flavours to the smoke liquid! my daughter picked the Coconut Island flavour and I like it like that.

getting the props and accessories for the job should not be overlooked.

I ordered a medium sized crystal ball from Amazon for cheap a few days before the shoot and it proved to be a nice addition to the session. I only added some inner light in Lightroom to give that phosphorescent look.

We started slowly with some Esmeralda type images, then the Crystal ball came into play and I pretty much achieved what I had in mind.

We decided to move on to the next setup. I wanted to take this opportunity to shoot an actress to get some classic shot where facial expression is the focus.

I tried different light setup and ended with the classic one light from 3/4 Top most of the time. Low key shot of some sort, the light power at the minimum, trying to enhance contrast and I was thinkin B&W while shooting.

The Fujifilm X-T3

For the first time since Fuji released the V3.00 firmware for my camera, the Fujifilm X-T3, I was able to be confident with the Face Detect / Eye tracking AutoFocus system. It is a nice addition to the tools at our disposal and gives more freedom to concentrate on the composition when shooting purely portrait… but it only works well when there is only one face and it’s still more accurate to focus with regular AF-S mode when subject is static.

Quick Tip!

Set your camera to Focus Priority for the shooting mode you intend to use with Face Detect (AF-S or AF-C) AND disable the Manual AF Assist, this will help the camera achieve better focus with Face detection.

For this serie of portrait I used a 3 strobes light setup, a Godox SK400 with gels for the smoke lighting, The main light comes from another SK400 with a 24” softbox, and an Godox AD200 on a smaller softbox for the fill light.

It took me a little more time than expected to get the shots I wanted, often the case when I try to achieve a vision I had in a dream and also I was warming up !

Classic is fragile.

The next idea was more a classic “one light” portrait, taking advantage of Sarah’s ability to play roles, and I was thinking Black & White most of the time

Then we moved on to some more relaxed, impromptu ideas. As the time goes by it’s often difficult to stay focused and keeping the energy is the main challenge then.

I think there is room for improvement of course, but in the rush of that day we both were satisfied with the result and settle another session outdoor as soon as our agenda and the weather would be aligned!