As portrait photographers, we dream of great models, great light, and a great location. Well, this shoot quite comfortably has all three in abundance and required a helicopter to get there.
I rarely get envy over shoots these days, but it still happens and this is undoubtedly one of them. Michael Sasser, a boudoir and fashion photographer, takes a helicopter with model Kinsey, to a hidden-away mountain location in Malibu for a golden hour shoot, and it is exactly as incredible as it sounds.
Natural light has gone from being in-vogue in portraiture, to getting something of a bad rap. However, with most modern cameras, if you have mastery of your settings and the right light, you can use post-production to bring out the dynamic range and achieve similar results to if you were using strobe lighting. Sasser does exactly that in this shoot and you get to see his post-production workflow too, which helps paint a fuller picture. His images are typically aimed at being balanced, with the model on the darker side, only to them pull their skintones up in post to the correct exposure. The images are stunning and have the dreamy, medium format look I enjoy so much.
You may not have a model with millions of followers, a mountain-side Malibu retreat, or a helicopter available, but the photographic principles seen in this video are certainly replicable. So, sit back and watch from the start of the shoot to the editing of the final images.