Lesson with Nicole Jopek.

We had the opportunity today to go to a talk held by Nicole Jopek, who is a recent graduate at the University of Huddersfield and shoots a lot of fashion work - this is the main reason I went to the talk she was doing as this is the career path I think I want to go into.

She stated that she is mainly based in the studio within her work, but often tries to shoot on location to help develop her skills and also leave her comfort zone to create interesting images.

She then went on to show us some of her shoots, explained how she shot them and gave us a little more insight into how she works.

This is one of the images that she showed us, which originally looks like it is shot in the studio because of the white background. She told us that this was actually shot in her back garden on an extremely sunny and bright day, with a white backdrop placed behind the model. She also told us that this shoot was really rushed as it rained for most of the day so they had to rush outside when it stopped to continue shooting.

This is part of an editorial for "Lucy's magazine", shot in Italy. For this, Jopek had befriended a makeup artist who spoke Italian, so this made it easier for her to find a model as the makeup artist could speak to people there. There was another photographer alongside Jopek, and they all helped each other out and collaborated.

This is another editorial, but this time was shot in Wales where the stylist of the shoot lived. Because of the style of shoot that was needed, Jopek used natural light, only using a reflector to bounce some extra light in when needed. The reflector was especially important in the images that she took where the model was wearing a hat, as hats cause shadows which create unflattering images. The model used in this shoot is something that Nicole wanted to mention - choosing models is important when going for a specific look. This model had light brown, wavy hair which worked for this shoot as it was outside in fields - she works with the location.

The 2 below shoots were shot on the same day, but at different times for different effects.

This first shoot was shot around mid-day. This gave a lot of light and the images seem to be bright and sunny. Nicole told us that the model on this day came prepared with all of the outfits and props and had his ideas of what he wanted to shoot. It was shot for "Bello magazine", and is titled "Somewhere beyond the sea"

This second shoot was shot a lot later on than the first one - this is much more of a golden sun aesthetic. This shoot has a narrative to it and is titled 'Man Overboard", which was shot for "Adon Magazine". The basis of the story is a man whose boat has been wrecked and he doesn't know what to do, so is searching for help.

This is very different to the other work I have shown by Jopek, firstly because it has been shot in the studio and not somewhere on location. For this shoot, Jopek worked with a stylist to create some interesting imagery - I think this is really interesting because of how everything in shot is yellow and this works really well as it is aesthetically pleasing. For Jopek, this was a matter of stepping outside of her comfort zone as she usually works with warm, beige colours and not bright colours like this. She knew the model before this shoot as she had worked with her before and therefore whilst shooting had music on as they were all comfortable working together and had fun whilst working.

As well as shooting fashion imagery, Nicole also shoots beauty images and does a lot of retouching.

Nicole had a few pointers to say about doing beauty work, as this is a lot different to shooting fashion, portrait or editorial imagery:

It has to be perfect.

Hairs have to be in place.

Same skin throughout.

Take into account team (shoot some images for the hair stylist, the makeup artist etc).

Pick best 7 - 10 images.

If there's time, do different makeup looks.

It was also very interesting to hear her talk about how she lights her shoots, as this is something that I can possibly look back on in the future if I need help with lighting a model. For these images, Nicole said that she used 2 lights on the background (to achieve a clean white colour), 1 light on the model's hair and 1 light (softbox without a diffuser) on the model's face.

When shooting with a model Nicole suggested that, if I were to be shooting something creative for myself that I wanted to do, I should shoot some natural images for the model as this is what the agency will want to have. It is also helpful to look at the model's portfolio to see what images they already have to avoid repetition.

She gave us a list of websites to look at - we could contact these if we needed models in the future:
Modelmayhem.
Purpleport.
Face-agency.
Maverick.
Pha-agency.

She then had some further ones to consider after developing a portfolio:
J'adore.
Nemesis.
Boss.
Storm.
Elite.
Models1.
Nevs.
Lenis.
Wilhemina.
She said that often it works better to message the models directly on places like Instagram as they are more likely to see the message and respond. The last 6 agencies are all London-based, but Nicole said that it would be helpful to see the type of imagery that is being created at those industries so that we could shoot images similar.

When agencies aren't responding, keep emailing them and checking up to see if they have read the previous email - send a moodboard to them so that they have an idea of what you want to shoot and also include your website and Instagram page for them to browse through.

Retouching:

For retouching tips, Nicole gave us a list of people who post YouTube videos about how to edit images - I think this will definitely be helpful for me when there is an image that I need to edit in a way I am unsure how.

Phlearn.
Lindsay Adler.
Lara Jade.
Jessica Kobeissi.
Michael Woloszynowicz.

There are also some useful sites:
Creativelive - classes/tutorials - when they livestream the video it is free but afterwards it costs.
Rggedu.com.