Chris Korsak

Branding, headshot, and product photographer - Portland, OR

Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine

FaceTime Photo Shoot: Tatiana

May 8, 2020

Here’s another recent FaceTime photo shoot with a model named Tatiana. We spent a couple hours creating photos in and around her home on a sunny spring day while in quarantine. I got a wide variety of images during this session and really enjoyed the process of shooting with her just as much as the end result.

Care For Some Tea?

Sometimes things just line up. When we started our FaceTime call, she happened to be standing in one of the cutest kitchens I’ve ever seen. It had gorgeous light, too. I know from experience that you have to have a plan, but you also have to be willing to change your plan if something better comes along. While I had not considered doing photographs in a kitchen before this shoot, that’s exactly where we started.

My favorite photo from the kitchen is the photo at the beginning of this post where she is pouring tea, but these are also high on my list of favorites:

Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine

During the first 10 or 20 minutes creating photos in the kitchen area, I got a feel for how Tatiana interacted with the camera. I appreciated how easy-going and enthusiastic she was when I had her repeat poses and movements over and over.

A Little Bit of Drama

After a nice color-coordinated time in the kitchen, I wanted to do something completely different. Black and white, and a bit edgy:

Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine

Above, we spent a long time repeating movements and poses in front of a blank wall in her house. I had a vision of multiple images working together to create a unified posing theme. While shooting, I just tried to get as many posing variations as possible and hope things would make sense in the edit.

Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine

After a quick wardrobe change, we went outside and tried another look. As you can see in the outdoor photos above, these have some heavy-handed processing going on. I usually have a light touch when it comes to editing, but I wanted to try something different and create an almost posterized impressionistic look. I like the vibe of those photos a lot.

Weed Frame

For our last look of the photo shoot, I spotted a photo opportunity that looked promising by the fence. I liked the look of the overgrown grass and weeds and ended up using them to frame her in the first and third photos:

Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine Facetime portrait during the Covid-19 quarantine

These photos have a very low camera angle and an exaggerated perspective. I think shooting this way has made me realize the potential of using wide-angle camera lenses in the future for portrait shoots.

Conclusion

I’m really happy how the photos from this shoot turned out. It was great to meet and work with another creative who enjoyed the process of shooting photos this way. I really like collaborating with models who embrace the tedious nature of photography. I always find that some of the best images I’ve created are the ones that happen just by repeating the process over and over.

-Chris