Before I met with Lorena to shoot her portrait at night, I made a quick trip to the store and bought some glow sticks and portable Xmas lights as part of my attempt to replicate the style of Life Style photographer Brandon Woelfel, which she was interested in doing. Turns out that his style is quite popular on social media these days. At first, I wasn't sure this was something I wanted to do because I tend to avoid overprocessing an image file, but I realized it would be worth the try so after a quick search online I came across with some tutorials and even a youtube video by Brandon Woelfel himself worth checking out.
When I set out to shoot portraits at night with Lorena, I did not expect to have many decent results as I felt limited by the camera I currently have; a Canon 5D mark 1 which I pair with an 85mm 1.8 or a 50mm 1.8 lens. So, even though I was limited by the 12 megapixels of my camera, I insisted on keeping a low ISO ranging from 400-1200, and my solution was to shoot with the camera mounted on a tripod using a slow shutter speed and wide depth of field. Focusing became very difficult as the night progressed, so I switched my lenses to manual focus and used the flashlight on my phone to find some contrast in her face. Fortunately, Lorena was very helpful and she did a great job when I asked her to stay still.
I enjoy looking at the shots I took during the blue hour just before nightfall. That kind of light flattens facial shadows and give skin tones a natural, rich glow; which makes a beautiful contrast with the hazy evening light. Although these set of pictures are a long shot from Woelfel's whimsical style, I was excited to be shooting portraits at night and I'm pleased with what we got, I can see why his photographic style is popular now that we have phones and mirrorless camera bodies with larger sensors.
Reference LInks: Lorena on Instagram Brandon Woelfel Brandon Woelfel, (Props Video) Mango Street: How to Shoot and Edit like Brandon Woelfel