Aziz! Light!

Practically everyone's seen the movie, "The Fifth Element." I love that part in the beginning when the old archaeologist, trying to decypher hieroglyphics on a wall inside a pyramid, bellows at his young assistant.

"Aziz! Light!"

The young assistant, Aziz, who is holding a shiny reflector but was falling asleep is suddenly startled when the professor shouts his name. The boy snaps to attention and quickly adjusts the gold, metallic reflector he's holding, bouncing sunlight onto the hieroglyphic-laden wall. The professor can now easily see what he's doing.

"Thank you, Aziz. Much better."

Ever since I saw that movie, I often call my assistants "Aziz."

"Aziz! More light!"

Having an assistant while shooting in the studio is a God-send. Having an assistant while shooting at exterior locations is practically a requirement.

When you're outside shooting pretty girls in daylight, so-called perfect light is almost non-existent. It's a rare occasion when it's not necessary to fill or diffuse or flag light. You're not only contending with direct light from the sun, but with reflected and/or ambient light in the environment you're shooting. And that's where an assistant is like gold!

A lot of shooters seem to figure they don't need someone helping them because they're going to use fill flash. Okay. Maybe. But fill flash might not be the only thing you'll need in order to capture a great image, even when using one of those high-priced ringlights. What if you need to flag some stray light that's causing distracting hot-spots on your model's face or body? What if you need to fill, but you also need to bounce in backlight?

Like I said, assistants are like gold. They'll not only make your job easier but they'll help you immensely in your quest to capture really hot images.

I'm aware that many pretty girl shooters are hobbyists and, as such, don't have budgets or financial resources for assistants. But certainly everyone has friends. And at least one of those friends should be able to handle being around pretty models (naked or otherwise) without salivating and going all bug-eyed and causing the model's perv-dar to blip and ping. How many of your friends are going to say no to opportunities for being around pretty models? Sometimes naked pretty models?

Next time you're heading out to some interesting exterior location to capture images of a gorgeous woman, try asking a friend if they might be available to help out. And when they say yes, make sure you put them to work! They're not there to provide a peanut gallery. I think you're images will show a marked improvement when your own, personal, Aziz is there to help you with the light.

"Aziz! Light!"

The pretty girl posing with the sun behind her while my assistant, Aziz, didn't fall asleep and competently wielded a gold reflector, bouncing sunlight back at her, is Monique. Easy on the eyes, ain't she?