Behind the Shot: Nikki Bruno in red, white and WOW!
BRAND: Nikki Bruno - The Epic Comeback | WHAT IT IS: Nikki helps women who are going through a high-conflict divorce get their mojo back! | LOCATION: Santa Monica, CA
All right, y’all, we’re gonna kick off the series with a threefer! (Is threefer a word?)
The series is essentially the same shot in a few different variations and we’ll be getting into why.
For now, I want to start off with the first big strategy behind this shot: the colors.
I love me a bright colorful wall and the combination of red, white and blue colors is so perfect for so many things. First of all, the fact that Nikki was wearing them already just brought everything together so nicely. I knew it was going to be a great mesh.
The sheer boldness and brightness of this combo will also definitely be a reason to stop the scroll — they jump out at you, no doubt.
The other thing that came to mind when I saw this wall was the fact that the color combination could work perfectly for a patriotic post, should Nikki ever choose to write one. That being said, I’d be cautious of when I’m posting it around a holiday because feeds will almost definitely be abundant with reds, whites and blues so it may lose its potency a bit and get lost in a sea of spangle. But…it’s there for the occasion.
Now, why are there multiple versions of the same shot? A few reasons.
1) Orientation. I wanted to make sure that whichever specification the photo needed to fit (IG & FB stories = vertical, everything else = horizontal) there was a photo for it. She could have cropped the horizontal one for a vertical version if she wanted, but I’m happy to do the work for her and just give her both versions off the bat.
2) Expression. I will always take a few shots with my subject smiling and a few with a more serious, pensive look.
3) Direction. I switch up the direction my subject is looking towards so if they want to put text on the photo, it would have a place. I will always leave “white space” or “blank space” next to the direction they’re looking towards (so in this case, in the horizontal shot, Nikki is looking to the right and that’s where I left a lot of space for her to put text over). You never want to be looking away from your text because then it gives the message of not reading it.
My only criticisms of these photos is the palm tree on the side. There’s wasn’t much I could do to get around it…it was where it was and because there wasn’t a lot of wall to work with, I didn’t have a lot of wiggle room. I could have done some tighter shots at a different angle, but because Nikki’s whole outfit with the shoes complemented the wall so well, I didn’t want to leave them out. But, it did hinder my ability to give my subject a little bit of breathing room in the frame.
That being said, I personally sometimes like to include things in my photos that maybe shouldn’t be there because it a) paints a more dimensional picture and b) shows that life isn’t perfect, and that’s a common thread in what many of my clients have as part of their message.
