BTS – Shooting Sarah Rafferty (Donna on USA’s “Suits”)

Another shoot for Resident Magazine featuring the gorgeous Sarah Rafferty, "Donna" on the USA Network's hit TV show "Suits".

The location was in a 17.5 million dollar Time Warner Center apartment in Columbus Circle, overlooking Central Park.

The full list of gear for this shoot:

Sony a7RII
Sony 24-70 GM lens
Sony 35mm 1.4 Distagon
Phottix Indra 500 light (with battery) x2
Phottix Indra AC Adapter
Phottix Odin II (Sony) trigger
Tiffen Polarizer
Microsoft Surface Pro 4
And a lot lot more.. See the video for the huge list of items.

For hair, we had the celebrity hair stylist, Sam Leonardi and makeup artist Alex Byrne.

The stylist was the amazing and talented Engie Hassan

The art director of the magazine, "EJ", helped out on retouching for the couch image (had some image sensor issue for that shot).

Also assistant was 2 interns from Resident Magazine, Kenza and Jennifer.

Check out the video below about the shoot, then read on to how we made it happen!

Unfortunately, there won't be a lot of behind the scenes photos from this shoot.   The time for this shoot was planned from 10:45am - 2:45pm.  My first shot of the day wasn't till 2:55pm.  We were very rushed to shoot all the scenes, so we were only able to shoot BTS video for most of the inside shots, but not the outside shots.

As you can see in the video, we tried a look in front of the window, which I had tested at about 11:30am, and looked great then.  But by the time we started shooting 3 hours later, the sky had turned darker.

We then moved on to the couch, where we captured this amazing shot:

Sony a7RII, 35mm Distagon lens, f/1.4, 1/250th, ISO 100

This scene was set in a home office in the apartment.  There was not a lot of room for lighting, so I just had my Phottix lights in front of her, while I shot her from outside the doorway.

Sony a7RII, 35mm Distagon lens, f/1.4, 1/250th, ISO 100

By now it was pouring outside.  But I really wanted to get some outside photos of Sarah on the street.  Since it was raining, I had to be really careful with my equipment.  For this shot, we couldn't use my lights because there was no protection from the rain.

Sony a7RII, 35mm Distagon lens, f/1.4, 1/200th, ISO 1000 (No flash or reflectors)

For this final shot, I had Sarah walking back and forth in front of me, turning back to look at me, where I would then quickly take the shot.  The rain had slowed to a slow drizzle, so I broke out my lights and prayed that we could do this fast.  The only issue was that it was rush hour in midtown, so the streets were packed.  There were a lot of shots that are on the cutting room floor as it had too many random people around her.  But this shot turned out amazing.

Sony a7RII, Sony 24-70 GM lens @ 29mm, f/2.8, 1/250th, ISO 100

And the cover was born!

Sony a7RII, Sony 24-70 GM lens @ 29mm, f/2.8, 1/250th, ISO 100

I hope you enjoyed this very quick synopsis of Sarah Rafferty's shoot for Resident Magazine.