Category Archives: Fashion

2022 Shoots, Commerical Work, Fashion, Lighting

Mikki Summer – With a little Flash

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This is second post about the Mikki Summers session (www.mikkisummers.co.nz). In this post I am going to cover the images that made use of flash.

As I mentioned in the previous post the shoot with Katie took place around Wellington. Therefore, I did not want to be lugging too much gear around.

I knew there was a possibility that the natural light would not be sufficient in some circumstances. I took my Godox V1 speed light. I also took a small soft box and a lightweight light stand. The stand was easy to carry.

Most locations did have sufficient light. However, the first photo on this page had too much shadow. So the flash was used as a main light.

Where the flash really helped was when I found a location where the sun was beaming through a gap in the buildings. This enabled me to use it as a backlight.

So that I had full control the camera was placed in manual mode. I was shooting 1/200s at f4.5 ISO 100. At these setting Katie became heavily in shadow. I then brought the flash in camera right to illuminate Katie. This technique is called “fill flash”

Within the collection was a number of outfits that were designed to be worn around the home. In fact they could double as pyjamas. As Marie had booked the hotel room I thought it was a perfect opportunity to use it as well.

While the room was reasonably well it was not providing me with the quality of light that I was after. So I decided to use flash to compliment rather than overpower the ambient light. I did this by positioning the flash on the balcony outside of the windows. In this way it was coming from the same direction as the natural light.

We finished the shoot with Katie relaxing on the balcony. Flash was used again. At this stage, the area where she was sitting was in too much shade.

Having flash available was a good choice. It meant I was not limited by what the natural light would provide. Choosing a small, soft speed light stand was wise. It is lightweight and not too difficult to move around with.

2022 Shoots, Commerical Work, Fashion

Mikki Summer – Shoot around the city

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Mikki Summers (www.mikkisummers.co.nz) is a fashion brand created by Wellington designer Marie Wright. Rather than ready-made clothes they sell arrange of kits containing both the material and patterns for easy to wear outfits.

Marie is also a WOW designer. She was friends with some of the other designers that I had photographed. When she wanted images for a website revamp, she reached out to see if I was interested.

She told me truthfully that she did not where to begin with organising a shoot. So I arranged both the model and hair and make up.  I reached out to Katie who I had shot with on several occasions before to see if she was available. I figured that fitted the look that Marie was after. 

The shoot was planned for Wellington city. Marie booked a room in the central hotel. We used this as a base for the shoot.

I always like to scope out possible locations ahead of time. So, I travelled to Wellington two hours before we were here to start. This enabled me to identify locations that I thought would be suitable. This meant that I had a clear plan once the model was ready. I wanted to stay close to the hotel. This way, we did not lose too much time going back for costume changes.

We wanted to highlight the casual nature of the outfits. So, I picked areas that fitted the theme. I also knew of some interesting alleyways and backgrounds. 

All of the images shot with my Nikon Z6ii camera. All of the ones shown previously use a 70 -20 f2.8 lens. This meant I had total flexibility in how close or far I took the shots from. The camera was in Aperture priority mode at ISO100. The images were shot between f2.8 and f5.6 depending on how much of the background I wanted in focus.

All of the images below were shot using a 24-70 f4 lens with similar apertures.

Katie was a great model and we came away with a lot of variety of images. 

All of the images in this post used natural light alone. In the next post I will cover how flash was incorporated in several locations.

2022 Shoots, Fashion, Models

Devon – Jewellery up close

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In addition to the vogue idea Devon had also expressed an interest to shoot jewellery style images. These are typically close up as the purpose is to show the jewellery rather than the model.

She had brought along a number of pieces to wear and I added to them with a dragon ring that my wife had given me as a Christmas present. It made for a very interesting image.

In order to focus solely on the jewellery it is fairly common that the models do not wear anything that will distract from the items.  Devon was happy to shoot topless although we insured that nothing showed in the images.

For this series of images there was no need to change the lighting. The main light was in a beauty dish positioned above the camera. A second light was positioned camera right. This was shooting into a 7′ umbrella with diffusion to fill in the shadows.

All of the images in this post was shot with my Lumix G9 with settings 1/200s f10 SO 200 with focal lengths ranging from 26mm to 50mm. The setting ensured that I had full control of the light while also giving me a good depth of field. 

Devon was happy with the resulting images.

2022 Shoots, Fashion, Lighting, Models

Devon Vogue Shoot

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I genuinely believe that model shoots need to be full collaboration events. Therefore if a model is coming to help me with a concept I am more than happy to shoot whatever they want.

After working together successfully at the workshop in the previous post, I asked Devon if she was interested in helping me with a concept. I also asked her if she would had some ideas she would like. She told me she wanted to do something like a vogue fashion shoot. She sent me a series of images on Pinterest.

As we were going to be shooting several shoots in the one day I layered up the backgrounds to save time. Devon brought several outfits starting with a suit so we shot that first. In typical vogue style she elected to wear nothing under the jacket.

Beanie, our cat, loves checking in on studio shoots and as usual managed to photobomb into them.

Fashion shoots typically use punchy lights so to achieve this the main light was in a beauty dish positioned above the camera. A second light was positioned camera right. This was shooting into a 7′ umbrella with diffusion to fill in the shadows.

In addition to the suit Devon had brought some other outfits. They had a late 1960s vibe to them so we did a series of images using them.

All of the images in this post was shot with my Lumix G9 with settings 1/200s f10 SO 200 with focal lengths ranging from 26mm to 50mm. The setting ensured that I had full control of the light while also giving me a good depth of field.

2021 Shoots, Events, Fashion

WOW Shoot

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The World of Wearable Arts (WOW) is an annual event in Wellington that attracts thousands of people. Designers from all around the world submit outfits made from the most unusual materials.

Designers who have never entered before have to go through a pre-elimination round but those that have been successful in the past managed to skip the step. They are still required to submit images of the design plus a video showing how it is fitted to the model.

Through the connection with previous collaborations for a number I’ve been providing photographic services to a number of the designers. We would set up a simple studio that enable them to show off their designs in the best possible way.

In 2021 I worked with outfits creates by Jenny (above), Fiona and Vicki (below) all previous wow finalised. In fact the back Fiona was a previous category winner.

The requirement was a simple look-book shooting the garment from all four sides against a plain background. To achieve this are used two lights on the background and a main light and reflector on the subject. The background lights used my Elinchroms 400 while my Godox 600 provided the key light.

The Elinchroms and Godox lights use different triggers however this is not a problem as the Elinchrom also have optical slaves enabling them to fire when the main light goes.

Once the look-book images had been completed we were able to shoot more creative images which again was to demonstrate how the cost the outfit blocked.

The amount of detail that goes into these outfits is truly amazing as shown with this closeup of the dress.

Fashion, Models

Melissa and the chicken

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With the ice skater and flower shoots done now turned her attention to some images that Melissa asked to be taken with one of her chickens. She changed into a a simple gypsy style outfit for this part of the shoot. The chicken had been caught earlier and it spent the time inside of a pet carriage case.

As I wanted a more classical look to the image I put a painted backdrop over the white that we have previously used and pulled out the background lights. I repositioned the main light into Rembrandt orientation and match this with a reflector to provide a little fill.

There is an old saying in Hollywood that you should never work with children or animals and I’m afraid it was true in this case. In hindsight we probably should have got the chicken out of the garden shortly before we were shooting with it, rather than leaving it in the cage through the other two shoots.

As a result when it came out of the parks it really it really didn’t want to sit still.

In fact it decided that it wanted to be a parrot and sit on Melissa’s shoulder.

Despite all the challenges it was a fun shoot.

Concept Images, Fashion, Models

Melissa and the flowers

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A couple of days before I was to shoot with Melissa she asked me if it was okay if the second photographer (Clara) could join us at the shoot. Clara had an idea that they wanted to use but had no lighting gear. I had no problem in helping another photographer out so I said it was fine and I would show Clara how to use my lights.

Clara’s idea was to shoot Melissa topless with a bunch of flowers strategically hiding her breasts. However when she arrived the small bunch of fake flowers she had were not gonna be sufficient, so while I was doing the skater shoot with Melissa she went off to the supermarket bought a bigger bunch.

There was no need to alter the lighting setup with two lights on the backdrop and a main on Melissa. Although Clara was shooting with a Canon, the trigger I have worked seemlessly.

When I am shooting away from the studio I always take a back up camera which in this case was my Nikon d600. I also had my Lensbaby in the bag as well. I therefore decided to fit it and take some shots as I didn’t need to use the studio lights. The Lensbaby is quite tricky to focus it does produce an awesome result.

After Clara had finished I decided to take the trigger back and shoot some images of my own back on the Panasonic G9.

However in these I got Melissa to pose in completely different ways to what Clara had done so that she would have some alternative images. As it turned out these were the only images that Melissa got from the session.

I never actually saw the images that Clara shot so I’m not sure whether she actually got what she was wanting or not. Nor why she never gave any images to Melissa.

Fashion, Models

Melissa – the ice skater

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The majority of my shoots generally involve me coming up with a concept and then recruiting a model to take part. However, I’m more than happy to work the other way round and for the model to suggest something that I then shoot.

This was the case with Melissa when I answered a message she posted on the Facebook group seeking a photographer. Melissa is a Wellington based model and actress, and she was looking for some updated photos to go into her portfolio. We had a brief discussion about what we would do and then set up a time for me to go to her place and do the shoot. We ended up doing three very different looks so I have split the shoot into three posts.

While I enjoy the challenge of working in a new environment it does mean that the car gets loaded with a lot of gear because he never actually know what he will actually use. Melissa had indicated that she wanted some photos shot against a white background. My seamless paper was actually too wide to transport so I settled on a white sheet.

The key to having a clean white background is to ensure that it is well lit and so I decided to position two lights on it. When shooting in my home studio my lights are in 1 m² soft boxes however there was not sufficient width in the space for me to position the two of them. I therefore removed the soft box from one light and shot with it in a small reflector. As this meant that the light was emitting more light, it was set at a slightly lower power than the other one so that the light was roughly even. The main light was positioned camera lift using the 65 cm soft box with double diffusion.

Melissa wanted to portray her versatility as an actor and so she created a character with some of the props that she owned. She turned into a former Russian Olympic ice skater who was now slightly past the prime of her career.

I have shot with actors a couple of times and they are really great as they can bring lots of different expressions to the images. Furthermore they will actually go with a concept rather than a model that you may have to direct.

Part of Melissa’s costume was a long scarf and so I could not resist using it as a mass that lets you focus solely on the eyes. I have shot such images on a number of occasions and I really enjoy the look and power that comes with them.

While not part of the original concept with Melissa as I was processing the images I realised that as they were shot against a clean background they were perfect candidates to be used in composite.

I generally try to use my own images for composite is that an April sent to be entered into competitions in this case I did not have any images of snow ice or ice drinks. So I went onto unsplash.com to search for some images. This is a site where photographers upload images and allow them to be downloaded without charge royalty free. I found a number of images that I though might work and after clear cutting Melissa out I added as the background.

While I like the image above I found that the image worked better in an interior location such as the ice rink.

I was really pleased with the way the images came out.

Concept Images, Fashion, Models

Marianne’s Water Shoot

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When Marianne and I started discussing options for her shot she said that she wanted to have a water look and showed me some examples that had clearly been shot in a shower. I agreed that we could do something similar and set to work figuring out how to do it.

Now the simple solution would be to shoot in an actual bathroom. Have done this is the past but one of the main issues you run into with such a shoot is having enough room to position the subject and lighting to the way that you want.

Fortunately I had an easy solution. When our main bathroom has been renovated, after a burst pipe, we had completely changed the shower. I had kept the door panel from the old shower as a possible prop for exactly this circumstances. So by using some upright supports and clamps, I was actually able to replicate a shower.

I chose an area under a large tree because this minimised the amount of natural light and let me have better control over the overall light. Generally speaking I will set the camera to remove all ambient light for only flash is used. When shooting outside this becomes more difficult and therefore any technique to limit the amount of natural light helps.

The main lighting was provided by two speed lights that were positioned on either side of Marianne and aimed so that they did not spill onto the glass. In order to avoid reflections on the front of the glass I positioned a large black backdrop behind the camera. As it turned out the light provided from the flash eliminated any reflections on the side of the glass facing the camera.

As we were not planning to shoot full body we positioned a stool and Maryann set on that. That gave the advantage that the lights and focus could be pretty much locked into place.

It was now a matter of applying the water. We used a spray bottle to apply water to both the glass and to Marianne and started shooting.

The glass worked really well and it is was a relatively simple setup so I am sure that I will use it again.

I then changed the setup to see if we could use it to replicate a model being under water. I had shot Megan a number of years before but that was in an actual bath.

I placed a tarpaulin on the ground and set the door on top of two boxes that made it high enough for Marianne to go under. I then positioned the camera on a boom and lights on either side of her. We then filled the top of the glass with about 1cm of water.

To try to mimic the water effect we placed a rolled up towel under Marianne’s neck so that her head was at the right angle. We then started to do a series of images before the local insect population decided were were on their dinner menu, and we were forced to call it quits.

While I ended up with some usable images I would have to say that work is still needed before I would be really happy with the technique. There were two main issues one of which is easier to solve than the other.

The first was that there was two much distance between the water and Marianne. By the time I had focused on her, the water essentially disappeared as it was completely out of focus. The result was an image that just looked soft. The answer would be to close the distance between the glass and subject.

The second issue in not so easy to fix. That is that the body changes shape when it is lying on the ground as opposed to being supported in water. Not sure what we do with that one.

Even though I didn’t come out with images exactly as I had hoped it was still a fun experiment to do.

Fashion, Models

Marianne in the Red Dress

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When Marianne and I went to the old science labs to do the levitation shoot I decided to pack another dress so that we could make the most of the location. As I expected she looked stunning in it.

We started in the same room as the other shots but this time I was using a single light which was positioned camera right in a rough Rembrandt location. This did present one slight challenge when I was shooting into a wall of windows as you clearly see in the image below.

The answer to this was to use the “double tap” technique that I have posted about in the past. Basically you take two shots in rapid fire. The flash will fire on the first but the second shot will occur before it has recharged. The second shot is then used to replace the glass in the area where the flash is visible.

We then moved to another room that had a complete wall of glass that was letting in lots of light. This meant that I could expose just for the ambient and the flash was not needed.

This had the advantage of being able to shoot multiple shots with Marianne walking. I find that option the best shots are obtained when you allow your subject to move freely rather than being posed.

In post I did have to remove some of the signs that were still on the wall as they were somewhat distracting.

I then noticed that the passageway outside of the room was rather dark so we decided to do something a little ghostly. I took the camera right up to f22 and set a 4.0s exposure. I then had Marianne stand out of the shot. When the shutter was pressed she slowly walked into the screen holding for about a second. The created a very ghostly image.

We then moved into what must have been an old freezer room which was completely dark. we used the same setting of f22 for 4s but this time I fired the flash at a very low setting twice.

This created a very unusual double exposure.

For the final series of images we moved to a passageway that ran between two of the buildings. This had glass on both sides so again we were able to shoot without the need of flash.

Overall the venue worked really well and we were able to get a good variety of shots within a small space and time.