2022 Shoots, Lighting, Models, natural light

A day in the studio

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1/100s 32mm

My style of photography generally involves one or two models and myself. Therefore, when the opportunity arises to shoot with other photographers, I will take it for the social aspect.

I saw a post on a local Facebook group. It was about a meet up starting at the Photospace Studios in Courtney Place. I was not sure what the plan was but I thought it was a good opportunity so I went along. The studio had been booked by a couple of the photographers who were practising their techniques. They are also arranged for several models to come in and were happy for others to join in.

The studio has a large bank of windows at one end. I took this as an opportunity to practice blending natural light with flash. While it had a number of backdrops and lights I was happy to let the others use that area.

I had taken my Godox V1 speedlight. I also took a small 26 inch soft box. I positioned each one to camera right every time.

The first model I shot was Natalia. We did a series of shoots images utilising the light coming in from the windows. As this was changing I was having to adjust the shutter speed on each image.

1/320s 30mm
1/250s 36mm
1/100s 32mm
1/125s 24mm
1/125s 24mm
1/125s 24mm

She had brought a white shirt. I asked her to wear just that to create a different look. All of the images in this post were shot on my Lumix G9 at f5 with ISO400. The shutter and focal lengths did change as shown against each image.

1/125s 36mm

Also present was Armish. I don’t normally get to shoot with a male model so this was a good opportunity. We did a couple of images of him initially with Natalia and then by himself.

1/125s 24mm

The final series of images where with Sean and Libby who were a couple and photographers as well. They were more than happy to pose for the others. It was good to be able to capture images of a couple who were comfortable interacting with each other.

1/80s 36mm

When I processed the images deal with several that looked much better in black-and-white than colour so that is how I presented them to them.

1/125s 24mm
1/125s 24mm

All of the models appeared to have a good time and I got positive feedback when the images were sent to them.

2022 Shoots, Concept Images, Lighting

Reflections Shoot with Sian

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As I mentioned in the previous post I love playing with reflections in camera and also water. After the practise session Sian joined me to do the actual shoot. She was not feeling the best but she was willing to try it.

The pool was constructed using a long length of black polythene sheeting and several lengths of 4 x 2 timber. The water was approximately 2″ deep. I placed a paving stone that was just below the water surface so that Sian appeared to be walking on it.

The test shots had shown that the best lighting position was two gridded soft boxes on either side, with a single softbox camera left. . To remove the reflection of the plastic, the fabric backdrop was run down into the water. The backdrop was well anchored as it was an outdoor shoot.

The camera settings were my usual when I wanted to control light and have a decent depth to the field. (1/200s f8 ISO200 using a 50mm equivalent on my Lumix G9).

The shoot only lasted 30 minutes and we shot a variety of poses.

The final images were pretty much strait out of camera except for removing the lights.

I was grateful for Sian’s help with the shoot and the images came out just how I wanted.

2022 Shoots, Concept Images, Lighting

Reflections Practice

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I love playing with reflections in camera and also water. It was no surprise that my first shoot of 2022 would involve both of them.

I used a long length of black polythene sheeting and several lengths of 4 x 2 timber. With these materials, I constructed a reflecting pool in the back garden. I filled it up with about 2 inches of water. I then left it to heat during the day. As it was the middle of summer the water managed to get to a very balmy 42°C which is 107.3°F for my American readers.

Sian had agreed to be my model for the shoot which was booked for 5 January. To avoid wasting her time, the pool was built the day before. That night, I moved my mannequin out and lights out. I did this to set up lights and determine what settings were needed to capture the images I was after.

I initially tried a single light from the end of the pool. I discovered that it was not strong enough to give me a strong reflection.

So I ended up positioning two gridded soft boxes on either side. In addition a softbox was positioned just to the left of the camera. This gave me the look it was trying to achieve.

The camera settings were my usual when I wanted to control light and have a decent depth to the field. (1/200s f8 ISO200 using a 50mm equivalent on my Lumix G9).

Running a test shoot under the same lighting conditions as you plan to use is advantageous. It enables you to identify issues early and also make the shoot smoother. Any problems that need rectifying can then be addressed.

I noticed that the black plastic at the rear of the pool was picking up too much light from the strobes. This was proving to be a distraction and needed to be eliminated. This was simply achieved by running the fabric background into the water.

In the next post I will cover the actual shoot.

2021 Shoots, Concept Images

Pandora

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This post covers the last shoot I completed in 2021. It was a collaborative effort with local stage actress Mandy.

In Greek mythology Pandora was the first woman created. Her curiosity led her to open a jar that Zeus has filled with a whole lot of bad things. As a result mankind was subjected to all of them.

Mandy wanted to bring the myth to life. I knew this would mean some elements would be shot in camera, and others would be created in the computer.

I built a muti-layered set in the garage using lengths of lace. We also fashioned a simple robe for Mandy to wear.

The lighting in the two images above was very simple. A single large soft box was positioned camera left. The camera was set at 1/200s f8 ISO200 and an equivalent focal length on 24mm.

For the images where Pandora was looking into the box I positioned a speedlight in a snoot at the edge of the frame. This was aimed it Mandy’ face.

The post processing mainly involved toning the image and then adding the elements coming out of the box. This involved blending in images I had of smoke or creating beams of light mainly using exposure and colour.

The faces in the first image are self portraits captured direct into the computer and then distorted. I also added the flames on the candles.

In addition to the three images shown above I edited a further eight with differing effects. These were shot at various parts of the day. You will note that the costume changed slightly as evolved it.

It was a great shoot and a great way to finish off the year.

2021 Shoots, Models, natural light

Sara on the Wharf

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1/1600s f5 180mm ISO200

I always take some time to photograph a model when they are booked for one of my concept shoots. I aim to create images that they may be able to use within their portfolio. It was the same with Sara after we had finished the monsoon girl shoot.

Sarah changed out of her wet clothes. We then headed across the road to the wharf in Evans Bay. There, we took a series of images. These images tried to reflect different moods.

1/1250s f5 70mm ISO200

All the images were shot using natural light and as such I had the camera in Aperture Priority. I set f5 so that I would still have a reasonable depth of field on Sara. This setting allowed the background to fall out of focus.

They were all shot with my 70-200mm f2.8 lens on my Nikon D600. The individual settings are shown against each image.

1/1250s f5 70mm ISO200
1/320s f5 70mm ISO200

Towards the end of our session I swapped lenses to my Lensbaby Composer. This is a totally manual lens that creates a very narrow area of focus within the image. It creates great results but it is quite tricky to work with.

1/2500s f2.8 ISO200

When I delivered the photos to Sara, she was really pleased with them. That is the ultimate time of any model shoot.

Looking back now I realise that the images could have done with a little lift from flash.

2021 Shoots, Concept Images, Models

Sara – Recreating a Classic

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In photography, as with other art forms, there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from the work of others. Or even copying it as long as you don’t try to pass it off as your own.

I have long time admirer of work of New Zealand photographer Brian Brake OBE. He shot editorial series through the 1950’s – 1970’s appearing in such publications as Life.

Monsoon girl is Brake’s most famous image. It was also controversial because it was a ‘set-up’ shot shown in the context of photojournalism, where viewers assume the images are ‘real life’ witnessed by the photographer.

Monsoon Girl by Brian Brake

The subject, Aparna Das Gupta (later Aparna Sen), was an actress on a movie set. Many years later, she recalled that Brake, ‘…took me up to the terrace, had me wear a red sari in the way a village girl does, and asked me to wear a green stud in my nose. …Someone had a large watering can, and they poured water over me. Brake said, “Feel the rain on your face.”’

Given that it was a set up shot I knew we could recreate it without having to travel to India. I posted a casting call on Facebook for a model with Indian heritage and Sara responded so we set up a time.

As in the original the rain was provided via a watering can which was held by my daughter . We filled it with warm water.

To recreate the golden light of the original, I placed a full CTO gel over the AD600 that was firing into a 65cm soft box. If you look carefully at the first shot you will see that the orange is picked up in some of the water droplets.

Because I did not want a direct copy of Brian’s image I did not get Sara to wear a sari. Rather she chose a simple white dress.

All images were taken with my Nikon D 600 camera using a 70-200mm f2 .8 lens. The lens gave with the option of keeping well away from the water. The images were mainly shot at 1/200s f5 ISO200.

Sara really nailed the look I was going for and I was really pleased with the final image.

2021 Shoots, Commerical Work

Liz Portrait Session

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I have known Liz for a very long time. Over the years, I have shot several family group sessions with her. She likes to keep her images up-to-date. It came as no surprise when she asked me to do a series of images just of her.

We shot several poses around her property. The one I’m focusing on here were taken inside her scrap-booking studio. It truly showed Liz’s love of scrap-booking. In photographic terms it is called an environmental portrait because the setting tells you something about the individual.

The room she uses for scrap-booking is small and pretty much full of her stuff. While there was a large window on one side this was not sufficient to fully light the room. I had to position my main light in the doorway from the hall. There was not enough room to position it anywhere else.

All of these images were shot on my Lumix G9 1/200s f7.1 ISO200 at an equivalent lens of 24mm.

Liz really like the shots as they she said they captured exactly what she loved doing.

2021 Shoots, Concept Images

Lucy – Dark Angel

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When Lucy and I were discussing her shoot, she mentioned that she wanted to create a dark angel look.

Lucy had brought a black top and skirt but it was not really working. So I grabbed one of my wife’s old ball dresses and a set of small angel wings. The wings were intended to be a simple placeholder with the intention of replacing them in Photoshop later.

We reduced the amount of light on the set to a single light in a beauty dish. That would provide some punch to the image but also allow for a lot of shadow.

The images were all shot on my Lumix G9 at 1/200s f8 ISO 200 and with focal lengths ranging from 34mm to 60mm.

Once I had the image selected in Photoshop I added wings that I had downloaded as a transparent PNG. I had to warp them to make them fit completely and then adjust them to fit the lighting.

I was really happy with the way the image came out. Recently I tried to use the new Generative AI features in Photoshop to create the wings. I cannot say that this made the process easier as it took several attempts to get what I wanted. That image is shown below.

2021 Shoots, Commerical Work

Lucy – Creating a look

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Lucy ran a coaching business. She was looking for some images to use in her profile. The images needed to express different aspects of her personality. She described them as being “rock chick” and “flower child”. Fortunately she sent through some sample images from a mood board so I was not completely lost.

I set up the studio in the garage. To give us lots of flexibility, I hung several backdrops over the top of each other. This way, we could quickly swap from one to the other.

Lucy wore all black for the “rock chick” look. We initially shot against a plain background. I had envisaged the final image to be black & white.

However, to give us flexibility I also shot in colour against a very complex background.

For the “flower child” images Lucy got changed into something that screamed 1970’s. Fortunately I had a couple of cloth backdrops that came out of an old studio and also fitted the era.

I had a collection of old records and so we built them into a tower so that they could take part in the shoot.

This was a two light setup however the positions changed. For the Rocker images the main light was positioned camera right and was a large soft box. A beauty dish was positioned camera left to provide some fill.

For the Flower images, the lights stayed in the same position. For these images, the beauty dish was the main light. This give a slightly different look and feel to the images.

Lucy was pleased with the photos.

2022 Shoots, Models

Tied up in Corsets

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Towards the end of our shoot day we had a little fun with some corsets that Rachel had also brought. We stripped out the outer lace layer from her skirt and positioned her

For the lighting we reverted back to the setup used earlier. The main light was a Godox AD600 in a 1.5m octabox positioned at 90° to Rachel. The light was covered with a grid so that I could control the direction of it. This lighting positioned closely resembled the angle that the sun had been when the birds were photographed.

Although the image below shows it as a square was actually octagonal. On the opposite side to the main light I positioned a white polystyrene reflector to provide fill. At the rear of the studio I had an Elinchrom D400 firing into the 7 foot umbrella covered with diffusion. This was solely to fill-in the shadows. While Elinchrom and Godox lights operate on different triggers, I could use the optical slave on the Elinchrom and this worked really well.

As we had a pile of leaves available she decided to have a bit of fun with them . Firstly throwing them in the air. This proved harder than it would appear as you needed to time the shutter to the throw while trying to not have too many leaves cover Rachels’ face.

Then she decided to get covered with them. I tilted the main lignt slight down for these images.

This part of the shoot gave us another set of usable images completely different to anything else that we had shot that day.

For those that like the technical aspects the images were shot with my Nikon D600 1/200s f7.1 ISO200 using a 50mm prime lens.

A photographic journey