Tag Archives: photography

Concept Images, Lighting, Nudes

Getting the light right (Sort of)- NSFW

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In an earlier post I wrote the failed attempt with Sian to recreate the images of Mayer George that involved shadows and light on models. By the end of the shoot we had concluded that the shapes had been projected onto the model using a data projector rather than a gobo on the studio lights.

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Image by Mayer George

Sian was willing to give it a second go so I designed a series of shapes in photoshop. We had a lot of fun with the shoot along with a few challenges, with the first of them getting the images to display.

I work on a Mac but have an older laptop that I recently updated to Windows 10. That was the one to be connected to the data projector. I do not know why Microsoft insist on making things harder to do when they update their software, but that is exactly what they. Try as we may we could not get the screen to display the image full screen without toolbars. In the end I went back to the mac and using Fotomajico created a quicktime movie of the images. That at least I could display as I wanted it.

The second challenge was to get the image into a portrait orientation rather the natural landscape. The answer was to put the projector on its side but this meant holding it rather than having it on a stand. So once again I was like a one-armed paperhanger with the projector in my right arm and firing the camera with my left.

LR_SHadow-4LR_SHadow-2LR_SHadow-3The results this time were much better than the first attempt however we still had the issue that the image was spilling from the model onto the backdrop. This does not occur in the ones that I was trying to replicate.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that images were produced by having the model go into a position in front of the projector and then the shadows are drawn so that they only fall on the model.

Maybe next time I will give that a go.

Concept Images, Lighting

Trial, Error and Failure (NSFW)

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Sometimes you think you know how something is done and then discover that you are completely wrong. This was certainly the case with a photoshoot that happened a couple of weeks ago.

It started when a model posted the image below on Facebook  from Mayer George and said that she would love to do something similar.

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Image by Mayer George

I looked at it and thought that it would be relatively simple to replicate as I was sure that the photographer had used Gobo’s on his lights. A Gobo is simply a mask that you put in front of the light causing it to create patterns on the subject being illuminated.

So I set about trying to replicate it with the assistance of Sian. I produced a number of modifiers with varying size cuts in them that I planned to put in front of a single strobe fitted with a seven inch reflector.

I had thought that it would be a simple task but it turned out to be anything but. I am not sure whether it was a lack of distance to the subject, or something else but no matter how hard I tried I could not get clearly defined edges. I thought that maybe the light source was too big so change the reflector to a snoot with only a small opening.

This meant that I had to hold the gobo in place rather than tape it. As there was only Sian and I in the shoot it created a comical dance where I had to press the timer on the camera (which was on a tripod) and then quickly place the gobo.

It produced some interesting looks but again nothing sharp enough.

20151019In the end we decided that maybe a different approach had been used and then I remember a shoot I had done two years before using a data projector, and how it had given me reasonable sharp lines.

The next post will cover the second attempt at the project.

Concept Images, Models

Kowhai girl

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LR20150926-12When I am shooting with models for the first time I have absolutely no problem if they bring along a girlfriend for support. I find that it makes them more at ease and therefore the shots are better. It is on the condition that the friend is prepared to help out. There has been the occasion that I have even encouraged the friend in front of the camera as well.

This was the case when Emma arrived for the Spring Goddess shoot with Josephine along for the ride. Josephine is an exchange student from Denmark. When I saw her I instantly wanted to shoot her, and I knew what I wanted.

In preparing for the shoot we had gathered some yellow Kowhai flowers but had not incorporated them (as the colours did not work together). They would work brilliantly with Josephine.

In addition Josephine had a natural beauty that really didn’t need any additional makeup so it meant that there was no additional work required by the makeup artist I was using on the day.LR20150926-13Lighting for the shot was a single light camera right in a white shoot through umbrella with a silver reflector placed camera left.

Concept Images, Models

The Spring Goddess Shoot – Emma

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The spring goddess on natures floral mattress
The spring goddess on natures floral mattress

Last year I took a series of images in the Autumn leaves that you can find on this link. At the time it was intended to be a single image, but as I looked around at all of the spring blossom I decided that maybe I should make it a series. So that is what is happening and I will schedule a shoot in each season.

I posted a facebook casting call and Emma agreed to take part and Anahera agreed to be the makeup artist (MUA). I firmly believe that in a collaborative shoot each person should be allowed to bring their own skills and contribute equally. For this reason I never tell the MUA’s exactly how I want the makeup done. Rather I tell them the overall concept and let them bring out their own creativity.

Anahera applies the finishing touches
Anahera applies the finishing touches

In the morning my daughter and I went round the neighbour and did some very selective pruning off the trees in blossom. Now I am no vandal so I ensure that I only removed small sections from branches that were in public areas, and also had grown to a point that the council would trim them anyway.

I had planned to use the bed of flowers that our camellia usually produces but in the week before the shoot it had produced very little so we had to go down the street and collect magnolia petals that had fallen from the trees.

As with the Autumn shoot the dress that Emma was wearing was largely constructed from lengths of material over a hooped petticoat. Lengths of the blossom were then placed over it.

LR20150926-3Now planning an outdoor shoot is always frought with issues and this one was no different. The biggest factor is the weather, and being spring it could not make up its mind what it wanted to do. As the shoot time approached it kept alternating between light rain and sun. As Emma was coming from an hour away I had to make a call at 11:00am and decided to do it regardless. I decided to set up a set in my garage studio and if it rained use that one instead. That is indeed what happened.

The studio setup
The studio setup

We ended up shooting inside which has meant a little bit more work in post than perhaps I originally envisaged.

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Concept Images

Playing with lights

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The essence of dance. A composite of several shots
The essence of dance. A composite of several shots

Some time ago i saw some amazing images where a photographer had attached led lights to a canoeist paddles and recorded the movement. I knew that I wanted to the same but instead wanted to attach them to a dancers body and record the movement of the dance.

I bought a 5 meter string of lights at the end of last year but it has taken quite some time to find a dancer willing to take part. Margarita is a model as well as a champion ballroom dancer, so when she agreed to help out I was really happened.

The lights were wired to be powered from the mains, which was never going to work so I got a battery pack that could be connected to them. My daughter helped my by sewing some together some fabric into a belt containing a pocket for the batteries.

We has intended to use double-sided tape to attach the lights but this did not work to well so ended up trying them on with lengths of string.

We shot in a dance studio that has the advantage of a full length mirror. I set the camera on a tripod at f22 and shot 10 second exposures.Dancer-31 Dancer-20 Dancer-15 Dancer-1

At the end of the shot Margarita partner Erik joined and we changed the lights so they went around both of them.

Margarita & Erik
Margarita & Erik

I have now have other ideas to do in the future so stay tuned.

Exhibitions

Peoples Choice (NSFW)

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I found out today that my image “Naked Art Class” which I entered into a recent exhibition at the Odlin Gallery in Lower Hutt won the “peoples choice” award. Doesn’t actually come with any prizes or anything tangible, but just the knowledge that the public appreciated the work.

The Naked Art Class
The Naked Art Class

 

 

People

Maternity Shoot (NSFW)

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Kylie was one of the models on my “naked art class” and is currently 8 months pregnant. She is helping me on another project that will be finished in another two months time. In return for this I promised to do a more traditional maternity shoot with her.

She has created a pinterest board to show me what she was looking for, which ended up having such a wide range of images in it that is was of little use. We settled on her wanting a high key and a silhouette. Such shots involve a lot of back lighting so rather than reply of studio strobes solely I used a large north facing window and natural light.

LR-Kylie-5In order to fill in some of the feature I ended up using a large softbox set camera right and at very low power.

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Kylie suffers from eczema and during her period it has flared up worst. I eliminated the effects of this using the healing brush and skin shooting techniques in photoshop. Turning the image into black & white also helps.

Kylie loves the images which really all that matters.

Lighting, Models, Workshops

Natural Light Session at Palmer Head

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A couple of weeks ago we had a speaker at the Hutt Camera Club, who blew eveyne away with his portraits that were taken with the bare minimum amount of gear. He had a series of low key images that were actually taken using only natural light.

Kat-11Now generally you associate low light low key images with those shot in studio, where you can control the light, but these were all shot using natural light. He mentioned that they had been shot at one of my favourite locations Palmer Head.

I thought this was a great opportunity to try something new and decided to turn it intp a workshop inviting other members of Hutt Camera club to tag along.

Kat agreed to be one model and my daughter Samantha as the other. I had been approached by a new makeup artist Wendy who wanted to add to her portfolio, so we went with a glamour look on Kat and a simple look on Samantha.

Kat-15As it typical at this time of year the sky was grey and the wind quite strong, but that did not affect us much as we were shooting inside. We based ourselves in the most sheltered location so that Wendy could work her magic.

The trick to achieving the look is to place the model by a window, then doing a meter reading of the brightest element of the highlight and then dialling in 2 stops of exposure compensation.

Samantha-2Once people has mastered that technique we then moved to another part of the structure that had larger openings and therefore more light. Here the group practises more high key images.

Despite the conditions everyone seemed to have fun.PHWS-1

Exhibitions, Nudes

Hanging on the wall

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20150725Every two years the life drawing group of the Hutt Art Society holds an exhibition of their nudes. Two years ago it was expanded to include photos, and the current exhibition opened last Tuesday.

I had been preparing for this exhibition for a while and my image “Naked Art Class” was specifically shot for it. You can read all about that image on this blog post. In addition to that image I have three other images entered, with each demonstrating different styles and techniques.

It has been really good observing the reactions of people as they see “Naked Art Class”. Quite a few have big smiles on their faces which is exactly what I was trying to achieve.

The exhibition is open until Sunday 2 August at the Odlin Gallery, which is found at the corner of Huia Street and Mrytle Street in Lower Hutt.

Competition Entries

Representing New Zealand

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This week i got some great news. I had submitted an image for consideration of being selected to represent the Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) in an international competition run by the Federation of International Photographic Art (FIAP).

PSNZ was entering an “Open Colour” section and had chosen to base a set on “Autumn Colours”. It needed to select 20 images. I anticipated that most people were going to submit landscapes so I submitted a portrait of Kat amongst the leaves.

Kat_FIAPAs I understand it there was a very high number of entries and so I was really pleased to be selected amongst them.

The shot was taken over a year ago and you can read the full story behind it on this post.