Couple of places left on this workshop Now fully booked š – at the fabulous 19th century mill that houses Atlas Studios. Call the studio to book your place!
Creative lighting workshop
Leave a Reply
Category Archives: Model Shoots
Project Noir part II
This time we concentrated on one shot ā a backlit interior concept with volumetric light (i.e. light given volume by some medium ā in this case, an even fog). Caspar reprised his previous outfit, now complete with a nice black Fedora. I found some 20 year-old Gauloise Caporal white cigarettes when we moved house last year that really looked the part in a soft blue case. We also had a crystal decanter, glass, and the airgun we used on the last shoot. All of these went onto a nice period desk from another room in the old manor house.
Project Noir–Part One
Someone once said something like āCinematographers kick photographersā asses, all day longā. I canāt remember who this was, and the Intarweb doesnāt seem to know either. However, even though these are two different art forms, I do find that things some photographers seem to think of as new and exciting developments , are not news to DPās and movie lighting directors whoāve been creating mood and drama with light for decades.
More GoBO options for your Lightblaster
If you love the Light Blaster from Spiffy Gear, but want more GoBOsĀ (āGOes Before Opticsā ā the little masks that go in front of the light, but before the focusing lens on the front of any spot projector), then you have a number of options:Ā use 35mm slides, mount Rosco size E circular gobos on card or the little plastic adapter you can download and print, or just make your own.Ā Ā Whilst there are companies that will print digital images onto 35mm transparency film, Iām not looking at that option here ā I nearly always want a simple, graphical shape for my work, and metal gobos are the way to go for the best results ā as they always block all the light where there is no hole cut in them, and have crisper edges.
One Light
You can do so much with just one light.Ā One Ā£30 YN460-II for example.Ā There really is no excuse for not having at least one flash š
Robert Harrington gave a great presentation at the B&H theatre on getting many looks out of one light ā and you can watch it here.Ā I thought this would make a great live demo for the camera club I belong to and worked out 10 or so looks to present within a 2 hour slot.Ā Ā I ran through them in a practice session with some fellow photographers and we got it done in 1:45.Ā It was going to take longer on the night as Iād be waffling on about the light as we went ā and hopefully, there would be questions!
Hereās my pick of the looks we did on the night with model Paris Spencer, who always does a great job on these shoots.Ā For all of these shots, the camera is in manual exposure at 1/160th at F/8 and ISO 64 to 640.Ā The flash is in manual, and when off the camera, is triggered by using the pop-up in commander mode.Ā Ā The popup does not fire during the exposure, itās just used to send data and commands to the remote SB900.
We started with the flash on the camera ā left, and the first shot is direct flash.Ā When should you use this?Ā Well, probably never unless itās a bit of fill but as a main light, it sucks.Ā I wanted to show just how bad flash lighting could be, so we took the mugshot, on the left.Ā Paris looks like she just got arrestedā¦
 |
 |
The Missing Piece of the Lightblaster kit.
I love the Lightblaster, but as a Nikon shooter I don’t have any Canon EOS mount lenses lying about. Ā Lightblaster will sell you an EOS to F-mount adapter, but quite frankly (do I owe Frank D a fee Ā every time I use that phrase now? š ) that thing is dangerous: Ā it has no release lever and you have to practically prise it off your lens.
You could try trawling eBay for old Canon lenses, but here’s the thing: Ā Canon changed their lens mount in the 1980’s to get AF working properly way before Nikon, Ā and well anybody tbh – that’s why every sports shooter 
on the planet still shoots Canon today, but the consequence is that there are no old Canon EOS lenses Ā (ie old enough to be bought at junk prices).
Plus, you really need a wide aperture lens to use with the Lightblaster – or you’ll just lose most of the light.
These Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 lenses are Ā£35 – or around $50. Ā and they have AF! Ā I have no idea what the image quality is like, and I never will as I don’t own any EOS bodies, but for Ā£35 I’m happy for it to hang off the Lightblaster, and it weighs nothing.
Go check out Lightblaster:-
In the USA: Ā http://www.light-blaster.com/
In the EU at Frank Doorhof’s shop: Ā http://www.frankdoorhof.com/store/images/lightblaster-2.html
..and in the UK at Inspired PhotoGearĀ http://inspiredphotog.com/light-blaster/
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ER.. FOG! ACTION!
Emilia Gaza contacted me recently to ask if I’d be interested in shooting some dance/burlesque with her. Her portfolio notes over on PurplePort are filled with such enthusiasm and passion for dance and to create images of it I immediately said yes!
There is now a short BTS video on this shoot here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2FlStiMJGU
Beauty Shoot
Itās been a while since I did any classic beauty style shots in he studio, and Iāve learnt a lot since the last one.Ā Ā Mainly Iāve been influenced by Joel Grimes in recent months for this sort of look – joelgrimes.comĀ Ā Go check out Joelās work ā heās been working as a photographer for over 25 years and has honed his craft to a fine level of detail, and thatās what his style is all about ā the lighting, shooting distances and angles are very finely tuned.Ā That doesnāt mean he gets a tape measure out, in fact one of the hallmarks of Joelās approach to his work is that nothing matters except the result ā heās not interested in meter readings, modelling lights, histograms, ratios or any of that stuff ā if it looks good on the back of the cameraĀ ā itās right.Ā Having studied his work both via his website, YouTube, and a couple of his videos on KelbyOne – http://kelbyone.com/members/joelgrimes/ I booked into my friend John Gannonās studio http://www.studio-de-lumiere.co.uk/ with model Jessica-Jane Taylor and Make-Up and Hair stylist Emily Rose Connor to put what I had learned to use š
Flinging Flour
This was the second of 3 shots we did with the Lencarta SuperFast lights.Ā This sort of shot is something you only get so many goes at: you run out of flour, coloured powder, and of course, eventually, the model is so covered in flour it changes the look of the images.Ā Ā Shooting continuously on high speed (well as fast as my D800E will go anyway ā the lights will go faster) makes it all the more likely to get a usable frame from these sets.
This was the first time Iād attempted this shot, and while we got a few reasonable images ā itās not quite achieved the drama I want.Ā I think I know why and Iāll come back to that at the end of this blog.
Flour Again
As I had so much flour left over, another shoot with it was, well inevitable.Ā However, before inevitability could strike, James Wall, marketing director of Lencarta lighting wrote to me and asked if Iād be interested in doing it again at their studio in Bradford, to promote the SuperFast lights I had been using for the last few shoots.Ā Well ā Iād be doing this sort of thing anyway, so this was not a hard decision, and wouldnāt need to sell anything ā these lights are genuinely fantastic.
