Bill Jones Knows Modeling Is Hard Work

I’ve been an avid photographer my entire life.  My interest mostly centered on street-type photography.  About 2 years my interest moved into portrait photography.  I have no clue what took me this direction, but this has been my primary focus.  This has taken me into the world of model photography & blog posting.  I enjoy every aspect of the genre from arranging a shoot all the way through writing about it.  It’s been great.

 

Obviously, to photograph models, you need to hire & work with models.  It’s a true partnership.  Both have to come to the session prepared.  This has been a learning experience for me.  I essentially started the process from scratch first working with other photographers who hired the model, shooting with local camera clubs during portrait sessions, attending workshops, arranging TFP shoots with friends of friends (mainly just helping me out), and then finally hiring models myself for paid gigs.  I’ve now done this about 20+ times over the past year.  

 

One thing I’ve found is the process of arranging a model all the way through the point of taking the photo has been the most challenging part of my model photography experience.  Therefore, I am constantly reading about the genre, following photographers I respect, and reading blogs / articles that other model / fashion photographers write.

 

Yesterday I was reading a Facebook post by Los Angeles based photographer, Bill Jones.  I’ve followed Bill for the past year or so primarily because he started here in the Midwest and has maintained contact with the local scene.  His photography style is amazing, and his images are great. He describes himself as an “editorial fashion” photographer.  His FB post he talked about his experience with models.  I thought it was excellent.  He agreed to let me repost it on this blog.

 

Here is a repost of Bill’s wisdom:

 

“On a daily basis I receive 3-5 messages from girls who want to become models.  Less than 3% of these girls understand how much hard work and commitment it takes to become an agency represented model so for the other 97% here is a list of things you don't know about the industry: 

1.      Most successful models begin their day before 6:00 am,

2.      Models follow a very strict diet and live a healthy lifestyle,

3.      Modeling is acting in a single frame; models use body language and expressions to convey their story lines to the viewer,

4.      Many successful models take acting classes to enhance their talent,

5.      Some models begin their day with a 4-8 mile run followed by 1-2 hours in the gym later that evening,

6.      Castings and meetings consume over 60% of a successful models day,

7.      Models are very independent, I know of many 16 year old models that travel internationally on their own for several months at a time,

8.      Personality and confidence are very important qualities to a model,

9.      Understanding body angles and posing is critical to the success of a model, new models will spend several hours each day working on this,

10.  Highly successful models learn to understand lighting and generate poses that works with the lighting that is given to them. 

These are just a few things that separate agency models from internet models. Everybody wants to shoot but shooting makes up a very small part of a true models day. All my industry friends are welcome to add to this list.”

 

I agree with everything Bill says.  I am by no means in the same league as many local model photographers or anyone like Bill Jones, but I am starting to get a handle on the model side of the genre.  Every time I come to a shoot my goal is make it an enjoyable and successful shoot for everyone involved.  I’ve been very lucky that most of the model’s I’ve worked for have done the same thing.

 

BTW, check out Bill at:

 

Bill Jone's Facebook page

 

Bill's website

Photography With Faith

I recently did an interesting photo session with friend & Indianapolis based photographer, Faith Blackwell. We chatted previously about shooting together in one of our studios. The plan was to invite a MUA, a few models, and another photographer. We would select a few themes and PHOTOGRAPH ALL NIGHT. Basically, pull a photographer all-nighter.

We picked a date and decided to shoot over at my studio, M10 Studio (which I share with Paul D’Andrea & Eric Schoch). In exchange for using my studio Faith arranged the models, the MUA and came up with a few themes. We were good to go.

Faith arranged a MUA that I’ve used before, Sasha Star. Sasha is a skilled MUA. For models she lined up new models Tashina Finkton, Jared Bailey and experience pro, Diablo Diangikis. Tashina has a great look / style. Jared is powerfully built and for being new to the game he did a great job. Diablo, well Diablo is just uber. You just say go, and he snaps into the moment.

Jared in B&W

Diablo in B&W

Funny thing, once we picked the date we both agreed doing an all-nighter was probably going to be too much. We ultimately decided to simply start at 5pm and end at 11pm. Believe me, that worked out to be long enough. In that time we did 4 themes.

One theme was against a black seamless. I used a 3 light setup. 2 Elinchrom D-Lite’s with Elinchrom Portalite softboxes camera left and right slightly behind the model. Also, a Nikon SB-600 speedlight in a RPS Studio Softbox RS-4030. The Elinchroms and speedlight were triggered with Elinchrom Skyport EL triggers. I have a few triggers so I let Faith use one to make things easy. The effect of the lighting setup was to give a rim light around the models and key light on the face. A nice effect.

Tashina in B&W

Tashina against grey seamless

To get things going Sasha started on Tashina. Faith and I then started to photograph Jared and Diablo. With the above lighting setup we photographed both individually with shirts on, with hip-type jackets, and a few shots without shirts. This is the first time I’ve photographed male models in studio. I was worried about getting the lighting right. This lighting setup worked perfectly.

Once we completed this first set, Tashina was good to go and we took turns photographing her against the black backdrop. She was really easy to photograph and has excellent posing skills.

We then had both guys go steam-punk. Faith brought a few steam-punk type goggles and we played around photographing a steam-punk theme. We asked both guys to emote as much as possible to add some drama to the photos. It worked.

Steam-Punk Jared

Steam-Punk Diablo

The 3rd theme was against a grey seamless background. The focus of this shoot was Tashina. We tried all types of lighting in this part of the session. We used studio strobes as both key and fill lights. We used a ring light that Faith brought, we used Nikon SB-600 speedlights with and without gels to add light to the background. We did close-ups through the ringlight and had Tashina pose under different lighting configurations. The one lighting setup that I liked the best was a single Elinchrom D-Lite mounted with a large Elinchrom 27” Softlite Reflector Beauty Dish with a white diffuser as the key light. The beauty dish was camera right – in-front of the model and slightly above. I used a bare Speedlight at ¼ power aimed at the background behind a large flag (a hinged room like divider). This had the effect of haloing Tashina.

Tashina on grey seamless

Finally, for giggles we all went to the back of the studio in the industrial complex and tried our hand at some “levitation” type shots. I had done this previously and it generates an interesting effect if pulled off correctly. It required at minimum of 2 shots per image. One with and one without the model under the exact same lighting and focus setting. The model poses as if they are off the ground (i.e. standing on a chair) and then using the magic of post processing you stack the images and remove the chair. Very cool.

One part of a Levitation effect

Bottomline, I had a good shoot and a fun time. It was fun hanging out with Sasha, Diablo and Faith and nice meeting Tashina and Jared.

Jared, Sasha, Diablo, Faith, Tashina, Me

After action comments:

• Stay flexible with your plans. We originally scheduled an all-nighter and ended up shooting for only 5 hours. We made sure everyone knew our schedule was going to be flexible.

• In any shoot make sure everyone knows the details. Faith did a nice job coordinating everyone so it went off without a hitch.

• If you are going to have multiple photographers and / or plan a long session it’s a good idea to line up more than 1 model. In this case we had 3 but had arranged 4. One of the models couldn’t make it. If you hire just one and they don’t show up, then your photoshoot won’t happen.

• If you shoot with another photographer make sure you coordinate equipment. Faith has Canon & I have Nikon. Because I had a second set of Elinchrom Skyport triggers it was really easy for Faith and I to use the same lighting with absolutely no drama. If she had brought Cowboy or PocketWizard triggers and I had only one Elinchrom we would have taken lots more time.

• Ask the model to make dramatic moves and show emotion in shots. Normally, I shoot normal fashion / portrait type model shoots so posing / lighting is more important. In some of the shots we had all three give a look like they were screaming or holding their head in agony. Some of these shots were the best.

• Experiment with lighting. You’ll surprise yourself.

First Shoot With My Nikon D600

Today I did a full photoshoot with my new Nikon D600.  I'm excited about giving the D600 a workout, as it will become my primary digital camera.  The challenge I was going to have was the comparison in the form and features versus my trusty Nikon D300s.  I've had a D300s for approximately 2 years and have shot about 90,000 photos with it.  I can operate it with my eyes closed.  I know it's feel, it's weight, the location of buttons and how to get the most of out it.

 

So my first concern was the learning curve to get use to the D600's form & functions.  I have no doubt the D600 will allow me to take a wider range of photos and its features are more contemporary.  The video capacity is better, the ISO range is wider on both sides, and the sensor is an FX full frame versus the DX crop sensor D300s.  This means I get the true focal length of my non DX lenses.

 

I'll post a blog post on the image quality and functionality based on today's model shoot and an after dark shoot I did.  In the meantime I wanted to point out a few differences in the D600 versus my D300s that I'll need to get used to.

 

First as a caveat, my D300 has a battery grip that makes it a bit bulkier and easier to hold.  I do not yet have a battery grip for my D600.  Here goes:

 

• The D600 is a smaller camera than the D300s.  Noticeably smaller.  I actually like the larger camera at this point.  The first thing I noticed with the D600's size is it feels off balanced with a AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 & an AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII lens.  The center of gravity is different and it will take some time to get used to the feel.  The camera feels like a mini-me to the larger D300s.
• Right off the bat there appears to be dust on the sensor.  I've only changed the lens 2 or 3 times in a non-dusty environment.  Not a good omen.
• My thumb constantly hit the Main Command Dial on the back of the camera while shooting.  I noticed several times in manual mode that I accidentally changed the shutter speed to a faster speed.  This never occurred on the D300s and could be due to the lack of a vertical grip so my thumb is up higher on the camera.  Not sure.
• The Multi-Selector dial is too small for my taste.  It doesn't seem as responsive
• The Tripod Socket is farther back (not in the center) on the bottom of the camera.  Therefore, my Manfrotto D ring tripod plate sticks off the bottom of the camera by about 1/4".  This is really weird.
• It's hard to turn the mode dial with one hand, although I like the locking button.
• I am REALLY surprised it doesn't have a 10-pin connector.  Honestly, I didn't notice this when I was testing the camera out at the camera store.  This means my shutter release cable and electronic release (radio) won't work.  I'm going to need to research how I can use a shutter release cable since I use these all the time for low light photography.  What gives???
• My version of Adobe Lightroom, version 4.1, doesn't support the RAW file format.  I'm downloading version 4.2 and hope this handles it.  If not that totally blows. - as a follow-up I ended up loading Nikon NX2, Adobe LR 4.2, and downloading the images again.  Works OK.

Bottomline, anytime you change cameras there is a learning curve.  However, I think that because I'm going to FX from DX and have a different form the learn curve may be steeper.  Stay tuned to the bat channel....

 

Walking Dead – Broad Ripple Style

Can I suggest visiting a dentist?

For the second year I went to the Broad Ripple Zombie Walk exclusively to photograph the event.  This is a really fun event that gives participants the opportunity to get their zombie on and to benefit Gleaners Food Bank.  This year’s event took place the weekend before Halloween.  The event is hosted by IndyMojo.

 

I would guess about 500 people showed up.  I arrived early and picked up my media pass.  I brought the following kit knowing there would be bright light ending-up pitch black: 

·         Nikon D300s

·         AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8

·         AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8

·         AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8

·         Nikon SB-600 speedlight

·         4 sets of Sanyo Eneloop batteries

Soon after I got myself organized people started to show up.  Most came with their zombie make-up already on, or took advantage of the 3-4 makeup artists.  People could get made-up for free at the event.  Early on people simply walked around talking, listening to the DJ, dancing, or just looking at other people’s make-up.  Some people were SERIOUSLY into the event and had amazing make-up.  

 

Like, "what-everrr"

Seriously, awesome!

Smile for the camera

I started off with a Nikkor 24-70mm lens asking zombies if I could shoot their street portrait.  Everyone was in a good mood and obviously, had absolutely no problem letting me shoot them (sorry, photography them).  After about an hour I switched out to my Nikkor 70-200mm lens so I could get some tighter shots.  While it was still bright outside I shot in Aperture priority with f/stop in the f/2.8 – f/4 range.  The goal was to get shallow DOF for all street portraits.

 

By the time it got dark the place was hopping & PACKED.  Just like a scene from The Walking Dead.  So cool, and fun to watch everyone get into it.  There were kids, families, young couples, hipsters, older couples, couples with babies, singles, you name it.  The event attracted all types.  And let me tell you, people were seriously getting into their makeup.  Some were professional grade.

 

Child's Play

Starting 'em young



You looking at me, you looking at me?

Sorry for interrupting your conversation, seriously

Soon after it started to get dark it was time to do the zombie walk.  This is when everyone walks through the streets of Broad Ripple showing off their stuff.  What a blast.  I switched into my Nikkor 35mm, opened the aperture as wide as possible, and mounted my Nikon SB-600.  I used a large diffuser on my speedlight to get soft indirect light.  I know you aren’t supposed to do it, but the speedlight was mounted on the camera.  Please forgive me!  Anyway, I jumped ahead of the horde, parked myself behind a tree and fired away as the zombies walked by.  It was fun.  The only problem I noticed is that I think my focus point must have been off.  I normally shoot center-point focus and recompose, but I think I must have had my focus point to the left of center, because I had about 30% of my images focusing in to the left of my subject.  With such a shallow DOF this was a problem.  However, I took tons of photos so I still got quality images during the walk.

 

KISS fan

The Corporation is here

Seriously creepy

Time for a mind meld

After about 5-6 hours I called it an evening.  The event was fun and a real photo rich environment.  

 

After action tips for you fellow photogs: 

·        Learn your camera.  In an event like this you don’t want to be fiddling with your kit.  Especially when it gets dark,

·       Remember, people are made up so they WANT to be photographed.  Take advantage of the opportunity.  Only a few people asked me what I was going to do with their image,

·       Bring good glass.  When it gets dark you need your lens to focus pronto, 

·       Go light.  I wanted to, but still had a full backpack.  After a few hours you start to feel it,

·       Talk to the other photographers.  I chatted up a few photogs that I had seen around, but never met.  I like to talk to people especially if I know there is a common interest.

·       Sacrifice ISO for shutter speed.  This event called for tack sharp.

 

 

Portait Time

America's Top Model, zombie-style

Oh no, the military is infected

 

Polaroid 104

Polaroid 104 fully opened & ready to go!

Continuing my journey with film cameras I’ve purchased let’s talk about my Polaroid 104.  I bought this camera because I had previously bought two Polaroid “Land” cameras (a Colorpack II, and a Colorpack III) at Goodwill and love them.  I wanted to get a more “old school” Land camera, one with bellows.  I found a seller on eBay listing a Polaroid 100, 104 & a 320 in a lot.  I jumped and bought all 3 paying less than $25 all in.

All 3 Polaroids appeared to work, but none had batteries.  This type of camera requires a battery to fire the shutter.  Yikes, the battery type is not easily found and I don’t think manufactured any longer.  I researched online about buying an equivalent battery or mod-up the battery compartment to accept AAA batteries.  For the 104 I decided to go the mod route as the leads were intact and the compartment clean of corrosion.

Closed with a self contained cover

Cover off, but bellows not yet expanded

Camera fully opened from the top

 The main feature of the camera is that it uses Polaroid 100 series film.  The film is also called “pack” film (instamatic) which is surprisingly still made.  Fujifilm manufactures the film and it’s readily available for about $14 per pack (10 shots).  Available in color 75 ASA (film equivalent to ISO) & B&W 3000 ASA. The cool thing about this film (unlike Polaroid film which is ejected from the front of the camera), this that it’s “pulled” from the side of the camera.  When developed you peel the film apart revealing the image.  Very retro!

 

Key specs of the 104 is that it’s lightweight, all-plastic, has folding bellows, automatic exposure through a Polaroid "electric eye", and it’s a quasi-rangefinder.  It’s focused by moving the bellows in and out slightly by moving the focusing knobs attached to the bellow struts back and forth.  There are focusing markers in the viewfinder, but I haven’t figured them out yet.



To get the camera going I cleaned it up, and went to my local Radio Shack to buy a AAA battery holder with wires.  I clipped out (with big fingernail clippers) the bracket that held the existing battery, and wired the holder into the existing battery leads.  I then added 2 AAA batteries to get the desired 3 volts, and jammed (literally) the holder back into the compartment.  I armed the shutter, did a test shutter release, and “click”, “click”.  The needed double click that told me the electric eye (light meter) was working.  Success!

 

DIY battery mod

I loaded a package of Fujifilm FP-100C and took a couple of test shots.  The first was out of focus on one of my cats (need to work on the focus) and one outside which came out fine.  I’m good to go.

 

Inside, got to figure out the focusing technique

Getting the hang of how to focus for a maximum DOF

Bottomline, a fun, retro camera that can be picked up easily online or at flea markets.  Most you buy won’t have batteries, but you can buy them online (expensive around $20, so do research first), or mod-up a battery yourself.  Film can be purchased at most camera stores or online camera stores.  Just remember if you buy a Land camera make sure the battery compartment is free from corrosion.  Have fun, I know I will.

Nikon D600 - "Say Hello To My Little Friend"

Well today, I brought home a new member of my family.  I'm now the owner of a Nikon D600 FX DSLR.  I've been shooting Nikon since I was a wee lad, but other than 35mm film, this is my first full frame, "FX" DSLR. 

 

I really like shooting with a cropped, "DX", sensor and is part of my muscle memory.   I've used a Nikon D100, D200 and now my trusty Nikon D300s.  Love 'em. I've gotten used to the 1.5x (approximate) cropped factor from my Nikkor lenses.  However, at the same time I've started to find that it's a drawback in the studio.  Also, for street photography I like the shorter focal length and my 50mm is a bit too long for this use, so I have to use a 35mm. 

 

The Real Thing

It was only a matter of time before I bought a full frame sensor.  It wasn't a question of if, but what type of DSLR.  Obviously, I wanted to stick to Nikon primarily because I have a full range of Nikkor and Tokina lenses.  I researched the Nikon D4, D3s, D3x, & D800.  I even looked at an older Nikon D700.  Finally, the D600 soon after it was introduced. 

 

Look, I don't make my living as a photographer, so I couldn't justify spending the $$$ for any of the big 3: D4, D3s & D3x.  I liked everything about the D800 ergonomically, but I really didn't need the 36.3 megapixels nor did I want to spend the $2,999 (more or less).  Finally, the D700 was tempting.  The price was perfect, but it doesn't have video.  The D600 fit the bill for me. 

 

The D600 came in at $2,099 without a lens (didn't need one), has a solid 24.3 megapixel (twice what I get from my D300s), excellent ISO range, a compact ergonomic design, AND it's an FX body.  The big challenge for me is the feature layout.  The layout is more like a Nikon D7000 versus the D700 / D800.  I'm really comfortable with the button and control layout of my D300s.  It's going to take me awhile to figure out how to change ISO, speed, AF zones, etc.  Minor inconvenience.  I will hang onto my D300s as a backup and for the cropped factor (although it's getting well past it's "used by" date in terms of the number of shutter activations I've put through it).  I'll have to become bi-lingual in camera layout.

 

One thing I'm interested in testing is how my lenses respond on the full frame.  I know they will work perfecto, but more along the lines of how my lens selection will change using a full frame.  It will be fun using my 50mm as a real 50mm.  Same goes for my AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8, AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8, etc. 

 

I will give the D600 a go this week and upcoming weekend.  I probably won't post a review because there are so many already out there.  However, if you are so inclined her are the D600 specs.  OK, so where did I leave that manual, I've got some reading to do!!  In closing I want to give props to Roberts Camera's north store.  They are always easy to work with, don't try to up-sell when it's not wanted or needed, and they have competitive prices. 

Fusion of the Arts – Oranje!!

This was the 4^th year I’ve gone to Oranje in Indianapolis to photograph the event.  Oranje is advertised as “an interactive experience of art & music”.  You know what, it is!  There’s art, different genres of music, colors, sounds, lights, dark, pretty people, motion, etc.  You guessed it, a photo rich environment.  Challenging photo conditions, but that’s what I like about Oranje.  Also from a photographic standpoint, it’s very interactive.  You can mix with the participants, get amongst the dancers, photograph from the stages, and talk to the artist.

 

 As mentioned I’ve done this before, so I knew what to expect and how to kit out.  The big difference in 2012 was Oranje was at the Indiana State Fair Ground in one of the big buildings versus the abandoned building used the past few years.  Structurally, and from parking standpoint it was a much better venue.  But it had a really different vibe.  It seemed more compact, but honestly I think it probably had more space.

 

 Knowing there was going to be lots of people, lots of motion and extremely low light I brought a simple kit.  It consisted of: 

·         Nikon D300s

·         Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G

·         Nikon SB-600 speedlight w/ generic domed diffuser

·         2 extra sets of Sanyo eneloop rechargeable batteries

·         Earplugs (believe me, these are VERY useful at an event like this)

Out in my car I also had an AF-SNikkor 50mm f/1.4G & my AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED, but I didn’t use them.  I wanted to stay wide & fast (OK, take your mind out of the gutter).

 

Anyway, with kit in hand I proceeded to spend about 5 hours walking around the venue listening to & photographing the various music acts, watching the graffiti artists, looking at art, chatting up some of the artist, talking with some friends I ran into, and going overload on the photography.  This was another 1000+ photo night.  The nice thing about the evening, and like other times I’ve gone to Oranje is that no one seems to mind if I photographed from every angle and position.  I photographed from the music stages, amongst the dancers, in the Ketel One club, outside, in the tents, and around the art.  Everyone was cool.  It was great.

 

All non-flash photographs were shot with manual mode.  ISO was cranked up between 1600-3200, Aperture was almost always set at f/1.8 sometimes up to f/4.  Speed was typically at 1/100 or sometimes a bit slower.  I wanted to balance between enough speed to avoid too much motion blur and minimize noise.  It was a challenging, but I always sacrificed ISO for speed.

 

 

It was a fun night and I ended up with lots of photos.

 

After action report:

·       Seriously, if you are a photographer and visit a venue like this bring earplugs.  You can thank me later,

·       Travel light.  This is no place for a backpack, or sling bag.  You will be bumping people constantly.  Bring a fast zoom or like I did a fast wide prime.

·       Get close.  At events like this I’ve found that people don’t mind having their photograph taken.  I tended to take most of the photos of people no more than 2-3 feet away.

·        Bring plenty of batteries for your speedlight.  Flash was no problem at a venue like this.  I took possibly ½ my images with flash and it would stink if my batteries ran out. 

·       Take time out to enjoy the event.  I’ve been to Oranje before when all I did was photograph, and actually “missed” the event.  This year I mingled, talked to the artists, listened to the bands, and even bought a big painting.  Oh yes, I took tons of photos as well.