Expanding !!

I've been in a photo studio here in Indianapolis for almost a year.  M10 Studio is located in the Circle City Industrial Complex in downtown Indianapolis near the corner of Mass Avenue (Massachusetts Avenue on the map) & 10th Street.  I share the space with 2 other local photographers.

 

Well guess what, I didn't think it would happen, but we've outgrown the space.  And with that, we are moving to bigger digs.  The nice thing is that the new studio is in the same building.  We are doubling our size and with it the new space includes an office, kitchen and a seperate gallery.  POW, now we can leave our equipement up between shoots!!.

 

We've been spending the last few weekends getting ready and actually doing the move.  We are about done, but still have a few housecleaning and layout issues to finalize.  These will be done over the next few weeks.  Our new opening is this Friday during Indianapolis's artist's First Friday.  Real excited!

 

My photography adventure continues.

New Model Katie

I recently photographed new model, Katie Willock, at M10 Studio.  I met Katie a few weeks previously when she joined me during a session with Caroline & Emmy.  She just wanted to check out this modeling thing.  During the shoot I told her to contact me if she wanted to do a formalized TFP (time for photo) shoot.  She did, so we arranged a B&W fashion centric shoot.

 

Since Katie is a new model I made sure she was fully aware of all steps and plans for getting together, who the makeup artist would be, what style we were going to shoot, and what clothes to bring.  Also, as always bring a friend if she wanted to.

 

For this session I was doing 3 backgrounds.  One a fashion grey sweep, one against a black backdrop and one against a DIY backdrop.  I simply cut apart a bunch of fashion magazines and taped the pictures on the wall.  It created a really interesting backdrop.

 

 

Katie & my favorite makeup artist, Sasha Star, arrived and we got going.  I set up the studio the evening before, so I didn’t have tons to do until Katie was ready.  Since the shoot was to be processed in B&W I set my Nikon D600 monitor set to monochrome and asked Sasha to apply makeup with B&W in mind.  I’ve worked with Sasha a number of times so she has muscle memory on what I want for this type of shoot.  So easy when you have skilled operators.  I spent my time getting my camera set, chatting with Sasha & Katie, and talking to Katie’s guests.

 

Lighting for this shoot was a standard lighting kit that I’ve used recently.  An Elinchrom D-Lite 4 with an Elinchrom 27” beauty dish reflector with only the diffuser sock.  Also, for the black and magazine backdrop an Elinchrom D-Lite 4 with a 30 degree grid in-front of the bare bulb.  Both studio lights were mounted on integrated Manfrotto boom arm light stand.  During the shoot I used only my AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G prime.

 

 

Makeup and hair done so off we go.  I started off using my Sekonic L-358FlashMaster light meter to meter to f/11.  I set my camera at 1/125 & ISO at 160.  Pretty standard setup that has worked well for me.  I had Katie in a simply tube top and a very large t-shirt for the first shoot.  The idea was to direct her on some standard poses with the t-shirt pulled down over her shoulder or just hanging loose.   I directed Katie for about 15 minutes and then had her change into a simple white sleeveless top.  Again I posed her for about 15 minutes while shooting her from a standing & sitting position (me, not her).  During the process I showed her what we were getting so she could see what poses and expressions she liked the best.  She was doing very well.  Final shoot against the grey sweep was to have her put on a very loose cabled sweater.  I wanted her to get the feel of having to do multiple changes during a shoot.  Most shoots were done with a 9x12 crop in mind.

 

After this shoot I asked her to change into a black dress and moved her in front of the black backdrop.  These were primarily head shots.  She brought a pair of sunglasses and I had her wear them for part of the shoot.  I switched to the gridded D-Lite for this series and once again I metered the light power to f/11.  We cranked off about 30 minutes worth of images with different poses.  Again, I showed her what we were getting along the way.  

 

 

We got some really nice images against the black backdrop.  I moved her position from the backdrop a number of times achieve different lighting effects.  Also the light was moved around a fair amount.

 

Final set was against the fashion magazine DIY backdrop.  For this shoot I asked her to put on a blue scarf she brought and start off with the sunglasses.  Again, posing, moving and changing up the light.  This was really fun, but a bit more challenging because the studio light created a fair amount of glare on the backdrop.  We simply lowered the light power and moved it around to minimize glare.  I had Katie pose for about 15 minutes while taking shots from various angles and moving the light around to get different shadow effects.

 

OK, one in color!

And with that we were done.  Katie was fun to work with and seems to be a natural in front of the camera.  We talked the entire time and after the shoot about my knowledge of the modeling and photography business – of course, constantly reminding her that my main gig was a business guy, not a pro photographer!  Anyway, as always some after action comments:

 

·         For a new model be very specific about pose instructions.  I’ve become fairly good posing models (at least in my own head) so I enjoyed working with Katie on her posing,

·        Show your model your images, but be careful about showing images that are no good.  The idea is to make sure they are comfortable that you are making them look nice,

·       Try DIY backdrops.  A photography friend of mine had done the fashion magazine backdrop idea first, so I take no credit for it, but it turned out great.  I’ve got to put my thinking cap on to come up with other ideas,

·       Remember not everyone is comfortable in-front of a camera.  Talk and encourage your subject throughout the shoot.  This isn’t really a problem for me, because….well, I just like talking to people!

Model Photoshoots Galore!!

 

Wow, I've been crazy busy in studio doing model photography.  I've been lucky enough to work with some skilled models and makeup artist recently.  12 shoots in January and 3 so far this month.  Needless to say I'm behind on my blog posting about the shoots.  In the meantime a few images.  Blog posts to follow.

 

Model - Mina Vee

Model - Peyton Drew

Model - Emmy Lindgren

 

Sculpted Light with Emmy & Caroline

I recently did a shoot at M10 Studio with models Emmy Lindgren & Caroline Nauth.  The theme for this shoot was sculpted & controlled light.  I wanted to do this shoot in studio and the industrial portion of Circle City Industrial Complex, where M10 Studio is located using controlled and directional light.  The goal was to create a dark atmosphere, but the models lit.  While at it lets squeeze in a shoot against a fashion grey seamless why don’t we.

The first setting was in the industrial space.  I used a single Elinchrom D-Lite 4 with a 24” Vagabond softbox.  The space had only a small amount of ambient light from overhead industrial style windows.  I set the strobe 70” high with the softbox aimed at a spot on the ground about 12 feet away.  The idea was to have Emmy and Caroline walk to me and as they walked through the area where the light aimed take the shot.

To accomplish this I marked a spot on the concrete floor about 8 feet away from the strobe.  When the models got to this point I would take the photo.  I metered the strobe by having them stand at this spot and I used my Sekonic L-358 FlashMaster lightmeter.  I adjusted the power of the strobe so I could get ISO 200, 1/125 second & f/5.6.  I wanted the image sharp enough to get Emmy & Caroline in focus, but the background fairly out of focus.  I wanted as much contrast as I could get between light and dark as these images were going to be processed in B&W (I set my camera monitor to monochrome so I could chimp in B&W).  I also used a large silver reflector camera right on some shots to throw some light back onto my models.  This worked well.

For this series I used my NikonD600 with an AF-S 50mm f/1.4G lens.  I wanted the option to go full bright with the lens as needed with minimal need to adjust my light.

With everything set I backed my models off the spot, and then told them to walk to me.  About 1 step behind the mark I took a 4 frame burst.  This setup took lots of attempts to get it right.  The biggest challenge was that even with a D600 and the 50mm lens I had some focus speed issues.  I switched to manual focus for some shots to help.

We tried this style at 2 locations in the complex.  I asked both models to be as expressive as possible while walking.  Move their bodies, flip their hair, look at each other, look away, etc.  Basically, I wanted to get something like the vibe of walking through a dark city alley after coming home from a night out….you get the idea, don’t you?  Anyway after about 45 minutes we had what I thought were going to be some good shots. 

For the next set we went back into the studio.  I set up our studio’s sofa against a plain dark grey concrete wall in the studio.  The plan for this set was to have Emmy & Caroline sit & recline on the sofa and the floor in front of the sofa.  I was going to light the sofa with a single Nikon SB-600 speedlight with a HonlPhoto Professional ¼” Speed Grid mounted on a boom arm.  The speedlight was triggered with an Elinchrom EL-Skyport.  

The plan was to start with the speedlight overhead and then adjust it throughout the series to get the light to fall at various spots on the floor and sofa.  I initially set the set the speedlight at ½ power, arranged the models on the sofa, turned off the studio lights and then metered the light.  I wanted a dark effect so I wanted the light as low as possible.  The effect was very nice, but with the studio lights off my camera wouldn’t focus…. No dramas, I simply closed down my aperture to approximately f/11, ISO 100, 1/125 and kept the studio lights on.  I metered again and POW.  Worked great.  I got a nice circle of light that I was able to play with by moving the speedlight around on the boom.  I also brought in a second speedlight during the second part of this series at very low power 1/16 & 1/32 to get selective fill.  I mounted a simple translucent domed diffuser on the speedlight and put it on a light stand.  I had to play with this light quite a bit to get the effect I wanted.

For this shoot I moved around quite a bit.  I stood on a step stool, sat on the floor, laid on the floor – I know, this is no way for a FINANCE exec to act…and move around both of the models.  Throughout the series both Emmy and Caroline were changing positions.  

About ready to wrap up, but hey I already had the grey seamless set up, so over to the background where I had set up another Elinchrom D-Lite 4 with an Elinchrom 27” beauty dish reflector.  As I had learned with a previous shoot I left the internal reflector / diffuser off the beauty dish, using only the diffuser sock.  I had both the models switch into a black dress and pose together.  We cranked the music up and had them move to the music.  No more than 15 minutes on the seamless, and we – were – done! Once again this was going to be processed in B&W so the black dresses and the light metered at f/11 created some nice contrasts.

Overall, a good shoot.  It’s always fun working with models that know what they are doing and don’t mind that I spend ½ the shoot adjusting / playing with the lights.

3 Different Shoots - Same Caroline

I had an opportunity to do 3 photoshoots this weekend at our M10 Studio.  All 3 were with Indianapolis model Caroline Nauth.  Thought I would give you a quickie rundown of the shoots.

The first shoot was primarily as a photo-gopher for a photog colleague who wanted to use our studio.  He had hired Caroline to do his shoot, so it was perfect.  As soon as he was done, a quick studio straightening up and then my shoot would kick off. 

My first shoot was a collaboration between me, Caroline and my go-to MUA, Sasha Star.  Caroline wanted to try a "Tim Burton" type vibe.  Sasha was totally in, and so was I. 

Caroline getting her Tim Burton on

Right after the first session wrapped up, Sasha arrived and we jumped right in.  Took about 1 hour for the makeup.  We shot in studio and in the industrial space.  Very cool.

On Sunday, I joined LA based fashion photographer, and my 2 studio partners, Paul D'Andrea & Eric Schoch along with MUA Jacks Von Liria to photograph Caroline.  This shoot was all about darks and lights since the shots were going to be processed in B&W.   

Believe it or not, same girl!

We started early (because today was the Super Bowl) with Jacks working his magic on Caroline's makeup and hair.  We used a single beauty dish along with several black foam core light blockers.  We spent about 3 hours going through 4 clothing changes....Caroline, not the photographers, and really came out with some amazing photos.

OK, that's it for now.  Once again it's great to work with a talented model...and hey, anytime I get behind a camera it's all good.

More detailed blog post on the shoots ASAP.  Wait for it!!