Contemporary Glamour

28mm, speed 1/160, aperture f/13, ISO 200

Time for another model photoshoot.  I’ve recently done “themed” model photoshoots.  The idea is to do something different each time whether it’s a unique setting, different lighting, different looks, or unusual clothing.  This time was no different.  

First I needed a theme.  Normally, this isn’t hard since I have tons of themes littering my brain, but I always do research.  I decided on “contemporary glamour” for this shoot.  The idea came to me after looking at old black and white glamour photographs of 50-60’s movie stars, especially Marilyn Monroe.  With a theme in hand it was time for planning.  For this shoot I wanted a makeup artist, hair stylist, and a studio.

First thing was to hire a local model. My criteria were specific.  A model with some experience, an interest in glamour-like work, a bit hard-girl (i.e. tattoos) style and medium length blonde hair which would allow for a Marilyn Monroe hairstyle.

I found the model I wanted using my Facebook contacts, and after a few back and forth messages she said she was good to go.  Facebook has been a good resource for the Indy photography scene to hire models.  I’ve not had any luck with ModelMayhem.

Next, was to select the make-up artist (MUA).  To my surprise this was easy.  I wanted to go with someone familiar, so I contacted a MUA I met previously.  I reached out to Sasha Niles-Carnes, and she said yes.  BTW, her work is uber.

Next up, the studio.  I’ve used a friend’s Stutz Building studio previously, but this time I wanted more controlled lighting and access to a larger softbox.  I have my own lighting equipment, but didn’t want to use it this time.  Dave Fulton’s Spark Art Photography studio came to mind.  I had shot at Dave’s studio during a year end Christmas party, and knew his space was over the top excellent.  I sent him a message, and arranged to rent his space.

45mm, speed 1/160, aperture f/11, ISO 200

Finally, a hair stylist.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have many contacts that do hair, so I put in a few calls and asked around without much luck.  Anyway, I was chatting with someone in my office who gave me a lead.  I followed the lead and had my hair stylist hired.  I also asked a buddy at work who had expressed an interest in photography if he wanted to help out.  He’s a young guy, and please, the thought of hanging out with a pretty model…I didn’t have to twist his arm.

OK, I had the model, the studio, the MUA, my photog second, and the hair stylist.  The fees were negotiated, and once again reconfirmed the photographer’s fact of life…man, this is an expensive hobby.

Next up was a storyboard.  Not really a storyboard, but a series of 6-8 photographs of the look desired.  I sent this to my “people” so they could think about what was being planned.  I’m always surprised how much work it is to plan out a photoshoot!

What’s the worst thing that can happen to a photographer the day before a shoot?  You guessed it…my model contacted me and said she couldn’t make it.  ARGH!  I really wanted to photograph with her, and the last thing I wanted to do was call everyone else and tell them I had to cancel.  Being in business as my day job I realize schedules change at the last minute, so bottomline I was cool with the fact the model needed to cancel.

What to do, what to do.  I put out a distress call on Facebook, and I was stunned.  Literally within an hour several photogs reforwarded my request and at the same time a number of models reached out to me.  A replacement was lined up in no time.   I was surprised I had a following interested in shooting with me…oh, yes it helps when there’s money involved.

Courtney Kennedy hopped on board and was signed up for her normal per hour fee.  She had the style, a hard-girl look and guess what, medium length platinum blond hair.  Karma.

The day of the shoot.  Got several messages from Courtney and agreed on dress for her to bring.  Medium length, tight, black…  I arrived at the studio.  Dave was already there and was the perfect host while I got set up.  We talked through the lighting, electronic triggers, background (I wanted a solid black background for the portraits), and timing.  He then left me to do my thing.  

Sasha, and then Michelle Bueno, the hair stylist, arrived and set up.  I talked them through the schedule, but since they already had the storyboard in advance it wasn’t really needed.  Courtney arrived and they got at it.   

50mm, speed 1/40, aperture f/3.2, ISO 560

For this shoot I brought the following:

• Mamiya 645 medium format film camera with 400 ASA B&W film
• Mamiya-Sekor Macro 80mm f/4.0 lens
• Nikon D300s DSLR
• Nikon D200 DSLR
• AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
• AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime
• AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G prime
• Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens
• 2 x Nikon SB-600 speedlights
• RPS Studio Softbox RS-4030
• 2 sets Elinchrom Universal triggers
• Various light stands, cables & portable studio softboxes

 My weapon of choice was the Nikon D300s with the 24-70mm lens for all of the studio and speedlight shots.  I used the D200 with the 35mm or 50mm lens for the shots I took during the MUA/hair work.   The plan was to use the Mamiya for a couple of rolls, but unfortunately we ran out of time without using it.  You know a "Girls on Film" type of effect.

Once I got set up we all chatted while the make-up and hair got finished. The makeup and hair took a little over 1 hour.  I had rented the studio for 2 hours, so this was cutting things close.  No dramas, Dave was cool and said I could use the studio for another 30 minutes, or so if I wanted.  While the makeup & hair was being done I took several candid shots with the D200.  For the candids the D200 was set on program mode.

All, done, so it was time to get to business.  I had 2 sets of shots planned.  The first with Courtney at the makeup table.  The plan was to shoot her reflection in the mirror both touching up makeup and looking off in different directions.  This set used an off camera speedlight with the RPS softbox as fill light and the lights on the makeup table as the key light.  The studio lights were turned off.  I triggered the speedlight with my Elinchrom Universals.  The speedlight was set at manual mode 1/8 power.

Throughout the shoot I was in manual mode, the first series the ISO set at 400, speed at 1/100 - 1/125 and aperture between f/3.5 down to f/4.5 depending on the DOF I wanted to capture.  White balance was set at incandescent.  Since the makeup table had the brightest lights color temperature was adjusted in post.  On the second series which is under studio lights the ISO was set at 200, speed at 1/160 and aperture at f/11 down to f/13.  

I asked Courtney to move around the table, stand up, cross arms, look at me, look off, look at herself, etc.  I shot her close up, standing behind, standing on a stepstool, and into the mirror.  Within 30 seconds I knew she was a pro. 

26mm, speed 1/125, aperture f/4.5, ISO 400

58mm, speed 1/100, aperture f/3.5, ISO 400

 After about 150 images to the backdrop which was the second set planned.  For the portrait / head, upper body shots I used a hairlight consisting of a gridded Paul C Buff striplight on a boom.  The studio monolight was an Alien Bee triggered by the key light.  The key light was a Profoto ComPact-R 1200c monolight with a HUGE softbox.  The monolight was triggered with an internal PocketWizard.  The Profoto was set to ¼ power positioned about 3 feet from Courtney, camera right.  The hairlight was set at 1/8 power and placed about 2 feet above and 6 inches behind Courtney’s head.  Once again the studio lights were off.

Camera in manual mode with the same settings as mentioned above. 

For this series my goal was to capture mainly head and shots from waist up trying to generally replicate poses Marilyn Monroe did.  Courtney needed only limited direction, and when I did direct her, she was a pro.  She held her poses until I told her to move which was great.  We did a series of head shots tight, more open head shots, waist up shots from different perspectives, dress open to show more cleavage, dress closed for a more demure look, & head in different position.  

24mm, speed 1/160, aperture f/13, ISO 200

 After about 150 shots we were finished. 

Oh, did I mention my second shooter had to cancel at the last minute (no major issues), so I asked Michelle who had stuck around to manage Courtney’s hair and watch the shoot to help me by holding a reflector in a few shots and to help Courtney with her dress.  A fun team.

Bottomline, I was completely happy.  It was a fun photoshoot

After action tips:

·         Although it’s often impractical it’s a good idea to have 2 models or someone on standby if one cancels or “no-shows”. 

·         Test the light settings while the makeup is being done.  In this case I didn’t do it because I didn’t have someone to use for the test.  It didn’t really matter on this shoot because I had my camera / lights locked in after just a couple of shots.

·         Keep everyone’s phone numbers and contact information handy and in one place.  Common sense, but I often put information in my notebook, in Facebook, on my iPhone, etc. 

·         Bring copies of photos (hard copies or electronic) to the shoot so everyone can reconfirm what is needed.  In this case I had created a “storyboard” and it worked well.  It was used several times.

·         Make sure everyone gets paid before you leave.  For this shoot I paid everyone before we shot.  Again, common sense to pay people, but after all my planning I forgot to pay the model because she was the last to come in.  I ended up paying her the next day. 

·         Keep your gear organized and know what you brought.  Dave’s studio is well equipped and when cleaning up I could have thought “is that Dave’s or mine?”  I kept everything together on a table.

White Out

I recently organized a photo-shoot at Faith Blackwell’s studio in the Stutz Building with model Olivia Ogden. Shooting with me were local Indianapolis photographers Faith Blackwell & Laura Poland. The theme for this shoot was High Key. This is a technique that I wanted to try, for no other reason than I hadn’t tried it and it looked kind of cool. After reviewing multiple High Key images, reading up and organizing the location and model, I gave it a go.

Photographer Faith Blackwell & Laura Poland with Model Olivia Ogden

The effect to be achieved in high key is to overexpose the background so it’s completely white. There are several ways to get this effect but I planned to accomplish this effect using multiple studio and speedlights to throw as much light as I needed on a white background to over-expose it to the point of where there were no pixels at all.

Faith’s studio has one wall completely white. Since there is a dark grey floor I simply taped with white tape a 6 foot piece of background paper against the lower part of the wall and swept it out over the floor about 4 feet. I then used 2 Nikon SB-600 speedlights on light stands with a white umbrella. The setup faced the wall set back about 3 feet. Both speedlights were triggered with Elinchrom Skyport universal triggers. Speedlights were set at ¼ power. The goal was to use the umbrellas to broadly throw a diffused light against the white wall.

Model Olivia Ogden

I then set up 2 Elinchrom D-Lite 4 strobes with softboxes set at approximately 1/3 power 45 degrees both sides of the background approximately 6 feet back. The D-Lite 4’s were triggered with internal Elinchrom Skyports.

During the shoot I varied the power of the softboxes mainly to backoff the fill lighting. The goal of these lights was to provide an even focused light to be thrown on Olivia. I was thinking originally using just ambient light or just one softbox to get move shadow, but I went with the wrap-around lighting. In hindsight I should have used less light on my model. We also used a hand held diffuser in several shots to eliminate glare from the ambient light coming from the window.

All shots were taken with a Nikon D300s in manual mode. White balance was set to flash although I was shooting in RAW. Initial settings were shutter speed at 1/200, aperture set at f/5.6, and ISO at 400. I varied all settings throughout the shoot. All shots were with a Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 G. I varied the aperture throughout the shoot.

I had asked Olivia to bring several changes of tight fitting clothes one with a dark top and one with a light top. Minimal makeup. The 3 of us then took turns shooting away for about 1 ½ hours. As always Olivia made our work simple by easily transitioning from pose to pose.

Near the end just to switch things up we asked Olivia to run a series of poses infront of a large south facing window. This provided sufficient ambient light as the sun had moved well overhead. We added fill light with one Elinchrom D-Lite 4 set as ¼ power and bounced some sunlight using a piece of white foamcore board.

Overall, it was a fun shoot doing both full body and headshots. We easily achieved the desired high key effect with minimal issues. The speedlights did the trick providing a very even exposure against the white background. Personally, I like the full body shots the best. However, if I do this effect again I would definitely back down the light being thrown on the model or vary the power of the light on one side so I can get shadowing and therefore more depth to the model’s face. Of course I could do the shadowing post processing, but it’s not the same.

Tip and after-thoughts:

• Build the light. For my shoot I set up all 4 lights in addition to the ambient light in advance and did test shots using all 4 lights. Next time I would start with the lights on the background, shoot some test shots of the model, add 1 strobe for the key light, take test shots, and then add a second strobe for fill light. I would then vary the power of the strobes to get different shadowing.

• For high key your histogram is important but a bit misleading. Because you have the background overexposed you will have a large peak on the right side of the histogram. Therefore, about ½ way through the shoot I switched the “blinkies” on and this gave me better visibility if I was blowing out the models face which I didn’t want to do.

• If possible shoot tethered. I think I could have locked down my setting much quicker if I had a bigger visual image as soon as I shot. I’ve shot tethered before, but didn’t think about it during this shoot.

Stutz Model Session

One of the areas I’m spending time is model photography.  I’ve combined this with my increasing interest in flash / strobe lighting.  One place to give this interest a workout is through a local Flickr meet-up group, Indianapolis Strobist.  A group of 7 local photographers, including myself, got together yesterday evening for a model shoot I arranged.

The photographers that showed up were: Lora Olive at www.livepixlive.com, Ashley Adcox at www.koruimage.com, Steve Griffey, Dave Olive, Faith Blackwell at www.faithblackwellphotography.com , and Paul D’Andrea at www.pdaphotography.com

 The meet-up took place at the Stutz Building in Indianapolis.  I’d been to the Stutz a few times in the past as it houses many local artist studios, and they have an annual Stutz Artist Association Open House.  I thought this would be a perfect location because the building has old-style industrial windows, lots of dark halls, industrial fixtures, etc.  On top of this one of the photographers in the group, Faith Blackwell, has a studio in the Stutz.  This was perfect as it allowed us to have a base of operation for our equipment.

I wanted to keep the effort organizing this shoot simple as I have a day job that makes WAY more money than my photo gig. With the help of uber portrait & event photographer, Paul D’Andrea we put a call out for local models.  Good thing Paul has good contacts because I came up blank.  I pinged several models I’ve worked with previously, and reached out to several models through ModelMayhem but came up dry.  Either the models were booked / busy or I received no feedback from anyone on ModelMayhem.  Oh well, since I don’t have a reputation as a model photographer I’m not surprised at my results.  However, with Paul’s help we lined up 2 models we’ve worked with before, and 2 models new to many of us.

Models Bovary & Diablo (MM # 720400) are dynamite together.  They know several of the photographers in the shoot so the chemistry was there. Amanda Jo Welch (MM # 18955491 & 1069732) joined us and had major skills, and Olivia Ogden (MM # 365545) was amazing.

As we’ve done before we broke off into groups and photographed in groups of 2-3.  Since I had an extra Elinchrom Skyport trigger it was easy for me to have a couple of photographers join me.  We took turns with a series of shots and then traded off the triggers.  I started off with Ashley & Steve along with model Amanda.  Later Ashley moved to another group and Faith joined the Steve’s.  We worked Amanda in about 5 locations.  One on a bench, against a set of industrial windows with the sun to her back, another location with the sun to her face and natural lighting to her back, one series in a dark hall, and finally a set with a speedlight directly behind her hair.  We shot for about 2 hours.

In almost all shots I used my standard 2 speedlight setups that I’ve discussed in a previous post.  This time however, I switched out one of my LumiQuest Softbox III with an RPS Studio Softbox RS-4030 set up for a speedlight.  This setup as previously blogged makes for a speedy setup and easy to move around.  We also mixed in a red gel on one of the speedlights which created interesting effects. 

Finally, we headed back to Faith’s studio to cool off (it was uber hot in most of the Stutz) and to try our hand with the other models.  I shot about 15 minutes with Bo and Diablo with the amazing lighting setup that Paul had arranged. 

Finally, Lora and Dave joined me and model Olivia to work some of the hallways.  This time I replaced the RPS Studio Softbox with a standard umbrella (I know, old school).  However, it was so hot in the Stutz the adhesive backed velcro on the Softbox delaminated and the softbox kept falling off the holder…no kidding.  I could have used my LumiQuest Softbox III, but I wanted to try for more diffused light.  In one series the hall was so tight that I could only fit one umbrella in.  I simply set it high and shot below it.  Worked great to add diffused light.

Finally, Steve joined me and we moved Olivia in-front of an old freight elevator.  After a number of normal shots using the umbrella setup, I put a second speedlight behind Olivia and aimed it at the elevator.  This gave some really interesting backlighting effect.  Also we then turned it forward and did a number of shots with the flash firing forward.  Overall, some interesting effects.

In all of my shots tonight I was shooting with a Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and set my camera to manual.  Manual settings were 500 ISO, exposure at 1/100 to 1/160 of a second and f/stop at 6.3.  The speedlights mentioned are my Nikon SB-600's.

Bottomline, we had a great time doing our strobist thing.  As always, can’t leave a post without a few tips: 

·         If you are going to shoot in a group with paid models and plan to split the cost, make sure you get the number of shooters tied down ASAP.  Without it you can’t determine the number of models to hire and $$$ each photographer has to pay without knowing the numbers.

·         Make sure everyone knows the location, route and timing to meet.  We spent about 30 minutes of our 3 hour shoot getting people together and organized.  Remember the meter is running on the models

·         Bring nametags – this may sound really silly but for meetups like this not everyone knows each other

·         Make sure everything, triggers, camera & rechargeable batteries on your speedlights are charged.  If not bring extra batteries.  I did this and was happy I did.  I went through all my batteries.

·         Experiment with lighting and model poses.  Some of our setups worked and some didn’t.  But you know what?  The shots that I didn’t think would work actually came out really well.

·         On hot days like yesterday make sure everyone has water and gets a chance to take lots of breaks.  This includes the models as well.

Big Car Service Center Model Shoot

I recently participated in an interesting photo shoot organized by a local photographer thru a Flickr Group called Indianapolis Strobist. This group came about as a result of the Joe McNally / David Hobbie Flash Bus Tour event that took place in Indianapolis this spring. This photoshoot was organized by Paul D’Andrea, a local photog that I’ve known for about 3 years.

Paul arranged for a group of 6 photographers to meet at the Big Car Service Center. The facility is a “retired” Firestone car repair shop being converted into an arts colony / gathering place for all types of art related events. The location is perfect for a grunge / abandoned industrial photo backdrop. Paul hired 3 local models, all excellent. We paired up (I paired up with Stacy), selected a model and went on our way. 

Amanda (Model Mayhem ID #1025679) agreed to team-up with me and Stacy. Amanda came ultra prepared with multiple changes of clothing for different looks, and even a wig. She was skilled so it allowed us to focus on position & lighting.

Because I wasn’t sure how much power would be available at the facility I brought portable flash units. My trusty Nikon SB-600 Speedlights. I used a LumiQuest SoftBox III on each. Both flash units were set to manual and triggered by Elinchrom EL-Skyport universal receivers. Both mounted on generic light stands. This is my typical portable light setup since it’s easy to set up and portable. Although the LumiQuest’s are called softboxes, I think they really act more like large directional diffusers.

The way we operated was to have one photog man the flash units and adjust the power settings and move them around as needed while the other shot. I have 2 Elinchrom Skyport triggers so it was easy for me and Stacy to work seamlessly. We started off putting our model in-front of a large electrical panel, and later in a corner between some industrial grade shelving. Because we got set up first a couple of the other photographers (Ashley & Faith) joined in for a look and a shoot.

I had my camera set to M mode, 400 ISO, 1/125-250 shutter speed & f/5.6-6.3. In all but a few shots I used a Nikkor AFS 24-70mm f/2.8 G ED lens (The Nikkor). Note, 1/250 is the max synch speed I have set for the camera / flash setup. I could use high speed synch, but for this type of work it is not needed. 

One addition was the use of colored gels on one of the flash units for part of the shoot. Red & green turned out to bring in the right mood.

After about an hour with this setup, I switched to the “big room”, mainly because it was getting so hot in the electrical / storage room. There Paul had set up a big piece of peg board. I also used an Elinchrom D-Lite 4it 400w with Portalite soft-box mounted as my key light. I had the key light set head high right from the shooter. I also mounted an SB-600 setup behind the peg board to highlight the holes. Finally another SB-600 setup was moved around the model to change the shadowing. Amanda had changed up her clothes and put on a wig which was almost like having 2 models in one!

One other thing I experimented in this setup was to put a flash unit directly behind the model. The idea was to have the flash fire directly into the camera. I enjoy playing with this sunburst effect.

Overall, we were there or about 3 hours. Part of the time I spent watching the other photographers in my group shoot.

A few after-shoot thoughts and comments:

• The models we hired (Diablo, Bovary & Amanda) were great. They were skilled and completely into the shoot. They were easy to direct and participated in setting the correct mood of the image. I can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure your models know in advance what is expected and that they share your concepts.
• If you are in a grungy / sweaty / dirty environment, bring a towel. I did this time and used it to put my equipment on it versus right on the concrete floor, and to wipe my face. It was sweaty.
• Experiment and try different light settings and gels. Some of my favorite shots were with the gels and unusual lighting locations.
• Watch other photographers shoot. It’s interesting to see how others view a scene and what they create. It also give you a break.
• Plan your shoot. Bring the right kit. It wasn’t as much of an issue on this shoot since we actually parked our cars right next to (and inside) the facility, and multiple photographers meant we would have just about everything.
• Post your images for others to see. We use a Flickr group for these shoots and it was very interesting to see what others captured and processed.
• The Nikon SB-600 flash unit is a good basic unit, but getting a bit dated. 

We’re planning another model shoot next up. This time in another building and in the surrounding alleys.