Dean & Abigail Shoot

I know local photographer, Dean Scott, and I am Facebook friends with a local model, Abigail Duff.  Dean visited our M10 Studio’s First Friday event last month.  During his visit I gave him a tour of the complex where  he expressed an interest in shooting there.  No problems, just let me know.  I like his work / style so I figured it would be a good learning experience for me as well to watch him work.

We caught up at a recent Creative Meet-up in Indianapolis and he said he wanted to shoot.  I said sure, so we had a gig.  My plan for the shoot was to let him use the studio as a place to store his kit / give Abigail a place to change and escort him while in the building.  I also volunteered to handle lighting, help him set-up, but he really didn’t need the assist.

I’ve not photographed Abigail, but have seen her images online and others have said she’s great to work with.  I was therefore excited to work with Dean and meet with Abigail, and even take a few shots.

Dean & Abigail arrived on time and we got going.  Dean had a really interesting setup for his kit.  He does most of his model work outside of studio, so he organized all of his studio lighting, modifiers, camera & accessories packed in a large roller case.  He replaced the case’s small plastic wheels with large “all terrain” wheels.  Quite the setup.  At minimum he had: 

·         Alien Bee B800 studio light

·         Alien Bee B1600 studio light

·         Paul C Buff PLM umbrella

·         35” Octabox with G35 grid

·         Large beauty dish

·         Vagabond mini battery

·         Miscellaneous Pocket Wizards

·         Sekonic L-358 FlashMaster light meter

·         Nikon D7000 

Dean had a portable studio, and it was clear he had worked this kit before.  He was able to set it up and break it down quickly.  Abigail also came prepared with multiple changes of clothes and shoes.  Nice thing the studio has a place to hang clothes!

Dean & Abigail did 4 sets.  One in the middle of a large space with natural light flowing in.  All industrial, all gritty.  The next was against a large unfinished wall with the aluminum stud supports exposed.  I gave Dean a recommendation to move the one Alien Bee B800 with the gridded Octabox camera left and close to Abigail.  The idea was to get some hard shadows.  Worked out great.  I asked if I could take a few shots using the lighting setup (borrowed a PocketWizard) so I stepped in for a few minutes.  I used trusty Nikon D300s my new AF-SNikkor 70-200 f/2.8G VRII.  That lens is AMAZING.

Shadows & Pink Shoes

After a change of clothes the next shoot was in a utility room.  The room was dark, dirty and HOT.  Dean set up one Alien Bee with the grid as the key light and the other with a large blue gel camera right behind Abigail as a modifier.  The idea was to cast a blue color on the industrial panel.  Abigail did a nice job posing and getting in position to maximize both the key light and the reflected blue light.  Once again I stepped in after Dean was finished and took multiple shots of Abigail in the same setting.

Blue Wall & Pick Shoes

Finally, we had Abigail change clothes and we headed upstairs.  It was really dark and Dean wanted to minimize the use of the studio light.  The idea was to shoot from a low vantage point and get some of the empty ceiling tiles in the shot.  Created a very dark / edgy look.   I took a turn in this setting also without the studio light.

Upstairs - available lighting, high ISO, converted to B&W

We were done and headed back down to the studio to cool down and pack up.  Before we wrapped up, Abigail volunteered to let me shoot a few shots of her against a white seamless.  Nice.  

Abigail in studio - shot against white seamless

Overall, I think both Dean and Abigail had a good time, and some good photographs.  I also was able to grab a few images myself, although I was a photographer’s chaperon versus a primary shooter.  A fun times.  Highly recommend Abigail Duff, and if possible I’ll hire her for a normal shoot in the studio.

A few thoughts: 

·         Dean and Abigail really didn’t need me hanging over them, but I was the host so I was at their leisure.  The idea is if you let someone use your studio, even if it’s not in the studio make sure they feel welcome.

·         Bring rags when shooting in an industrial / gritty setting.  Abigail got pretty messy during the shoot in the utility room and luckily I brought a small rag and some water.  She was able to generally clean up after that part of the shoot.

·         Always be prepared to shoot.  I honestly didn’t think I would be taking any photographs, but I was able to, and I’m glad I did.  Abigail is top notch and I really liked to results.

·         Pay close attention to how other photographers shoot.  I spent most of my time watch Dean’s shooting style and lighting setup.  I also watched how he worked with the model.  Some good tips on compact lighting setup.

·         Bring a fast lens.  I had a pro f/2.8 and in some settings I was still shooting wide open.  Dean had a variable aperture lens and he had to crank down his shutter speed and increase his ISO to get tack sharp. Not a problem with the studio lights, but available light was a problem.  A wider aperture gives you more flexibility

·         Get everyone’s contact information – man, I didn’t get Abigail’s.  Wait, that doesn’t sound right, having a guy asking a gal for her number…. 

Trash-Cam

A few months ago I drove by a local Goodwill Outlet store.  The place was massive, and I had some time to kill, so I would wandered in.  Holy cow, the place is a second hand clothes, book, shoe and odds & end paradise.  Basically, the place is row after row of big blue bins on wheels filled with "stuff".  The rows are divided by type of article, i.e. clothes, odds & ends.  They rotate the bins about every 2 hours with new merchandise.  The thing that's so cool, is that the items sell for $0.69 per pound. 

Romor R-2, Chinon Flash II & Windor RX-3 Goodness

Well, while wandering around this swap-meet like environment looking in a few of the odds & ends bins and POW an old Polaroid camera.  Bought it.  Over the past few months I've stopped by about twice a month and just dug through the bins, with a single objective.  Find camera stuff.  I've purchase about 20 assorted Polaroid cameras, flash units, Brownies, etc.  And what's even more fun is that recently I've found 3 completely plastic "toy" film cameras.  They look very much like the higher end Leica cameras, of course, if you are looking from far away and squinting your eyes.

I've found a camera called a Chinon Flash II, a Romor R-2 & recently a Windsor RX-3.  Yes, boys and girls my collection of Trash-Cams.  Just for giggles I've loaded them up with 35mm film, and you know what - they all work.  Not bad for a grand total of less than $2 for all 3.  I've gone on line to find out information about these guys, and basically nothing.

OK, understand I'm a serious digital photographer, but I love these little cameras.  They are totally impractical, and the build quality completely sucks, but the image output is so aweful its great.  I mean light leak city, moire pattern on the Romor, apeture ring pops off the Chinon and black electric tape minimizes the light leaks on the Windsor.  And to think I just paid $2,400 for a Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII - go figure.

Chinon - P-51Mustang

Chinon - Holding up a Pole

I've even thought about painting a red circle above the lens on the Romor so people think I'm toting a Leica.  Photog humor.

So if you see me around town taking street shots toting a Leica, think again, its actually one of my Trash-Cams.

Romor - Hand In Hand

Romor - Side Street Bar

Plastic

I had a good idea for another themed model photoshoot.  This time “Plastic”.  The idea was to use heavy makeup to create a skin effect that gave my model’s skin a plastic looking effect.  More out of science fiction than the freak-a-zoid looking robots from Sony or other Japanese manufacturers.

While researching for the shoot I came across the following image.  This is what I was going for.

The Original Idea

With my theme in hand I created a photo storyboard of looks I wanted.  Sasha Starz, the MUA I usually hire, was contacted to see if she wanted to help.  She was onboard.  Based on my main image I was leaning to hiring a model of color, but didn’t have anyone in mind, so as in the past Sasha was asked to help.  She identified Cory, a local model who goes under the model name of Amyle Leon.  

I checked images of Cory, and determined she was perfecto.  Tall, lean and straightened hair (more on this later).  We even had a chance to meet up before the shoot at a local Artist Meet-up get together.  Yep, she was what I was looking for, and seemed really interested in working with me.

Over the next week I was getting doubts how we were going to pull this off.  Do I  pull Cory’s hair back, what type of lighting, background color, clothes, etc.?  This theme wasn’t developing as easily as hoped. I decided to just go for it, and do lots of adjustments in studio.

Wanting maximum flexibility in lighting & backgrounds, I went to the studio the evening before and set up 3 backdrop and 2 lighting setups. I used Savage Seamless Background Paper brand fashion grey, pure white, and black.  Got all the lighting set up, so less time would be spent setting up when Cory arrived.

Day of the shoot and everything was ready to go.  We scheduled to shoot for 7’ish and everyone started to arrive at M10 Studio.  The second Sasha and Cory arrived I thought, “oh no”.  First, Cory didn’t have straight hair anymore, but a modified, loose afro.  Yikes, and secondly she brought her boyfriend.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I encourage models to bring a friend or escort, but the problem tonight, I hadn’t expected it.  More, on why this was an issue later.

Anyway, in her normal professional manner, Sasha got to work.  We talked about Cory’s hair and decided pulling it back in a ponytail wasn’t going to work.  No way to get her hair tight to her skull, so we decided to go a ‘natural.  A photographer has to be flexible.  We discussed makeup, making final decisions on several colors.  Off we go. 

While Cory and Sasha did their thing I wanted to do a final lighting setup and then chat up Cory a bit more to get to know her better and talk more of what I had in mind in terms of posing and lighting concepts.  That’s where Cory’s boyfriend changed the flow.  Don’t get me wrong, he is a really cool guy; the problem is I enjoyed talking to him so much I didn’t get a chance to focus on Cory or getting my lighting setup finalized.  I knew that was a bad move.

Anyway, Cory was ready, and honestly the makeup concept I had in mind just wasn’t going to be pulled off.  Cory’s hair was going to create too many shadows on her face if I put my studio lights directly above with minimal diffusion as planned.  We got started against the black backdrop and I did several test shots to get the camera settings down.  I used manual mode with shutter speed at 1/160 second, f/8 aperture setting and ISO at 200.  This is the normal setting I use to get started and adjust from there.  All photos were taken with a Nikon D300s mounted with my AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED.

Camera locked in, and off we went.  I moved Cory around, moved lighting, changed position, etc. and just didn’t get the “plastic” effect I wanted, and so I decided to focus on more of a standard portrait shoot.  I brought some bubble wrap so I thought I could use it to get a “plastic” effect by using it as clothing later in the shoot.  Lighting throughout the shoot consisted of 1 or 2 Elinchrom D-Lite studio strobes as my key lighting, and 2 Nikon SB-600 speedlights for fill lighting, and to add effect onto the background.  I used different modifiers on the Elinchrom studio lights, but later in the shoot found a 30 degree grid worked the best.

After about 30 minutes we switched to the fashion grey background and changed the lighting.  This time I put a large Elinchrom beauty dish with a white diffuser on an Elinchrom D-Lite for the key light.  I set the power to the lowest setting, but very close to Cory.  I used another Elinchrom D-Lite with a grid at higher power.  My goal was to get much more dramatic shadowing.  Once set I shot multiple photos moving the lighting around.  On several shots I turned off the key light and simply used the gridded light.

After about 30 minutes Cory changed clothes replacing her clothes with bubble wrap.  That was interesting since I was still trying to get at least something along the Plastic theme.  I think we hit on a good idea by using bubble wrap as bikini styled top, and worked the shadows.  We played with this for about 30-45 minutes.  Cory, Sasha & Cory’s boyfriend all contributed to ideas how to get the right effect.  

Bubble Wrap

Overall it was fun, but I really didn’t get the themed effect I was looking for.  Ultimately, that’s OK, because I still was able to get some quality time in the studio, met a new cool guy that I'd like to hang out with, and walked away with some good images. 

OK, as always you get my daily dose of after action tips & thoughts.  Not to disappoint: 

·         Be very specific about the theme with the model, including how you expect them to prepare.  In this shoot it was specifically my model’s hair.  If I knew it was going to be changed up, I would have either changed my theme or rescheduled.

·         Escorts, boy/girlfriends, significant others are A-OK, but note to self, ask first if my model is going to bring someone.  At minimum I should have simply welcomed him, made him comfortable and went on with my business.

·         Have a backup plan for a shoot if for some reason you first theme just isn’t working.

·         Don’t do 2 model shoots in 1 day.  I did on this day, and I was feeling it around 10pm while cleaning up the studio.  The first one was before sunrise.  Yikes.

·         Meet your model in advance if possible.  I did and it really helped me get to know Cory a bit in advance.  She’s a good model and was fun to chat with.  I felt completely at ease with her and I think the earlier get together helped.

Indianapolis Airshow 2012

A Thunderbird F-16 flying overhead

Just for fun I went to the Indianapolis Airshow 2012 at the Indianapolis Regional Airport.  I knew it was going to be extremely hot and sunny, but I figured there would also be aircraft, people, activity, noise, etc.  You got it - a photo rich environment.

I took a fairly simple kit simply because I didn't want to lug a big camera bag around in the hot weather.  I took my Nikon D300s, my AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mmf/3.5-5.6G ED VR II, AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF- ED & a Tokina AT-X 107 AF DX Fisheye – 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5.  As you can tell, I wanted to go long and wide.  Also, just for giggles I brought a Chinon Flash II 35mm film camera recently rescued from a Goodwill Outlet for, wait for it .... 50 cents!!

The Old and the New

Thunderbirds Flyby

Because the conditions were incredibly sunny, shutter speed was NOT a problem.  I simply set my ISO to the lowest setting, 200, and aperture to f/8 or higher to get maximum DOF.  Only a few times did I open up my aperture to get a shallower DOF.  When I did I decreased Exposure Compensation to avoid overexposure.

Watching the action on the ground and in the sky

I basically walked around taking pictures of anything I thought was interesting.  Lots of people, lots of aircraft on the ground, aircraft in the air for the airshow, and of course the Thunderbirds.  I took mainly "snapshots" since I wanted to capture the event versus getting the best technically correct image. 

Ended up with a good mix and overall had fun. 

After action report:

• Take a towel or a rag (which I did).  When it's toasty outside you want to make sure you don't sweat on your camera, especially when changing the lens. 
• Minimize your kit when you do an event like this.  I really could have just gone with the 18-200mm, since this is a good "walking-around" lense, and that's basically all I was doing.
• Take care changing your lens.  It was extremely dusty in parts of the location.  Need to minimize the dust that can get on your sensor.
• Don't be afraid to take photos of the people watching the show.  Got some good images of people looking at the aircraft in the sky.
• Have fun with the camera.  Sometimes I need to remember it's sometimes just fun to shoot pictures.

First Friday M10 Studio Showing - "Nighttime is the Right Time"

An Indianapolis monthly event the IDADA First Friday is just around the corner.  The July gallery crawl is scheduled for July 6th from 6pm until 9'ish.

At M10 Studio where I'm a partner, I'll be featured and showing many of my nighttime urban landscapes and street scenes, titled "Nighttime is the Right Time".  Come on out to see good photograhy by me, Paul D'Andrea & Eric Schoch.  Also, good conversation and we plan to have a working portrait setup so we can show our guests how some of our portrait magic happens.

Also, while there you can check out the other galleries and artists at the Circle City Industrial Complex.  Mark it on your calendar boys and girls.  Come and see the show.

M10 Studio is located at:
1125 Brookside Ave.
Studio C7-A (central galleries)
Indianapolis, IN 46201

Facebook Event

Before & After

I joined an online critique forum on Facebook to get comments on images from other photographers.  One of the challenges with any pursuit, whether it's photography, painting, being a lawyer, or whatever is to always find avenues to find out honestly how you can do better / improve.

Photographers have many options to get online feedback and post their images.  We have FB, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr just to name a few.  My experience is that whenever you post something online you may or may not get comments or feedback....even if you ask for it.  And almost all the time the feedback is something like: "great photo", "excellent lighting", "amazing", etc.  What is often missing is, "Wow Steve, that image really is dark, what gives..", or "how about if you crop the image down to put focus on your subject".  That is helpful, but I find that most people don't provide constructive comments online.

Well so far the local FB page that is a critique forum appears to be doing this.

I posted this image for comment.  This was a model shot done at the Spark Art Photo owned by Dave Fulton in Indianapolis during a model shoot / party.  The setup was pretty standard - black background, large softbox camera right, reflector camera left, manual mode.  This shot was taken about 6 months ago.  Model compliment of LModelz

Before - model from LModelz

I thought it pretty good, so posted it for comment on Flickr, etc.  Got lots of really positive feedback and comments.  However, I also posted it on the photographer critic group and got the following comments:

• My model's face is too cool
• There's lint on you model's shirt
• The eyes are way too blue (note the model had colored contacts)
• The image is too dark

There we go.  Solid feedback, and when I looked at the original I thought...you know my model's face is too cool, man, I didn't even see the lint, and yes too dark.  So I made a few adjustments in the image and here it is.

After - Model from LModelz

Honestly, there may not be much difference (I would suggest you view the image at full size since the small blog thumbnail doesn't provide full effect), but there are subtle changes that a photographer will pick out.  This is the type of feedback that all photographers need.  How can we be better.  Don't shy away from it, be bold and ask for constructive feedback.  I know I will.

Street Photography - Indianapolis 500 Style

Sitting on the sidewalk watching the crowd walk by

Another after dark street photoshoot.  This time I went out the night before the 2012 Indianapolis 500 along Georgetown Road.  I knew from previous year’s shoots this setting was going to be street photographer friendly.  Lots of alcohol loosened people, mixed lighting, loads of people in every stage of dress.  You guessed it, another perfect shooting opportunity.  Also from previous years I knew it was best to go light weight.  For this reason I simply took my Nikon D300s camera and my AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8mm lens.  I also took a Nikon SB-600 speedlight, but never broke it out.

All shots were done in Aperture priority.  I set my ISO to 1600 and f/stop between f/1.8 through f/5.6.  I tried to keep my aperture as tight as possible to get reasonable depth of field.  Shutter speed normally ended up around 1/50, but whenever it got slower than 1/50 I cranked the ISO up to 3200.  I wasn’t too worried about noise due to the high ISO because I was going to convert all images to B&W.

Way too much to drink !! Unable to get up

This setup was solid for street photography.  It was low profile and pretty speedy.  The only challenge was that on occasions I had problems focusing due to the extreme darkness in some areas.  No problems I just switched to manual focus.  

So with my camera kit all ready to go I arrived around 10pm, but the area was HOPPING!  I simply joined the crowd of people walking up and down Georgetown Road.  Occasionally I would walk over to the sidewalk and stop to shoot as people walked by.  It was a great photographic environment as everyone appeared to be having a great time.  

Loads of people enjoying the after dark atmosphere

After action report:

·         If you are going to shoot in an environment like this pack light. I’d learned from previous shoots that too much kit was just going to sit on my back.  Way too many people for a tripod also.

·         Bring your fastest lens.  I took my 35mm, but probably should have also brought along my AF-S 50mm F/1.4G.  Even though this would take tighter shots of the crowd the additional aperture stop would have been supremo in this lighting situation.

·         As I’ve said previously, don’t be afraid to go up and ask people if you can shoot their picture.  In a night like this, it’s really no problem.

·         Balance your shutter speed with your ISO.  Keep your shutter speed up above 1/50 if at all possible which means sacrificing ISO if you want to keep your aperture as high as possible to maximize your DOF.  I sacrificed ISO on this shoot to keep my aperture at F/5.6 and my shutter speed at 1/50 or higher.