I was working with model Ashely Jones recently, we had a great photo-shoot and once again the beauty of one-light was clear. While additional lights may have taken this in a more complete direction, the simple effect of a single light is not to be underestimated (in this case a 90 x 100 Elinchrom softbox)
Beauty and the Beast
This proved a tricky shoot – but in the end we made something of it. Steph is getting a tattoo from Tony – on her wedding day. Both of them proved great models, and Rafal worked his magic with Steph’s hair and makeup (Tony looked after himself, which means he had a coffee and a nap until we were ready)
Getting the light just right is always a challenge in some environments, and you always pack up wondering whether you’ve captured the shot your envisioned. But once the image was finalised and processed, everyone was happy with the results..
Corey against the sky
Corey and I arranged a quick test-shoot at the beach, but sometimes things don’t work out as planned. In this case the area I chose wasn’t working photographically. We were on a tight time line, so I decided to carry on where we were and drop in a new background later. This sky works well, but maybe a city scape is called for instead – or a substitute beach since the original wasn’t working out. Replacing a background is time consuming – so it’s always better to get it right in-camera if possible. With a background swap like this you also need to match the lighting – although on this occasion it’s mis-matched, I still like the dramatic sky effect. Some rules are meant to be broken…
Here’s Dave. The light was coming through a dirty window in the old barn, and all that dust and dirt on the glass diffused the light quite effectively. Sometimes simple is best…
Some audition shots for a forthcoming cook-book. Like all food photography, the real work goes into the preparation. In fact it takes a surprising amount of time to tweak the lighting and layout. There are many small adjustments involved as the final look-and-feel approaches, a slight move here, a change of angle there.
This photo is a shot of Bircher Muesli as Maple Syrup is applied. The main light used is a large softbox for even light with soft shadows, an additional light provides a touch of light to the background wall so as to provide some depth – along with a “breakfast time” look-and-feel….
One of the great “looks” in fashion photography is a model against a white background. This has always been a favoured style, but in some ways the Internet has re-popularised it as a plain white background resolves well online, and it makes for clean integration on a web page that also uses white as it’s background colour.
Of course there’s white and there is white – in this example we’d want to make the white even “purer” for online use. That can be achieved by further attention to the lighting, or some post processing in Photoshop. An important requirement is not to let the light reflecting off the rear walls be so over-exposed that it interferes with the outline of the model, or creates lens flare problems – so typically the background lighting will be metered about two stops higher than the model’s lighting – but no more. It can also be helpful to have your model move forward from the wall – and/or to use some flags and black foam core to further control the reflected light.
Emily is a Sydney based ballerina currently studying in London. We arranged a series of photos for her fund-raising portfolio (tuition at this level does not come cheap).
Using a nearby flower shop as the venue, we took a range of photos – some of which were enlarged to very big prints with outstanding results. When the lighting, make-up, and model all come together like this, a quality print shop can produce images that are true works of art. The web simply can’t do justice to the quality of the prints as delivered – but trust me, they are amazing!
Niki presents some classical poses for a cover shoot. Using simple lighting techniques and straightforward poses we created a number of graceful images that met the brief. Things don’t need to be complicated to make strong images – and how do you know if an image is “strong”? Well if it makes you feel something emotional, then it’s probably connecting with you (as Jay Trachman used to say, entertainment is about making people experience an emotion)
Matt and I worked on a series of commissioned shots designed to show a steam-punk theme. In the end three images were selected to illustrate this – they were arranged side-by-side against a black background to form a triptych.
From Wikipedia;
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technologies like the computer but developed earlier in an alternate history.
The idea was to photograph a series of pet-food packs. This seemed easy enough, but it wasn’t as simple as it might seem…
The plastic packs proved highly reflective (as seen on the left image), so a few tricks were required. Firstly I used a polarizing filter over the lens, then I experimented with polarizing gel over the flashes. This helped a lot, but the final tweak came via a simple trick – namely to take one photo, move the lights and take another. The two images were then overlaid in Photoshop, and using selective masking I could paint over most of the reflections showing a non-highlighted part of the pack in the layer below (I left some reflections on purpose to communicate the surface feel)
So far so good…
I started taking photos for a newspaper "way back" and quickly learned to travel with a camera all the time. Another lesson was to focus on people, portraits, and stories - something I continue to do today read more >>
