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Wizard Trails: Home of a wandering wizard

 

Fotoshoot #9: SantokuSystem

My ninth photoshoot became my first offsite one. The band SantokuSystem wanted some shots of their rehearsal to use for band promotion purposes.

I'd shot a rehearsal of one of their previous incarnations, so I had a pretty good idea what to expect: very very bad light. The options then where to shoot everything at very high ISO, or to bring along all my studio lights.
I chose the latter and packed up everything but the backgrounds (setting all this up in the small rehearsal room was a challenge). All in all the shoot went pretty well. Backgrounds were an issue, because the room was rather cluttered and too small to blur out the background given how close the lights were to the subjects. I played around a bit with gold reflectors to make the light a bit warmer (which worked quite well). The hardest part was to get the drummer well lit, because he was considerably further back than the rest of the band. However once I dedicated a light for him (lighting him from the side) that was no longer a problem.

I found out to my relief that my studio lights come with a spare fuse: the drummer light didn't like me moving it and fizzled, but luckily the spare fuse meant I could keep shooting (though the pilot light was broken).

Photoshoot #8: Steffi and Nick

Wow... it's been a while since I've updated this blog. In fact it's been so long that I haven't yet gotten around to commenting on photoshoots I did in June and it's almost september, so I figure I better get those out of the way before I explain why I've been remiss in updating.

Anyway, photoshoot number 8 was Steffi and Nick, a young couple wanting some pictures together. This brought its own sets of challenges because now instead of one person, I had two in my small studio. Sure, I've had more before, but those were kids. Adults are different: they're bigger.

While they were standing up there was no problem, but I've found that you tend to get more dynamic poses while sitting, and that's where the narrowness of my studio becomes an issue (and the wide angles I need in there). This brought a lot of work filling in the sides of the frames where the background ran out. I'm not entirely sure how I can prevent that without getting a bigger studio (which is not an option).

The models wanted some of the shots converted to sepia tones, which is something I don't usually play with (I'm more likely to greatly desaturate an image for a similar but different effect). It was interesting to contrast the colour images with the sepia ones. Take the following two, and look especially at the rose and the contrast it forms with the rest of the picture:

I also returned to playing with silhouettes this shoot, taking it to a full black and white extreme:

Some more pictures (not many as most pictures were of a personal rather than an artistic nature):

The summer of antwerp

The giants I photographed a couple of years ago were back this weekend, so I figured I'd go say hi.

The very model of a modern photographer

I am the very model of a modern photographer
My skills honed daily, I’m an insatiable pixel peeper
I know the laws of phyics, and I quote the zeiss formula
C is d over one seven thirty, but only in the raw
I am an expert too, at spotting luminance and chroma noise
I see it at high iso, from small sensory camera toys
As a master of my art, I’ll always get the next new model
Since outdated gear makes my photography forum cred toddle,
I’ve studied in much depth the intricate law of equivalence,
And must say I approach it with a great deal of ambivalence
Because though you may in ignorance call it true hypocrisy
I’ll take full frame, for I can’t afford MF aristocracy
In short, on forums they call me a relentless pixel peeper,
I am the very model of a modern photographer

I know the essential seven secrets of the range dynamic
And have downloaded software for stitching pictures panoramic
I know all the acronyms mystic: FF, A and HDR
Even though I must admit, the results I’ve seen are quite bizarre
I’ve known for years all there is to know on exposure bracketing
And can blindly change almost ev’ry obscure but useful setting
I have a special gray card and my monitor’s calibrated
If I find a fault somewhere I’ll always upgrade unabated
I pity the poor fools who use the other manufacturer
They’ll get no better photographs than does the wedding caterer
In short, on forums they call me a relentless pixel peeper,
I am the very model of a modern photographer

In fact, as soon as I can find out what is meant with golden hour,
When I have the skills requir’d to take a picture of a flower
When I switch from auto to A-mode and turn off auto-iso
And remove from pictures the nasty lens flare that is an eye-sore
When I’ve found out how to use my camera photographical,
In times when the light is grey and faded and less than optimal,
In short when I’ve a smattering of experience practical
I will change my worry from gear to composition tactical
For my photographic knowledge, though I’m one of many preachers
Stems not from picture taking, but rather has blogs as teachers
But still, on forums they call me a relentless pixel peeper,
I am the very model of a modern photographer

Upcoming shoots: weeks 25-26

I'll have the weekend off this week, which will give me some time to catch up with friends and family. Not to say I won't be taking any pictures though: I'm halfway planning on going by a local zoo (there's been a litter of lions and snow leopards and another zoo has a baby hippo)

I do have an appointment for a shoot on monday: a young woman and her friend want some nice pictures together. I think during this shoot I'm going to focus more on directing and pay special attention to facial expressions. I figure with a couple this will be easier than with a solo model as here I can direct them to look at each other.

On tuesday I have a completely different shoot: a coworker of mine wants pictures from his band and I'll be attending one of their rehearsals with my studio lighting kit. This should be an interesting experience. I've previously shot his earlier band, but that was with my old camera and without the lights.

What people get

So, what do people actually get after a photoshoot? Well, pretty much this:

That's a DVD, a dvd case and a couple of prints. The number of prints depends on how much time and paper I have. Occasionally I'll also toss in some business cards.

Photoshoot #7: Yentl

Last Saturday's shoot brought the youngest model in my studio yet: 8 or 9-week old Yentl with her parents and godmothers. The brief for the shoot was to get some pictures for the baptism card, and then add some various pictures.

After running out of white background paper during the previous week's shoot, I went to get a new roll and also got a roll of light blue. It's this latter roll that was used most, and I'm actually quite pleased with the results. The light-blue near-sky colour seems to work well with the yellow light from the gold umbrella reflector (after some white balance tweaking) and it was quite easy to light. Fortunately the clothing colours of some of the models worked quite well with it as well. The only minor gripe I have about the blue is that it looks a bit weird in full body shots when there's blue below people's feet. I'm sure I can find a way to adjust.

Speaking of paper rolls, the people were kind enough to take off their shoes for this shoot which meant the paper survived without any marks on it. A big save for me :)

Also new during this shoot were relatively tall people and groups. The former was a bit problematic because the white paper roll (rolled up) came in view on several pictures when the father was standing up. Nothing I can't fix in post, but something to be aware of. The group was easier: all 4 adults + baby fitted on the picture (albeit with the father on the second row). One issue here is how to cope with multiple skin tones under artificial light. White balance is tricky here and getting natural skin for all involved proved tricky.

Oh, and this time I'm allowed to show some of the pictures, so here goes:

Photoshoot #6

Photoshoot #6 last sunday was originally meant to be a fashion-centric shoot with one model, but turned into an all-round one with two. Sadly I don't have permission to show any pictures so you'll have to make do with my description.

I messed up a bit this time around, and after I'd cut the white paper background I found out that I didn't have enough left for another shoot. I "solved" this by taping the back of an older cut onto what was left and fixing the seem in post-processing. In the future I'll have to keep better track of how much paper I cut off so I know exactly how much I have left.

For most of the shoot we then used the black background, which was good practice. The black seems more reflective than the white, which means that the bend in the paper between wall and floor is more visible. I'll have to see if I can solve this in the future, maybe by putting more light onto the ground. I'll also have to add a little more light on the models in the future, especially if they are wearing dark clothes.

I also tried a couple of new shots with the models leaning against one of the walls. This is possible now because earlier I removed the big white radiator. The results were decent, but I'll need to experiment with this angle some more.

Having some fashion/glamour magazines around helped a lot, with the models paging through those to find poses to copy. A lot easier than me having to come up with anything :)

Finally I ran into a rather big problem with focussing that I only noticed later: a rather disturbingly large number of the pictures were out of focus and I don't know why. Looking at the camera data, the camera seemed to think the models were as far as 10-40m away at times, which in a room that's less than 4m is an impressive achievement. Either I have done something dramatically wrong (and done it wrong quite often) or there's something wrong with the camera. Obviously I hope the former, but either way: there's some blurry pictures in there.

Photoshoot #5: Luka

Yesterday I had two coworkers come over for a photo session for their son, Luka. Luka is 7 and turning 8 soon and his mother wanted some pictures to treasure for the future, as well as some shots to put on the invitation for his birthday.

The photoshoot itself went quite well with Luka proving very cooperative. I brought out some of my hoard of weapons again, and I used my new black paper for the first time (unfortunately I selected that just when he changed into very dark clothes, just my luck :P)

This time around I do have some samples to show you: