Major Shoot Today

[ennuipoet]

I just finished my first big contract shoot today, doing model shots for a physical therapists website. Snapped a series of models on a white background with a three light Tungsten set up to blow out the background. It was the hardest shoot I’ve ever done, makes a parade with ten thousand people seem easy!

Getting the light balance right with three lights is tough! And because it was done in the therapist’s office instead of a studio, being able to find angles to shoot from was a nightmare. I was standing on furniture, on tables, almost hanging from the rafters. At least I wasn’t doing a lot of model direction which I know nothing about, the therapist and designer were there to do that. But I learned a ton about how it works. All in all, a huge pain…my back is killing me, but a fantastic learning experience and the shots came out well, not super fantastic but well. The designer is going to do a lot of photoshop on them to get rid of seams and shadows, but he knew he would need to.

Once I see his picks, I will post some images that are not going to be on the website he is designing.

[Barracuda]

look forward to seeing the results. 🙂

[Yugoboy]

What a terrific opportunity!

I only found out last week that one of the guys at my current work site is an on-line “radio” dj who’s having his show syndicated and has his agent riding his ass for head shots. As soon as he saw some of my pics, he decided to go with me. Wednesday or Thursday. In return for the shots, he will be allowing me to put my watermark on his shots and will be promoting me to whoever asks.

Looking forward to your shots!

[ravnostic]

Awesome, will await the results.

[orionid]

+1

[emiliogtz]

Get back and post some samples, if you are allowed to, maybe tell us how you made it all work =) When we shoot in our living-room-turned-studio or in rented studios, things are difficult, can’t even imagine what shooting in a therapist’s office is like what with all the furniture, the shadows, people coming and going…

[ennuipoet]

Starting with the basic lighting diagram

We used bright white background paper hung on a DIY rod, two paint rollers with a spring tension to brace in on the ceiling. The lights moved around a bit during the shoot, but this is the basic set up, three 500 tungstens in 12 inch reflectors on lightstands. I started with umbrellas but they muted the light on the backdrop to much. Everthing was metered on a 18% Gray Card in camera, spot mode.

First subject. I was shooting aperture priority, which was dumb as it kept shifting the shutter speed. What I should’ve done was switched to manual and stayed there. I am used to shooting natural light, so the change in mindset was kicking my ass.

As you see, we had a seam in the background, which is clearly visible even after I post processed these. I loaded them in lightroom, white balanced for Tungsten and then boosted the Whites to 100%. The designer is going to photoshop the seam out, or life the subjects entirely and place on a blank white background. There is a lot more I could do dodging and burning, and for my portfolio shots I will, these are just cropped and color adjusted.

The office was closed for the shoot, and the subjects were all patients so they knew what they were doing. We closed off all the windows and turned down the overheads, to keep the white balance the same.

I think the most important thing to take away from this, is if you HAVE space use it. Do not seam your background. Use the right lens for the job, I was shooting on 24-70 f2.8, honestly I would’ve LIKED to have pulled further back and used my 70-200 to compress the shot, but there was simply no room to make it work.

I am not displeased, the models were great and the clients are happy or least I think so. I’ve heard not complaints yet.

[Yugoboy]

Those came out good. Your portfolio is going to improve tremendously from the addition of these.

[emiliogtz]

Cool, as expected, the higher the power, the less shadows you get.

I shot this one using three rather weak, garden-variety flashes (two sb600s and my disposable yongnuo) in a setup very similar to yours, with the front flash shooting one step above the background ones. As you can see, there are a lot of shadows and the girl’s face and shoulder are overexposed due to the light sources being a bit too small to evenly lit the subject.

A friend of mine says I should be using one 800w strobe upfront and two 400w to the sides (with 40′ softboxes), in order to get rid of all the shadows, but such setup sounds rather expensive to me.

You are spot-on on the available space, the more, the better, I go above 70mm (85 at the least) every time I can when doing portraiture, though the above one was made with a 50.

I like the two last ones of your samples better, the lighting is great on those, the mat balances the scene and there’s detail in the clothes of the model. Black/white clothes always give me headaches! =)

[ennuipoet]

We used 500w Tungstens in each of the lamps, in 12″ reflectors. Naturally, I would prefer Strobes but…uh, yeah, those cost a LOT. Are you using reflectors to fill your faces, I had a silver 18″ reflector for fill light on hand, though I didn’t use it too much since the white floor of the background was doing the job for me.

I like the mat shots too, one of the problem with the others is the crop. I had to crop out lights and places where the background was to small which changes the composition. When the designer pulls the subject and puts it on a full white background that should compensate for the awkward crops.

[Yugoboy]

Question: does anyone here use a commercial storage unit as a studio?

I’m thinking costs would be reasonable, some of them have decent space, and you could do a ton of work in there. Just curious.

[emiliogtz]

A friend of my wife does that Yugoboy. He outfitted the place quite nicely and has it available for rent. You can book it for a few hours or a few days. It’s great because for a rather small increase in price you get to rent lights, backdrops, stands and even some props. The guy has been a pro for quite some time now and used to do a lot of studio work, if you’re lucky he sticks around and gives you some free advice.

[orionid]

Question: does anyone here use a commercial storage unit as a studio?

I’m thinking costs would be reasonable, some of them have decent space, and you could do a ton of work in there. Just curious.

I’ve been considering this myself, but I’m not ready to front the monthly payment to maybe or maybe not use it.

[Author]

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