I put out a Casting Call on MM about a month ago and Pawel asked me if I would do a paint shoot with him.
I'd never done one before so I said sure, come on down. He's a young guy out of Guelph, Ontario and he came down with his girlfriend/MUA.
I had no idea how messy this would be but it turns out there was nothing to it. He used acrylic paint that dried real fast and didn't spill or run too much.
The lighting isn't very even on this shot and it's certainly not my best work but it captures the mood of the shoot.
Pawel aka Paul is a pretty good model. I directed him at first to get some standard headshots and then cut him loose to pose as he wished. He really came into his own and the shoot was very easy and relaxed.
I'd recommend him to anyone out there who's looking for a male model. Get him before he's famous :-)
I'm #2125874 on MM
Pawel Rzeznik Model Mayhem #889620
Blonde, blue eyed Arabian?
Nope,
Kara, a friend from the Brant Camera Club dropped by to check out the studio. She's thinking of getting some lights and wanted my input on things.
I talked her into a few poses to show her some lighting techniques and this is one of the frames.
She was good at it! Not shy or introverted, she was able to pose well with little or no direction and we really enjoyed ourselves.
Three lights here using three beauty dishes mounted on Alien Bees. A 22" camera left for the key, a 16" for a hair light and a floor level 22" for front fill. All gridded to keep the background black.
Thanks for posing Kara :-)
Intensity
My buddy Jun dropped by to help me test out some new light modifiers.
This is done with two large un-gridded strip lights one on each side. Camera left is slightly forward and camera right is slightly back. A 22" beauty dish with grid is in front almost on the floor to add fill under his chin and hat brim.
Processed with Topaz B&W Effects.
Done Talking
I watched a Clint Eastwood movie that included some old style bare knuckle boxing set in the dirty thirties.
I was inspired.
Three light setup. One beauty dish/B1600/gridded camera left. One B400/gridded high camera right from behind. One B400/gridded low camera right turned way down for fill.
Backdoor Man
Single Alien Bee 400 shot up from below with grid.
Another MM model flakes so I shot myself instead.
Mayhem #2125874
I took about 12 frames to get the pose and expression the way I wanted it and ran everything through Topaz to finish it off.
Character Study in Monochrome
I stopped this gentleman last summer when I was doing my 100 strangers project. It's an outdoor portrait done with a gridded beauty dish and reflector.
I've always admired what I have just learned is called Character Study portraiture. That's the problem with being self taught - you miss a lot of valuable stuff.
There are some real masters out there that do phenomenal B&W or sepia work. This is my attempt at reverse engineering what I have seen and admire the most. Hopefully I will improve as I learn more.
I wish I could remember his name so I could give him credit. All I remember is he was a really nice guy.
Battle Hardened Soldier
My buddy Jun is giving us the "Million Mile Stare" in this military style recruitment poster type pose.
I did a more grunge oriented post process to fit the style and the mood.
Kaffiyeh
I was teaching my buddy Jun about high key clamshell lighting when we decided to try something different.
I got out a scarf and coached him on how to tie a kaffiyeh.
It's still clamshell but I dropped the exposure and saturation a bit to get this result.
The clamshell worked well to fill in any shadows that would normally be apparent. You can see the two brollies in the catchlights; one high and one low.
The background was 1 stop over to get a clean white without any light wrap.
200 ISO, 125 sync, f11. Two Alien Bees with small PLMs for the key and four B400s balancing out the background.
I even got to try out his new D7000. I kinda liked the feel of this Nikon :-)
This looks good viewed full size.
Erin MM # 2125874
I had the pleasure of shooting Erin, MM # 2125874.
She is beautiful and intelligent and a genuine nice person. It's finding models like her that make shooting people a pleasure.
The Beautiful Erin
I had the pleasure of shooting Erin, MM # 2125874.
She is beautiful and intelligent and a genuine nice person. It's finding models like her that make shooting people a pleasure.
Thanks for letting me do the shoot Erin.
#94/100 Strangers - Santa & his Reindeer
I've never met Santa before. When I was young I tried to sleep under the Christmas Tree but my parents wouldn't let me. Today was a treat. My shooting buddy and I volunteered to shoot Santa with a group of under privileged children. It was the first time I worked under pressure. We got there with barely enough time to set up a B800 and B1600 with large silver PLMs.
It was chaotic; kids running everywhere on sugar highs banging into the light stands and almost tripping over the cords. A real learning experience. I'm still a long, long way away from getting the courage to try a wedding shoot. THAT's scary stuff for me.
So anyway, Eddy and I get things set up and pop off few test shots - then out walks Santa!
I walk over and introduce myself and we settle into the shoot.
I shot a lot of plain vanilla portraits but I always like to be ready to nail the "In the moment" frames like this one.
So Santa is my 94th stranger for my 100 Strangers project. I asked him and he said he was the real one. I didn't have to courage to tug on his beard so I took his word for it.
The little girl with the Rudolph nose I didn't get the name of. The hosts were taking care of that part of things.
Follow me on my blog:
1st100strangers.blogspot.com
My shooting buddy/PA also has a presence in the 100 Strangers group and his work can be found here;
eddyvanphotos.blogspot.com/
This picture is #94 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
"That Look"
This one wasn't actually a planned shot.
Alicia was just standing there waiting me to get the lights adjusted and the exposure correct. She's not impatient. In fact she's wonderful to work with and very intuitive. She knows just what the shot needs with very little direction.
I didn't realize the potential of this one until I had it up on the big monitor and saw her stance and her stare. The two combined were perfect!
I makes me think of the hubby getting home late and drunk and getting caught :-)
I first met Alicia when I was doing my 100 Strangers project.
Follow me on my blog:
bbcmodels.blogspot.com/
My Dark Side
A good example of short side lighting done with a single strobe. I added in the tiny catch light to my eye because it just didn't look right without one.
It took a little dodging and burning, black point adjustment and contrast work to get the light to match the mood of the shot.
The key light was a gridded beauty dish carefully adjusted to feather my face avoiding any flare or hot spots. I used a B400 and my cyber trigger to fire the strobe.
I didn't sharpen this image. Instead I ran it through Topaz Clean to enhance the 5 o'clock shadow. I find this works much better than sharpening.
I was trying for a Hollywood like noir portrait with as much emotive intensity as I could get.
I have been listening to Tom Waits all day and a verse from "Going out West" stuck in my head. In fact there is an album cover where he's sitting at a bar with his head tilted down as he gives a sideways glance at the camera. That was my inspiration for this pose.
Here's that verse:
I don't lose my composure in a high speed chase
My friends think I'm ugly, I've got a masculine face
I love his lyrics.
Wanted
Police are seeking the public's assistance in identifying this man last seen heading east behind the Expositor building.
Possibly armed and considered extremely dangerous…
~~~~~
Eddy and I were out scouting places for a possible urban themed shoot we might be doing when I got this idea for a grungy "True Crime" type of shot.
I told Eddy where to stand and to turn up the ISO for a grainy, grungy "shoot it while it's there" type of shot.
We were just hunting backgrounds but the light was fading fast and the ambient to on camera flash balance was perfect for this.
I told him the pose I was going to try and to be ready to get the expression while it was fresh.
I'm into doing emotive type of shots that bring out a persons ability to act the part.
Everything came together just right for this one. It's not a great shot technically but it wasn't intended to be. It's the emotion and theme that count here.
Shot with my XSi with a 1.8 50mm.
Bragging Rights
This is from way back in the summer and I had forgotten about it.
My credit is in the lower right hand corner.
Here is the original:
www.flickr.com/photos/random_shootings/3769246451/in/set-...
Gunslinger
I'm still playing around with Topaz B&W Effects.
This one I ran through Aperture, then Topaz Clean and then Topaz B&W Effects.
I first brought out the detail to where I wanted it and then added in some selective colour for the eyes. Then I tried messing with the Transparency slider and brought in just a touch of tinted colour to finish it off.
This new software ROCKS!
I named this custom preset "Spaghetti Western" because it reminds me of old movie closeups like "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
Katherin
This is the girl that launched my 100 Strangers project. I had joined the group but up until shooting Katherin I was just a lurker.
She rode by me on her bicycle. Then I saw her sitting on some rocks down by the river and I began working up my nerve to ask her for a photo. Finally I did and wandered over to make small talk. She was really nice and made things easy.
I took her picture and went home and posted it to the group as Stranger #1.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
So a couple of months later I'm set up on the bridge and guess who comes walking by.
Katherin and I recognized each other right away and she was happy to pose once again.
My shooting style has changed and she has gotten even prettier.
#54/100 Strangers - Katie
almost missed Katie when she came jogging past but she still stopped for me. Thanks Katie :-)
She didn't want to lose her pace so Les came up with the idea of doing a jump shot. I took two and this came out the best.
This girl is FIT! Look at the height of that jump. Her first jump was just as high.
Katie is currently going through Brock University to be a teacher.