Photographing the 2013 UH Maui College Fashion Tech Student Showcase - Diversité

This year the UH Maui College Fashion Tech Students held their annual fashion show on campus in the cafeteria of Paina building.



Although this location was not equipped with lighting that would have been conducive to a fashion show, this was a much easier venue in which to photograph than in previous years at the shopping center. The house lighting was bright and diffused enough that we were able to mainly work with the existing light and use flash as accents.

For this show they built a raised L-shaped runway platform which ran down the length of the dining room.

We used 2 Nikon SB26 flashes on 1/8th power for the back lights (circled in red above),  each with a CTO gel and a Pocket Wizard Plus II tranceiver.  One was mounted on top of a display case using a Justin Clamp, the other was on a lightstand next to the curtain which separated the model's dressing area from the main dining room.

The main light was an AB800 with a beauty dish triggered with a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 and AC9 adapter.  This was positioned about 20 feet from the end of the runway, against a counter next to one of the loudspeakers so as to minimize the chance of someone tripping over it.  This also allowed us to run A/C power from the nearby column instead of using a battery pack for the main light, which allowed us to fire the shutter more rapidly.

The event was photographed with a Canon 5D mkII with a 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens. ISO was set to about 800, with shutter speed at about 1/125 and aperture of 2.8 to blur the background.  Focus was set to AI Servo to track the models as they walked down the runway.  A Pocket Wizard Flex TT1 transmitter was used on the camera's hotshoe to fire all three strobes.  The addition of an AC3 zone controller on top of the TT1 allowed us to adjust the power of the AB800 from the camera position.

To see more images from the show, visit our facebook page .

Kojo Couture Photoshoot - Behind the Scenes Video

Been tied up with other projects for a while, but finally had time to sit down and work with some behind the scenes footage we shot on a fashion photoshoot with designer Koa Johnson.



The two posts about this shoot can be found here and here.

Die Hard Photoshoot - Lucy McClane Grows Up

Sometimes you go into a photoshoot with a certain concept in mind, but what comes out is totally different and far exceeds what you had originally envisioned.

During my recent shoot with Charlotte Michelle , one of the concepts I planned to do was a Matrix-themed shoot. Unfortunately, in terms of wardrobe we just could not pull it off on this day. I therefore had to work with what we had.

When models visit Maui they don't normally bring along trench coats and black latex outfits. ;-)

Luckily our model had a pair of jeans and a white tank top among her outfits. Having just seen the movie "A Good Day to Die Hard" the day before the shoot, I figured we could switch the concept to something along the lines of "In the next Die Hard movie, Lucy McClane takes over for her dad".

The gun and holster were recent purchases from PowerEdge Hawaii on Oahu. Mahalo to Peter, the owner of Poweredge, who gave me a great deal on both props. I chose to use these for the shoot since the silver accents on the gun would stand out a bit  as opposed to an all-black gun.

The holster had some straps to attach to a belt, but we didn't have one in wardrobe.  So I ended up loaning my belt to the model so that we could attach the holster to it.  Didn't realize how difficult it would be to take the shot and hold my pants up at the same time. ;-)

To show movement in the image, we had Charlotte pretend to fire the gun while leaping away from the camera as we took the shot. This required pre-focusing on a spot slightly behind the model and then taking the shot as she leapt onto her mark.

After a couple of tries, we realized that she needed something to do with her other hand. We tried using dual guns for a couple of frames, but then thought "hey, a suitcase of money might look cool". Too bad we didn't have one of those Zero Halliburton cases lying around the studio. :-(

That's when our makeup artist Kahulani came to the rescue - she closed up her silver makeup case and handed it to Charlotte. That was when the concept really started to come together.

This is one of the main reasons why I love working in a team with other creative people. They'll save my sorry butt every time.  :-)

To light this image we used 2 studio strobes, a reflector, and a small hotshoe flash.

The main light was a White Lightning 800 in a large soft box with a grid and a 1/4 CTO gel.

The accent light was an AB800 in a medium soft box with a grid and blue gels to simulate the glow from the surrounding city background.

We used grids on both soft boxes to keep the light from spilling too much onto the white background.  This made the white wall turn to a darker gray, which made it easier to extract the model from the background in post.

A silver California Sunbounce Pro reflector was used to bounce some of the main light into the shadows of the model. To bring out a small level of detail in the gun, Ron handheld a Nikon SB26 set on the lowest setting and aimed it at just the gun.

Jennifer held up a fan to add a little more movement to the model's hair as she went through the motions.

In post production I wanted to put her in a construction area of a high-rise, but since we don't have a lot of high-rises on Maui, I had to think of something else.

At our office we have a raised floor, which allows us to run cabling underneath. We were pulling cables one afternoon when I saw this view and figured that with a few tweaks it could work as a construction site location.  So with an iPhone 4s, and an LED light, I started taking various angled shots of this view until I found one that worked perspective-wise.

In post production we added a biohazard sticker to the makeup case, placed her in our "construction site" setting, added a night skyline shot of Honolulu, showered her with smoke and glass shards and our Lucy McClane came to life in a nighttime warehouse shootout.

Due to time constraints we could only afford to do one pose with this setup/concept.  But now this has me thinking of all kinds of other crazy stuff we could do in the near future. :-)

Lighting for a Fashion show at Fleetwoods on Front St.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to both photograph a fashion show as well as network with several other great Maui photographers at a charity event at Fleetwoods Restaurant on Front St. in Lahaina.

The fashion show was held in an open air venue on the top floor of this restaurant.  Since there were no ceilings or white walls to bounce light off of, it was very challenging lighting-wise.

The runway was lit from below on either side by two rows of multi-colored LED lights.  While this gave us plenty of light to see the models, the angle of the light was unflattering on the faces.  The venue also had two Home Depot work lights available to use, but with no way to attach them to light stands, the highest they could be placed was at waist level on a nearby countertop end of the runway.

We did some tests at first to see how using the existing lights for photography would work.  Since each light was a combination of red, green and blue LEDs, they introduced color casts to some of the outfits.
We need to add some flash to balance that out.

We settled on using 3 strobes to light this event. Since there was a good turnout in attendance that night, the crowded nature of the location meant that we were very limited as to where we could set up light stands for our strobes. In the end I was only able to set up one light stand which was for our main light.

Main light was a Nikon SB26 set on 1/16th power on a light stand tucked into a corner on the left of the end of the runway.

Rim light was a Nikon SB26 set on 1/16th power  and justin clamped to the side of one of the DJ's speakers.

Fill light was a 3rd Nikon SB26 set on 1/32 power set next to one of the work lights  at the end of the runway.  There was no space on the right of the runway to setup a light stand, so I had to settle for placing at waist level next to the Home Depot Light.

To see more of the images from this show, visit our Facebook Album.

Lighting for the Resolution Remix Fashion Show

Shot a fashion show at Stella Blues at the beginning of this year, featuring designs by MJ Ignacio, Arie Bikinis, Hay Hay Couture.  Music provided by DJ Kurt and hair/makeup by Julianita Makeup and Sara Byrd.

Decided to change up the lighting from the last time I shot at this location in order to get more of a wrap of light around the front of the runway.

Canon 5d mkII with 24-70 f2.8L lens iso 1600 1/125 @ f2.8

4 strobes were used.

Rim light SB26 set to manual 1/16th power + CTO gel with a justin clamp attached to the top of a room divider along the back wall.

Side light SB26 set to manual 1/8th power + CTO gel with a justin clamp attached to a light fixture on the right wall.

Front light Canon 580EX set to manual 1/8th power + Fong lightsphere + amber dome on a light stand at the end of the runway.

On camera 580EXII bounced into ceiling set to manual 1/8th power.

Front video light F&V Z96 (two units) with diffuser and tungsten filters attached was also set up to help the 5D mk II to focus in the low light

Had to guesstimate the flash settings this time since I didn't have my light meter handy.

Still trying to figure out a way to mount the flashes closer to the runway - not very practical to do at this particular location. Getting the flashes closer would allow me to make the background darker and put the focus more on the models and designs.

To see the rest of the images from this show, visit the album on our Facebook page:

Beach photoshoot with Neise Cordeiro

Neise (pronounced like "Daisy" but with an "N") Cordeiro is a dancer/actress/singer/model/fitness instructor based in Las Vegas with whom I recently collaborated on a photoshoot down at Ulua Beach in Wailea late last year.

Makeup and hair was done by Ry-n Shimabuku, who was also kind enough to come out to location with us to assist with the first half of our shoot. It's always great to have a makeup artist onsite to help with touch-ups, and Ry-n is one of the best.

For the first half of our shoot we used a silver California Sunbounce Pro to enhance the existing light. We were especially lucky to have TWO assistants this time, Julie and Steve. A big Mahalo to both of you for all your hard work. :-)

The sky this day was a bit overcast, so the Sunbounce reflector was used mainly to lift the shadows in the eyes a bit and give a little sparkle to the model's eyes.

The sun did peek out from behind the clouds a few times, which made for a nice soft backlight on Neise's hair.

Once we got down to the beach, Steve pulled out a surfboard which we were able to work into a few shots.

Really wish it had been a bit more sunny that day, with more blue sky in the background, but I liked what we ended up with.  

Thinking of investing in a few more Sunbounce reflectors this year. These reflectors are super sturdy compared to the round floppy ones we used to have. They're also handy to have around when you need to setup an impromptu dressing room for the model to change outfits.

This standing surfboard shot was one of my favorites of the shoot.  I liked how the late afternoon sun, even though diffused, was still able to bring out the definition in the model's abs.

I really hope we have the chance to work together again. Neise had such great energy and it was just so much fun to photograph her.

This location also had trees with great textures which we used to frame her for some shots.

Had to be careful with positioning the camera so that the upper branch in the background would frame the model instead of sticking out of her head.  Also tried to keep a few leaves of the tree in the foreground to add depth to the shot.

For our sunset shots, we used an AB800 with a beauty dish for our main light and used the Sunbounce to bounce some of the flash back to help fill in the shadows.

 Looking forward to a future collaboration with this amazing model.