Mizomi Photography: Octodome shoot part 2 - Sunset shoot with Crystal

Monday, March 29, 2010

Octodome shoot part 2 - Sunset shoot with Crystal

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100 1/250@ f8

After seeing the results photographer Aaron Riveroll gets with his Octodome, I was anxious to try it out on location.

This time I was lucky enough to have two assistants - Ronald and Quddus, and this made the shoot so much easier. (Thanks you guys!)

For this photoshoot I worked with model Crystal Gregg from Model Mayhem. This was a really fun shoot. Not only is Crystal a great model to work with, she also had her family along to provide support and humor. All we were missing was a barbeque and a cooler full of drinks.
(of course, if we DID have all that, we probably wouldn't have ended up with as many shots as we did.) ;-)

We started at Polo Beach with several outfits, shooting around the park area. Since I had been having issues with my Vagabond battery pack, I chose to hold off on using the Octodome until we got to the beach. We used 2 silver California Sunbounce reflectors (medium and pro sizes) for our initial lighting setup.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100 1/500@ f2.8

This was shot with just natural overcast light and Ronald holding the silver medium Sunbounce to camera left.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100 1/500@ f2.8

When Quddus arrived, we assembled the larger Sunbounce Pro and used both reflectors to Light Crystal. Quddus is holding the Sunbounce Pro to camera left to act as her main light. The natural sunlight acts as a rim light on her legs, right arm and hair. Ronald is standing behind the tree with the medium Sunbounce to throw additional sunlight into the back of Crystal's hair and her left arm.

I also wanted to experiment with creating sunset light. While Crystal posed against a shaded wall, I had Quddus block off the stray sunlight with the Sunbounce. I then had Ronald hold an SB26 with a CTO gel aimed at Crystal and I fired off a few frames. Wasn't quite satisfied with the look, so I had Ronald turn the flash toward the Sunbounce and shot a few frames with the SB26 bouncing into the reflector to get this shot.

Canon 1DmkII 85mm f1.8 lens iso 100 1/250@ f2.8

We then headed to the road to a nearby beach (Polo Beach was a little too crowded for us). Thanks to Quddus and Ronald, we had the Octodome set up on an AB 800 in just a few minutes.

There are 4 reversible gold/silver panels in the interior of the Octodome which can be setup to give different looks. Since we were shooting at sunset, we used 2 gold and 2 silver panels to warm up the light from the Octodome.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100 1/250@ f8

For this full length shot, the Octodome is off to camera right and the sunset acts as the rim light.

Surprisingly, the Vagabond battery pack held up through the entire shoot this time.

I also tried out the Canon 7D on this shoot for some of the wider shots.