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 .

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:

Photographing the 2012 UHMC Fashion Tech Student Showcase

I recently had the opportunity again to photograph a fashion show by the UH Maui College Fashion Tech students at the Queen Kaahumanu Shopping Center.  I photographed their show last year as well and it's always fun to experiment with lighting as well as be inspired by seeing the amazing creations these talented students produce.

This year the title of the show was "Muse{ic}" - the students designed outfits based on their choice of music genre.

Lighting-wise, the location was very challenging. The existing stage lighting only covered the center portion of the stage. The sides as well as the runway were in the dark.

A total of 3 strobes were used to supplement the existing stage lighting.  2 Nikon SB26s were set up on Manfrotto 5001B lightstands behind the speakers on the sides of the stage (circled in red below).  The third strobe was a Canon 580EX II mounted to a flash bracket on the camera.

The two Nikon strobes were triggered by Pocket Wizard Plus IIs and were set to 1/64th power to add just a touch of edge lighting to the models when they reached the corners of the stage.  The two shots below illustrate the difference the edge lighting makes.

All three strobes were gelled with CTO gels and the camera was set to Tungsten white balance to match the existing stage lighting.

With this lighting setup, everything was shot in manual mode at iso 1600, 1/200 @ f2.8 to freeze the action and blur the background. The idea was to utilize as much of the stage lighting as possible while relying on the ETTL of the 580EXII on the camera to compensate when the models reached the dark corners of the stage and also when they walked down to the red carpet.

My camera rig consisted of a Canon 5D mkII and a WFT-E4 IIA Wireless Transmitter (transmitting images to an iPad carried in a belt pouch) with a 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens, a ReallyRightStuff L bracket, and a 580EX II flash mounted on a RRS B87-QR Portrait Package Flash Bracket.  The flash was connected via an OC-E3 Off-Camera Shoe Cord to a Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 transmitter (to trigger the 2 Nikon SB26s) on the camera's hotshoe.  A CP-E4 External Battery Pack was connected to the flash to help with the recycle times.

The entire setup ended up being a bit heavy to handhold for the duration of the show.  Great for exercise, though. Thank goodness for image stabilization.

(see "Things to remember for next year" at the end of this post)

Because the models were constantly in motion, the autofocus mode was set to Ai Servo to track them as they crossed the stage.

Looking through the 2000+ images in Lightroom after the show, the lighting setup we used seemed to hold up ok. In hindsight, it might have been nice to setup two additional strobes to crosslight the red carpet area, but being in a crowded shopping center made that impractical.  Ideally we would have had enough stage lighting available to light all the areas evenly so that we would not have needed to use flashes at all, but you work with what you have.  If any readers out there have shot fashion shows before and want to share how you did your lighting, please feel free to do so in the comments.

I posted samples of each model and outfit on a photo gallery on our facebook page.

Also made a short highlight piece for our Youtube Channel:




Things to remember for next year:

Bring a monopod.  Handholding that camera rig for a 1.5 hour long fashion show nearly killed me.  I'm not that young anymore. ;-)

More Red Bull.

Get larger cards.  Shooting in RAW, I went through 4-16GB cards in no time at all.

When shooting the models walking, try to capture them in full stride which usually results in a better looking image (either when the front foot just touches the floor or when the rear foot is just about to leave the floor)

Remember to get shots from front, back, and both sides.  Designers need to see all of the details of the outfit as much as possible.

Christmas Fashion show at Stella Blues Cafe

Had the chance to shoot another fashion show, this time it was the Candy Cane Lane Fashion Event at Stella Blues Cafe in Kihei. This was a benefit for Toys For Tots and featured clothing lines from Karamel Collection and Pakaloha Bikinis.  Our models for this event were Brittney Baker, Aja Marie, Tami Solomon, Julianita Nakagawa, Austin Macdowel, Tiffany Russo, Ruby Barichi, Perri Kaminoff, Kapila May, Valerie Wessel and Hayley Kaysing.

Hair was done by Colours Salon and makeup done by Ry-n Shimabuku and Julianita Nakagawa.

This is what the location looked like that evening.  Dark.  Reeeealllly dark.

The original plan was to shoot with a high iso and just utilize the lighting on the runway.  However, since this location had ZERO in the way of runway lighting, we fell back to using some Strobist techniques.

I recalled from one of the Strobist DVDs that David Hobby lit a basketball court using a couple of Nikon flashes on opposite sides of a gym, and I thought it might work in this environment.  In his example, he balanced his strobes with the ambient light of the gym.  In our particular situation at this location, there was no ambient light to work with, so we used a combination of a higher iso and 3 flashes to light everything - a Canon 580EXII and 2 Nikon SB26s.

Found two light fixtures on opposite sides of the room where we could mount a flash facing the runway.  Two Nikon SB26s were mounted onto Manfrotto Justin Clamps and a Pocket Wizard Plus II Tranceiver was added to each rig.

These Justin clamps are really handy tools to have in your kit bag.  With them, you can stick a flash pretty much anywhere you can think of.

Both flashes were set to 1/8th  power and zoomed out to full wide.  These were then clamped onto the light fixtures on both sides of the room and aimed at the runway.

Right side of the room:

Left side of the room:

This gave us some nice cross lighting to work with which would help bring out the details in the clothing on the models.

To test it out, I walked alongside the runway and checked to make sure that at every spot on the length of the runway that I could still see the face of the two strobes.  This would insure that no matter where the model was on the runway, the light from the two SB26s would fall on them. Also, since the distance from the two side flashes to the models remained relatively constant, the exposures would be roughly the same no matter where on the runway the model went.

The main light was a Canon 580 EXII with a Gary Fong Lightsphere (1/2 cloud, no dome) pointed up mounted on a 5D mkII with a 24-105mm f4L IS lens.

A Pocket Wizard Flex TT1 mounted on the camera's hotshoe triggered the two remote Nikon flashes.  The 580EXII was mounted on the hotshoe of the TT1.

Shot everything in Manual mode, iso 800 1/60@ f4.  Main flash (the 580 EXII) was dialed down about 1 stop to fill in the shadows from the front.

The 580 EX II was set to ETTL mode, so that as the models got closer to the camera, the flash would adjust according to the distance.

During the show there were times when I fired too many shots at one time and the 580 EX II wasn't able to recycle fast enough.  Since the two Nikons SB26s were only set to 1/8th power, they fired pretty much every time so that there was still enough light to pull out a decent image later on in Lightroom.

Some samples from the show:

Aja Marie

Tami Solomon

Julianita Nakagawa

Austin MacDowel

Tiffany Russo

Ruby Barichi

Perri Kaminoff

Kapila May

Valerie Wessel

Hayley Kaysing

Another one of the challenges that came up during testing before the show was that the Canon 5D mk II had trouble focusing in the low lighting conditions.  To help alleviate this, an LED video light on a light stand was set up next to the camera position at the end of the runway. The camera's autofocus was set to AI Servo mode so that it would track the models as they walked toward the camera.  It ended up working about 90% of the time.  The few times that it didn't was when the camera got confused and tried to focus on the LED light of the video cameraman in the background (you can see him in some of the shots).

This shot of Brittney below is one of my favorites from the show.  It was one of the few times where everything clicked - the lighting, the pose, and the flow of the dress.

Thinking maybe the next time I shoot a fashion show, I'll try using the Canon 7D which has a better autofocus system.