First Shoot for Zivity - Morticia Addams Boudoir with Floofie

Had the opportunity to work with model Floofie when she was here in Maui again, and this time we collaborated on a Morticia Addams themed boudoir photoshoot to be featured on the Zivity website.

For lighting and set reference, we looked at scenes from the movie "The Addams Family" starring Angelica Huston. As we had limited time and a minimal crew to setup and shoot, we had to stay very simple with our set. We decided to go with creating a corner of Morticia's bedroom.

The background is a folding panel and tree from Pier 1 Imports.  Next to that is a grey backdrop from Botero backgrounds. This would serve as our bedroom walls.

The bed was simply a desk covered with a down comforter and some blue satin sheets from Ross Dress 4 Less.

We used 4 Alien Bee 800s lights with grids to light this set:

1 AB800 was set up behind the folding panels, fitted with a grid and a blue gel.  This was fired into the wall of the studio directly behind the panel to blow it out and give the impression of moonlight streaming into the room.

The tree was positioned behind the panel to add some texture to the shot.

The Botero background was positioned on a C-stand to intersect with the edge of the panel to create the corner of our bedroom set.  We lit that with an AB800 with a grid and a red gel.

A 3rd AB800 with a grid was positioned high above the set on another C-stand behind the model for her hair light.

A 4th AB800 was used as her main light.  To keep the lighting consistent with the look of the film, this was gridded and aimed at the model's face.

We deliberately chose not to use any softboxes to light our model as we wanted to keep the feel of old hollywood style lighting and to match the look of the film.

We shot this series mainly with a Sony a7rii and a Canon 85mm f1.2L lens mounted with a Fotodiox adapter.  For the headshots, we switched to the Sony 70-200mm f4 G Lens.

For shots with the full Morticia Addams dress, I wanted to use a ring light to add a little bit of fill to see the texture of the dress.  Unfortunately the mount for the ring light was broken and there was no way to mount it on a stand.  We opted to place it on the floor and bounce it into a white V flat instead, which worked out pretty well.

See the entire NSFW set on Zivity!

Sunset & Glamour Photoshoot with Mai Mao and Tia Kai

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso800 1/160 @f5.6

Its always much easier to do an implied nude photoshoot if you work with a model who is comfortable with nudity in the first place.  When you work with professional models that are at ease both in and out of clothing, you don't have to constantly worry about trying to crop out or hide underwear or bikinis in the shot and later having to edit it out in post production.  It allows the model to pose more freely and just makes the shoot go a lot smoother.

Near the end of last year, I was contacted by Mai Mao, a model I had worked with previously worked with. She was planning to visit Maui again and asked if I'd be interested in shooting with her again.  She was also bringing another model, her friend Tia Kai, and suggested we do a joint shoot with her.

Two stunning models at the same time? How could I refuse?

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/500 @f4

Our first session was at Makena Cove in the late afternoon.  We were lucky enough to have a couple of assistants with us this day, so we were able to use a silver California Sunbounce Pro, a Sunbounce Mini, and a Lastolite TriGrip diffuser panel to direct and diffuse the natural light for the first half of the shoot while we waited until sunset.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/1250 @f4

Mai is a great model to work with, very laid back and easy to direct.  Really enjoyed having the chance to work with her again.

Tia was also amazing to work with. An experienced model, Tia was able to come up with a lot of her own poses, freeing me up to just focus on lighting and shooting. Like I've said in the past, I like it when models are so skilled at posing that I can go into chimpanzee mode and just concentrate on shooting.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/200 @f4

She also manages her own website that she is constantly adding content to, so the majority of the images from this session will be available to view on Tia's website.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/500 @f4

For sunset, we used the Cheetahstand CL360 in a silver Cheetahstand Beauty Dish.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso100 1/160 @f8

This was actually my first time using the Cheetahstand Beauty Dish in the field and it performed quite well.  It collapses down for transport and the quality of light from it worked well for our needs.  I think I'll be using it a lot more on future location shoots.

Sony a6000 18-105 F4 G OSS lens iso800 1/160 @f5.6

Our second day was spent in their hotel room where we focused on more boudoir-style images.  Shooting two models together in a bedroom setting was something new to me, and I relied heavily on Mai and Tia for posing ideas.  Thankfully they have a lot of experience working with each other and had no problem with posing together.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso400 1/125 @f5.6

The hotel room was quite small, with very little room to maneuver and set up light stands.  The one good thing we had going for us was that the natural lighting we had in this room was much better than what we had the previous year at this same hotel.  The room that Mai and I had shot in the previous year was on the ground level, and the surrounding greenery blocked a lot of the light coming in from the lanai.

This time since we were on a higher floor and it was a bright sunny day, there was a lot of light streaming in from the glass doors to the balcony.

The hotel had recently remodeled their rooms with a more modern decor, so I took a few minutes to look around and see how we could best set it up to shoot without disturbing the furniture or their belongings too much - they were on vacation after all. ;-)

A few tips I learned from photographer Dean Capture when shooting in a hotel room - keep the lighting simple and avoid shooting blank walls in the background.  Find a background with some character and then think about how to incorporate that into your shots.

We settled on two setups on the bed, and two main angles.

To start off, we set up a Kessler Pocketjib Traveller to position a Sony A7mkII with a 24-70mm f4 Zeiss lens as high as possible and aimed down at the bed for an aerial POV shot.  The camera was triggered using the Sony PlayMemories app on an iPad.

Some tulle material was spread over the bed to try to hide the fine lined pattern of the bedsheet and give the shot a softer look.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso800 1/125 @f8

We supplemented the existing light by adding a Cheetahstand CL-360 and a white shoot thru umbrella on the lanai, shooting in the same direction as the existing natural light.  Fill light was provided by our assistant holding up a white bedsheet just out of camera frame to the left.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso800 1/125 @f8

Had to be careful about centering the position of the camera above the bed.  Since the ceiling was rather low, we had to play around in the wider range of the 24-70mm lens. Moving the camera too far off in any direction distorted their bodies too much.

The second setup was angled so that the framed painting on the wall behind the two models could be used as a framing element in some of the shots.

Sony a6000 35mm f1.8 OSS lens iso100 1/100 @f1.8

Sony a6000 35mm f1.8 OSS lens iso100 1/200 @f1.8

Working with these two beautiful models from California was a great way to end 2014. Really looking forward to working with Mai and Tia again in the near future.

To view more images from these photoshoots, visit TiaKai.com.

Sony a7mkII FE 24-70mm f4 ZA OSS lens iso400 1/125 @f5.6

2014 Glamour, Beauty & The Nude Photography Workshop - Boudoir Video with Brittany Rhea

For the private shoot session with Brittany Rhea  I decided to work on creating a boudoir style video - something short, playful and fun.

We shot the majority of her footage with the Canon 7D on a Manfrotto monopod. For lenses, both the 85mm f1.8 lens and 24-105mm f4L IS lens were used.

For safety issues, the one shot where the camera was suspended above the model, the much lighter Sony RX10 was used.  Did not have the jib available, so we improvised a camera boom arm by using a Konova slider with one end attached to a Manfrotto tripod. The camera was then panned across the model from above.

For lighting we relied solely on the existing light that filtered throughout the bedroom.

Also played around with reflections in the mirror and some tulle material I had leftover from a previous shoot.

Brittany just rocked it in front of the camera. Whether stills or video, she was very confident and able to take direction well.  Although we only had two hours to shoot all of her footage, it turned out much better than I had planned.

The final video came together pretty quickly once I found the right music to go with it.  Edited it in FCPX on a Macbook Air.



Really enjoyed the opportunity to work with this amazing model, and hope to collaborate with her again in the near future!

See more of Brittany Rhea on Facebook

Mai Mao Photoshoot in Makena

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso100 1/1000@f1.8

One of the things I've had on the back burner for a while is the creation of a 写真集 (shashinshū), or Japanese photo-book. I've been continually postponing working on this project mainly for two reasons - the cost of producing a high quality book and the difficulty in finding the right model.  It was only late last year, after a fellow photographer showed me a book he had done through MyPublisher, that I decided to finally start seriously working on making the photo-book.

Although I've attended a few glamour nude workshops in the past, I haven't had that much actual real world experience with shooting nudes.  Therefore for this project I wanted to sort of step out of my comfort zone this time and challenge myself to create a book that mixed in a variety of images - lifestyle, swimwear, lingerie, & nude/implied nude.

To do so meant finding a model that was both comfortable shooting nudes, and who I could rely on for coming up with a variety of poses on her own with little direction from me.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso200 1/2000@f1.8

I came across a travel notice on Model Mayhem which put me in contact with Mai Mao, a model who happened to be vacationing in Maui for a few days in December.  Luckily our schedules worked out and I was able to book her for this project.

Normally I prefer to work with a team, especially if the shoot involves partial or full nudity.  Because this shoot was put together on a relatively short notice however, I wasn't able to get a makeup artist and assistant this time.  Flying solo on this one meant keeping the lighting gear relatively small and quick to setup and break down.

We started in the morning on North Maluaka Beach in Makena, getting in a few lifestyle and swimwear shots. I kept her back to the sun and shot most of these with natural light.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso200 1/800@f2.8

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 70-200mm f2.8L IS II iso100 1/640@f2.8

It would have been nice to get a few implied nudes on the beach, but since there were several tourists nearby, we chose not to take that chance.  Instead, I had her drop the shoulder straps of her swimsuit  top and just framed the shot in tight.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso400 1/60@f5.6

To add a little highlight to her hair, I positioned a 580EX with a CTO gel on a light stand behind her.

While we were shooting, Mai pointed out an aerial camera drone flying overhead. Whoever the pilot was seemed to be VERY interested in what we were doing, as the drone circled over our location a few times including once when the model was changing outfits.

As I didn't have anything to take down the drone with at the time (I had left my spare rocket launcher at home since the darn things are just too big to fit into camera bags these days), we cut our beach session short and headed to the model's hotel room to continue the shoot.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.2L II iso200 1/200@f2.8

This was actually the first time I've shot in a hotel room.  For weddings I've shot bridal preps in hotel rooms before, but lighting and shooting a glamour session was a different animal.  Mainly because there's not a whole lot of room to set up  bunch of light stands and soft boxes.

We made use of the existing light as much as possible.  The morning light coming in from the balcony acted as our main light for most of the shots.  For backlighting, we used a Westcott Apollo Strip Softbox with a Yongnuo 560III flash triggered with the YN-603 radio triggers.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso200 1/200@f2.8

The same Westcott Apollo Strip Softbox setup was used here on the bed for fill lighting. The main light was still the window light.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso800 1/100@f2.8

Tulle netting was used to wrap the model for a few shots.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 50mm f1.4 iso400 1/160@f2.8

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 85mm f1.8 iso400 1/160@f2.8

We also shot in the opposite direction, switching to the Westcott Apollo Orb softbox as the main and the window light as her backlight.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 50mm f1.4 iso800 1/160@f3.2

At the end of the session, I reviewed the shots we had and figured that I had about 75% of the images needed for the planned layout of the book.  Mai agreed to a second shorter session on another day to help me get the rest of the images I would need.

Our second shoot took place at a different hotel.  Since this room did not have as much natural window light as the previous one, we used two Yongnuo 560 III flashes, one in the Westcott Apollo Orb for the main light, and one in the Westcott Apollo Strip for back/hairlight.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 24-70mm f2.8L iso400 1/80@f5.6

For this hallway shot, the Apollo Orb was to camera right as the main light. At first, I put the 2nd flash without a soft box back up against the door to rim light the model, but it looked too unnatural.  I ended up putting the strip soft box back on the flash and positioning it in the bathroom off to the left of the hallway behind the model. It took a few tries of moving the  2nd light back far enough into the bathroom so that the light would not flare back into the camera lens but still rim light the model.

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 24-70mm f2.8L iso400 1/160@f5.6

Canon EOS 5Dmk II 24-70mm f2.8L iso400 1/160@f5.6

Overall the final printed book came out pretty good (for a first attempt). Sent a copy to Mai as well.

I wish MyPublisher offered different formats of books, like a portrait oriented one instead of the landscape oriented version you see above.  Will keep researching for the next book project.

Glamour, Beauty & The Nude 2013 Maui Workshop Part IV - Private Shoots

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso800 1/160 @ f2.8

The fourth and final day of Rolando's workshop was dedicated to private shoots, where each photographer could book private one-on-one photo sessions with the model(s) of their choice in 1-hour time slots and work on their own individual ideas.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso800 1/160 @ f2.8

This to me is really the most enjoyable part of the workshop since you can get as creative as you and the model want to be - the only limitation is time.

I wish that more of the workshop was made available for private shoots. We actually did get a day and a half of private shoot time (due to the way the rotation worked with 5 models and 3 teams of photographers, we started the private shoots on the second half of day 3),  but I had to leave for work in the middle of the fourth day which canceled out that extra half day for me.

Darn the luck. ;-)

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso500 1/320 @ f2.8

A one hour session may seem like a lot of time, but in reality it passes by QUICK. To make the most effective use of the time you have booked with the model, you really need to have all your ideas planned out and lighting setups ready to go immediately once the model is ready.

Since this was my second time attending one of Rolando's workshops, and because I could go home every evening, I was a little more prepared for the private shoots compared to last time. Not having to go back and forth to Hana meant that I could bring props and gear from home as needed for the day's shoots.

For example, I brought in a bunch of tulle fabric and just covered the living room floor with it for this shot with Devon below.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso400 1/250 @ f2.8

To help save time, I also relied mostly on natural light for each shoot, adding a reflector to fill in shadows as needed.

Canon 5D mkII 85mm f1.8 iso800 1/125 @ f2.8

For the next workshop's private shoot day, I need to remember to try not to schedule a model immediately before or after another photographer's timeslot.  If one photographer books a model for a 3-4pm session and another photographer books her for 4-5pm, allowing for makeup/outfit changes and moving to different shooting locations, the amount of actual shooting time decreases.  In one case, one of my private shoot sessions ended up being only 40 minutes long. Perhaps it might help in the future if a 10-15 minute break were scheduled in between each timeslot.

Another thing I need to work on is keeping focused during a shoot because I tend to have a really short attention span.  During one of the private sessions, Rolando suggested a creative idea for a shot.  It sounded like a really cool idea so I stopped what I was doing and attempted to setup for that shot. Unfortunately, I did not have the right gear with me to properly recreate the shot he was describing and I ended up wasting a lot of the model's shooting time doing that. Had to save that idea for another time.

In the future I really need to work on making a set shot list, keep focused on it during a video shoot and try not to get easily distracted. (Easier said than done) ;-).

I had originally planned during the first 3 days of the workshop to shoot enough video footage of each model in order to create a short montage piece for each of them.  Due to time contraints, that didn't pan out as well as I had hoped, so I decided instead to just work on creating a single montage which featured all five models. This meant focusing mainly on shooting video and not stills during the private shoots.

I was able to schedule a 1 hour private session in turn with each model over the course of the 3rd and 4th days to get the footage that was needed. Shot all the footage with a Canon 60D, alternating between a 50mm f1.4 and the 85mm 1.8.  For camera support I alternated between a Manfrotto tripod and monopod, and added some slider shots with an Edelkrone Slider.  Also used a longer Konova slider as a makeshift jib arm for a couple of shots.

I licensed music from SongFreedom.com for the final video.  After editing everything together, I started playing around with the footage to a different piece of music and found that I was able to fit a montage of each model into different section of the song.  So in addition to completing the main video, in the end I was able to create individualized "teaser videos" for each model after all.

All editing was done in Final Cut Pro X on a MacBook Air.

The full length version which also has behind the scenes footage of our location shoots I am making available to Rolando for his website.  Don't know when it will be posted though.

So overall, this was a pretty good workshop and I'm really glad Rolando was finally able to bring it back to Maui after all these years. I've already signed up for next year's one and am already starting to plan on ideas for the next bunch of private shoots.

To sign up for the next Maui workshop, visit Rolando's web site.

Enhancing the light

Pink Lingerie, originally uploaded by Mizomi Photography.

This was shot in a bedroom that had lots of natural light coming in from all around.

I originally planned to use a Sunbounce to reflect in light from the open deck behind me for Corinne's main light. The late afternoon sun made that difficult, plus we started getting harsh sunlight across the front of the bed. So I repositioned the Sunbounce and C-stand to flag off the sunlight instead of reflecting it.

We were getting good light from all the windows, but it was a little too dark. I ended up using 3 lights to try and bring the surrounding light up just a skosh.

I used 2 Canon 580EX flashes on stands. Each was triggered with a Radiopopper trigger. On the front flash, I used a Gary Fong Whaletail Studio. The background flash had a Gary Fong Clear Lightsphere. I chose to do it this way so that the flash would reflect off of the surrounding walls and surfaces to mimic the natural light coming into the room. I also had my assistant Ronald hold a Nikon SB26 aimed at Corinne's hair to provide a rim light. This was triggered with the SB26's built in optical slave. To keep stray light from the SB26 from hitting the wall, I had Ronald use his hands to manually block the light.

In hindsight, I probably could have gotten away with just 2 lights and used the rear 580EX as the rim light instead of lighting the background. (You can barely see Ronald's head shadow on the door)

I had to shoot this pretty tight - there was a mirror on the headboard , a work area for painting (which Ronald was standing in the middle of) and a home gym setup in the space next to the bed. Just left of this bed is a whole rack of barbells. I ended up using a 70-200mm f2.8L lens on a tripod. Canon 5D iso 400 1/50@5.6

Changing your perspective

There's a scene in the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" where Indy is in a library looking for a hidden symbol. He keeps searching until he comes to the realization that the symbol is embedded in the floor and can only be seen from upstairs.

As photographers, even though we train ourselves to look around our surroundings for shooting locations, we sometimes forget that there can be shots other than at eye level.

When scouting a location, don't hesitate to look at a scene from as many different angles as you can think of, even if it makes you look weird (Todd, why are you sprawled out on the floor? Did you fall down?)

For this shot with Luciane, we started shooting in the living room (the same from my previous post with Whitney), but we weren't happy with the green foliage through the windows as a background.  It didn't really work with the black lingerie she was wearing. I racked my brain trying to think of a different background when I had that Indiana Jones epiphany above.  I ran upstairs and saw this angle from the second floor bedroom overlooking the living room.

Passion on the Floor, originally uploaded by Mizomi Photography.

I had Luciane position herself along the edge of the living room floor covering so that she had different textures on either side of her. We then had our makeup artist Kahulani come in and arrange Luciane's hair so that it flowed with her pose.

We lit her with just 1 light, an AB800 with a large softbox on the floor next to Luciane's head.