Charlotte Michelle Photoshoot Pt I - Creating a Bedroom Scene with One Light

One of the first models I worked with when I began studying model photography was Charlotte Michelle, whom I met through photographer Rolando Gomez when he held a glamour workshop in Hana, Maui back in May of '06. After nearly 7 years, I finally had the opportunity to reconnect with this model and do another photoshoot with her.

We met for a pre-shoot meeting a few days before and I was actually surprised she remembered me from the workshop. But then again, I guess you do kind of remember when a photographer asks you to climb up on top of a Ford Escalade wearing practically nothing for a shot.

(Yep, shooting with me can be a traumatic experience for any model.) ;-)

Our makeup artist for this shoot was Kahulani, doing her amazing magic as usual - helping to even out sunburned skin, adjust hair, cut tags off of clothing, etc.  Kat is always so much fun to work with and her hard work saves me countless hours in post production.

I was also lucky enough to have my friend Jennifer Stephens of Unique Art Hawaii assist us this time since this particular shoot included some implied/partial nudity.

It's always a good idea to have a female assistant on shoots like this so that they can run in and adjust the model's hair, clothing (or lack thereof) etc.  An added bonus is that Jennifer is one of Maui's top graphic artists, so I also relied on her creative eye on the set for different ideas and poses we could do.

I've also been meaning to do more behind the scenes videos of our shoots, but since it's difficult to shoot both photo and video on the same shoot, I had our other assistant Ronald focus on shooting video and setup shots.

For our studio shoot, the main concept was to create a morning bedroom scene with sunlight streaming in through the windows.   Since the studio we were in had no windows of any kind, we had to create one from scratch.  We lit this entire set with just one light.

A single White Lightning 800 strobe with a 7" reflector was pointed at the back white wall.  This was triggered with a Pocket Wizard Plus II Transceiver.  The reflected light then passed through a 77"x77" translucent Photoflex Litepanel to backlight our set.

Our "bed" was a simple table with couch cushions, a comforter and some satin sheets draped over it.

To light the front of the model, 2 white v-flats were placed in front of the table to bounce the back light into the front of the model.

To hide the fact that we were using a litepanel and to make the set look more like a bedroom, we added two free-standing closet doors on either side of the litepanel to hide the frame.

I liked the soft looks we got using this simple lighting setup, but would like to tweak the set a bit more on the next shoot to get more depth.

Kojo Couture Fashion Shoot with Brittney pt II

Our final look for the Kojo Couture shoot was a black dress covered in chrome spikes. Koa is a very talented designer and ever since I saw this design of his showcased in a recent UHMC fashion show, I knew I wanted to photograph it.

Ry-n really went to town on the makeup work for this final look, even going as far as to give Brittney a set of long Lady Deathstrike-style fingernails.

It was a challenging dress to shoot. Since the spikes on the dress were highly polished chrome and reflected their surroundings, they tended to disappear when shot in a dark environment like at the fashion show.

Taking a few tips from a recent workshop on tabletop photography by Don Giannatti, I figured that in order to get the spikes to stand out, we would need to surround them with lots of white surfaces to reflect. At the same time we still needed to control the lighting in order to keep the background dark so that we could light it separately.

We used four AB800 lights on the model - two of them with strip softboxes, egg crate grids and CTO gels were used to rim light her. The other two AB800s were modified with a large and a medium softbox, both with eggcrates and were setup in front to crosslight her. We used two white V-Flats positioned close to the model. This both keep the rim lights from flaring into the camera and also gave the spikes lots of white surfaces to reflect.

A single Nikon SB26 with a red gel was used to light the background. To get the pattern on the wall, we placed the SB26 in the ribcage of a skeleton.

We had experimented with using a skeleton as a pattern maker on a previous shoot, and I thought it might work well in this instance since I wanted to evoke the feeling that Brittney had slashed the background with those long nails.

It took us a good 15-20 minutes of test shooting and adjusting the placement and angle of the skeleton and the flash within it before we were able to get a satisfactory pattern on the background.

Things I need to remember next time:

Clean the floor! Have to remember to continually sweep up dust and shoe prints on the white tileboard during the shoot so that I don't have to spend hours taking it out in Photoshop later.

If we can scrounge up enough apple boxes, gonna try elevating the white tileboard next time. This would give us a little more flexibility on placing the background effects lights without having them showing up in the frame.

Kojo Couture Fashion Shoot with Brittney pt I

One of our most recent studio shoots featured designs by Koa Johnson and makeup by Ry-n Shimabuku.  Our model was Brittney Baker and we were assisted by Ronald who also took the time out to take some behind the scenes shots which I always forget to do.  Thanks Ronald!

Our first setup was a white backdrop.  We used 2 AB800s with white shoot thru umbrellas to light the background to 1 stop over the main light. 2 V-flats were used to block the background lights from flaring into the camera lens.

For our main light we used an AB800 in a Paul Buff PLM.  I haven't used the PLM as much as I'd like to since I bought last year.  The main reason for that is because assembling the shaft and speedring of the PLM can take a while.  Plus the whole thing is so freakin' HUGE that I'm thinking I could probably experiment with using the silver interior as a background for a future model shoot.

Setting for all the shots is the same - Canon 5D mk II 70-200mm 2.8L IS II lens, iso 100 1/160@ f5.6.

While Brittney changed into her next look, we took a few shots of her friend Zach, an aspiring male model.

The first few shots against the white background didn't work too well, because we started losing his sleeves to the white backdrop. We turned off the two background lights and lit him solely with the PLM.  The focused nature of the PLM gave us a nice gradient on the background and a vignette around Zach which worked much better with his shirt.

Brittney's next look was in a long red dress. For the first shot we had her get into a reclining pose, spread the dress out around her and shot her from an elevated viewpoint.

The main light was an AB800 in a large soft box. Another AB 800 with a strip soft box was used as a hair light.

The red dress was so visually striking that Brittney and Ry-n named this shot "The Miscarriage".

We then had Brittney get into a seated pose facing the back wall.  We cross lit her with 2 AB 800s in small strip soft boxes to make the folds of the dress really stand out.

We used grids in the strip soft boxes and also repositioned the V-flats to block the lights from hitting the background which allowed the white wall to go dark.

More to come . . .

Tokyo studio shoot with Kayo

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/125 @ f5.6

This past December I was extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to work once again with one of my favorite models in Japan, Kayo Fantastic from Model Mayhem.

For this session we shot in the Force Studio in Edogawabashi.  This studio had a much darker theme compared to the previous studio we shot together in, which made it much easier to control the lighting. This worked out really well since we were going for a slightly edgier/sexier look for Kayo this time and I wanted to light her a little differently compared to our previous shoot together.

Our lighting for this session consisted mainly of 3 Nikon SB26 flashes triggered with Pocket Wizard Plus II tranceivers.  The light modifiers used were primarily the Westcott 43" Apollo Orb and two Westcott Apollo Strip Softboxes. We also used a Gary Fong Lightsphere and a  Lumiquest Softbox III for a few setups.

There were several potted plants near a bench in the middle of the studio and to keep things simple we used this as our first set.

An SB26 with a CTO gel and a Stofen Omnibounce was used behind the plants for a background light.

The Westcott Apollo Orb was used as the main light and the two Strip lights were used on either side of Kayo  to help separate her from the background.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/160 @ f5.6

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/125 @ f5.6

Next we went into some headshots against a wall on the other side of the studio. Used the Westcott Orb as Kayo's main light, overpowering the existing window light.

An SB26 with a CTO gel and a grid was used to light the wall behind her.  Another SB26 was aimed at the back of her hair for a rim light.

Had a Vornado fan nearby to add movement to her hair.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/160 @ f5.6

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/160 @ f5.6

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/160 @ f5.6

In one corner of the studio we found a set of prison bars.  This looked like it would be fun to work with but the space behind the bars was completely black. In order to give the shot some depth I knew we would need to light it somehow.

In the small corner behind the bars, we used a Nikon SB26 with a red gel and a Gary Fong lightsphere.  This lit both the background and rim lit the model in red.

Once Kayo had changed outfits, she found this great hairpiece to use which gave her a totally different look. We used one of the striplights for her main light, but positioned low in front of the bars and aimed up at her face to add a little more drama to the shot.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/160 @ f4

After taking a couple of shots behind the bars, we then brought Kayo around to the front. There was a large window next to the bars which you can see in the photo below, and we did some natural light shots while still using the rear lights for background and rim light.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 1600 1/125 @ f4 

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 1600 1/125 @ f4 

Since Kayo was now in front of the bars, the window light wrapped around her more, which greatly reduced the effect of her rim light.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 1600 1/125 @ f4 

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 1600 1/125 @ f4 

To change up the lighting and go back to more of a glamour look, I added another SB26 to the lightstand behind the bars and aimed it towards Kayo.  I also swapped out the gel on the background light for one that was a little more red.

For her main light, we used another SB26 with a Lumiquest III Softbox.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/125 @ f5.6

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 400 1/125 @ f5.6

While Kayo changed into her next look, I thought it would be nice to do a few more shots with the windows on this side of the studio since they had an interesting kind of high techy pattern on them.

A bare SB26 was set in the corner to act as a hair light.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 800 1/160 @ f2.8 

We did a few shots with the window light as her main light, then switched to using the SB26 with a Lumiquest Softbox III.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 800 1/160 @ f5.6

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 800 1/160 @ f5.6

Our final setup resulted in one of my favorite shots of the day and it worked out way better than I had originally planned.

This was a shot where we tried a combination of a fan and a length of red organza fabric wrapped around Kayo.  To be honest, I didn't really have a solid image in mind when we started working on this set (that's something I need to work on - getting a clearer idea of what I want to shoot BEFORE the shoot).  I only knew that I wanted to show fabric in motion, some mystery, and some sexiness without being too revealing.  I really have to thank Kayo for this one because she was extremely patient with me while I set everything up for this shot.

Although I had brought a small Vornado fan for the shoot, it wasn't really strong enough to keep the fabric flying upward out of the frame like I had originally planned. We had to figure out a way to suspend the fabric above Kayo.  Ideally in a situation like this we would use a stand with a boom arm or an assistant. Since we did not have a boom arm available (there's only so much lighting gear that I can bring when I travel), a bit of MacGyvering was needed.

Our solution was to use 2 ball bungies to strap a small light stand to the back of a chair to create an impromptu arm to which we could then clip the red fabric to:

Had to put some extra gear onto the chair itself to weigh it down so that it would not topple over onto Kayo.  Always think of your model's safety when suspending objects above him/her.

To light this we used two Westcott Apollo Strip Softboxes positioned on either side of Kayo.  In the setup shot, you can see all that stuff in the background.  By bringing in the lights very close to the model and setting the power levels to 1/2 power (or maybe it was full power?), we were able to overpower the existing light in the studio and hide all of that in darkness.

So now that we had that setup, I positioned the fan so that it would add a little motion to the part of the fabric that was suspended.  If we had been lucky enough to have had an assistant, we could have had them to point the fan at the fabric and move the fan from side to side until we got just the right look.  Since it was just Kayo and myself that day, I would take a couple shots, adjust the fan position, shoot a couple more frames, move the fan again, etc.

Like I've said before, assistants are invaluable on a shoot. :-)

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 100 1/160 @ f3.5

I also had Kayo shift her position slightly between shots so that we would get subtle differences in the feathering of the light across her form.

This shot was one of those where everything came together just right - the fan caught the fabric and made it ripple and Kayo's hand pose created some shadows that added a sense of mystery to the image that I really liked.

Canon 5D mkII 70-200mm f2.8L IS II lens iso 100 1/160 @ f4

It was so much fun to work with Kayo again, I just wish that we had more than just 3 short hours to work together this time as there was so much more we could have done together.  Will just have to save the ideas until next time.