Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Another weekend shoot with TJ

My friend TJ contacted me for a shoot while she was in Maui last week, and we decided to do a quick swimsuit shoot at Polo Beach.  We were lucky enough to have Ronald as an assistant this time, which made our setups go much faster.

We mainly used 2 silver California Sunbounce reflectors for lighting - a micro mini and the Pro.


When I met TJ in the morning at her condo, I noticed this spot near the front office.  It was a shaded area with sunlight hitting the leaves in the background that I thought would look cool if I used a shallow depth of field.  I setup the micro mini reflector to be her main light and positioned her so that the sunlight would hit the back of her shoulders. I shot it with a Canon 5DmkII and an 85mm 1.8 lens. Aperture Priority mode at f2.0, which made for some nice bokeh in the background.  Thinking to get a 135mm L prime lens in the near future as I've heard the bokeh on that lens is really nice.

We then headed out to Polo Beach.


 When we got to the beach park, we snagged this spot by a rock wall that was completely in the shade.  I had Ronald use the Sunbounce Pro to act as TJ's main light for this fashion shot.  It never ceases to amaze me how much light the Sunbounce reflectors can throw.

From the wall, we moved to a nearby tree.  This is the same tree that I shot Crystal at a few months back, just shot from a different angle.


We used the sunlight as TJ's edge light and the Sunbounce Pro as the main light. Shot with a 70-200mm f2.8L (no IS) aperture priority at f2.8 handheld.  I really would like to trade up to an IS version of this lens on my next trip to Tokyo.




 For this headshot, I had Ronald mount the Sunbounce Pro to a lightstand, then use the micro mini to fan TJ and get a little wind motion in her hair. So nice to have an assistant on these shoots! :-)


 For this shot of TJ lying on the rocks, some clouds rolled in and diffused the sunlight, so I had Ronald hold the Sunbounce just below the frame to add a little fill.


Since it was now a bit too overcast to use the reflectors, we switched to using a strobe setup - an off-camera 580EX triggered via ST-E2 wireless transmitter and a set of Radiopoppers.


The sun started peeking out again so we went back to the Sunbounce Pro for fill lighting for the remainder of the session.



This session just flew by.  I always have fun working with TJ and really look forward to the next time we can collaborate.