Canon CPS | Don McCullin Feature "Seeking the light" - The Movie

Take the time to watch this - such a great video.

Best quote comes right before the end - "One must not think about doing things in life. You must do them."

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.

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 .

Kojo Couture Photoshoot - Behind the Scenes Video

Been tied up with other projects for a while, but finally had time to sit down and work with some behind the scenes footage we shot on a fashion photoshoot with designer Koa Johnson.



The two posts about this shoot can be found here and here.

Die Hard Photoshoot - Lucy McClane Grows Up

Sometimes you go into a photoshoot with a certain concept in mind, but what comes out is totally different and far exceeds what you had originally envisioned.

During my recent shoot with Charlotte Michelle , one of the concepts I planned to do was a Matrix-themed shoot. Unfortunately, in terms of wardrobe we just could not pull it off on this day. I therefore had to work with what we had.

When models visit Maui they don't normally bring along trench coats and black latex outfits. ;-)

Luckily our model had a pair of jeans and a white tank top among her outfits. Having just seen the movie "A Good Day to Die Hard" the day before the shoot, I figured we could switch the concept to something along the lines of "In the next Die Hard movie, Lucy McClane takes over for her dad".

The gun and holster were recent purchases from PowerEdge Hawaii on Oahu. Mahalo to Peter, the owner of Poweredge, who gave me a great deal on both props. I chose to use these for the shoot since the silver accents on the gun would stand out a bit  as opposed to an all-black gun.

The holster had some straps to attach to a belt, but we didn't have one in wardrobe.  So I ended up loaning my belt to the model so that we could attach the holster to it.  Didn't realize how difficult it would be to take the shot and hold my pants up at the same time. ;-)

To show movement in the image, we had Charlotte pretend to fire the gun while leaping away from the camera as we took the shot. This required pre-focusing on a spot slightly behind the model and then taking the shot as she leapt onto her mark.

After a couple of tries, we realized that she needed something to do with her other hand. We tried using dual guns for a couple of frames, but then thought "hey, a suitcase of money might look cool". Too bad we didn't have one of those Zero Halliburton cases lying around the studio. :-(

That's when our makeup artist Kahulani came to the rescue - she closed up her silver makeup case and handed it to Charlotte. That was when the concept really started to come together.

This is one of the main reasons why I love working in a team with other creative people. They'll save my sorry butt every time.  :-)

To light this image we used 2 studio strobes, a reflector, and a small hotshoe flash.

The main light was a White Lightning 800 in a large soft box with a grid and a 1/4 CTO gel.

The accent light was an AB800 in a medium soft box with a grid and blue gels to simulate the glow from the surrounding city background.

We used grids on both soft boxes to keep the light from spilling too much onto the white background.  This made the white wall turn to a darker gray, which made it easier to extract the model from the background in post.

A silver California Sunbounce Pro reflector was used to bounce some of the main light into the shadows of the model. To bring out a small level of detail in the gun, Ron handheld a Nikon SB26 set on the lowest setting and aimed it at just the gun.

Jennifer held up a fan to add a little more movement to the model's hair as she went through the motions.

In post production I wanted to put her in a construction area of a high-rise, but since we don't have a lot of high-rises on Maui, I had to think of something else.

At our office we have a raised floor, which allows us to run cabling underneath. We were pulling cables one afternoon when I saw this view and figured that with a few tweaks it could work as a construction site location.  So with an iPhone 4s, and an LED light, I started taking various angled shots of this view until I found one that worked perspective-wise.

In post production we added a biohazard sticker to the makeup case, placed her in our "construction site" setting, added a night skyline shot of Honolulu, showered her with smoke and glass shards and our Lucy McClane came to life in a nighttime warehouse shootout.

Due to time constraints we could only afford to do one pose with this setup/concept.  But now this has me thinking of all kinds of other crazy stuff we could do in the near future. :-)

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: