Shooting at the 2010 Maui Matsuri

Was asked once again by my friends at JN Productions to photograph Kikaida and friends at the 2010 Maui Matsuri.  I really enjoy doing this every year, as it is a lot of fun to see childhood heroes come to life on the stage.  They had two performances, so I videotaped the first one and photographed the second.

It's interesting to watch the actors plan and rehearse their fight choreography beforehand.  There's a lot of thought that goes into planning, as they try to stay true to each character as far as how certain characters would react in every situation.

Watching the rehearsal also helps to plan and anticipate certain shots.  During the rehearsal,  the actors worked out how the V3 character would be introduced - by doing a flying kick to one of the bad guys.

When it came time during the performance for V3's introduction, I moved up closer to the stage and got down lower,  This helped exaggerate the height of the actor's kick and led to one of our favorite shots of that day. 

 Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8L lens and 580EX flash.

Don't know if they have posted the images yet, but you can learn more about Kikaida, Kamen Rider V3 and see photographs from past Maui Matsuri events at the Generation Kikaida website.

Pinup shoot with Honey and Kat

A few weeks after the Oahu shoot, I had the chance to work with makeup artist Kahulani once again, this time doing a pinup shoot with one of her friends, Honey.

Honey does the vintage Hollywood look really well.  For this first one all we used was an AB800  with a beauty dish.  The sepia tone and vignette was a preset look in Adobe Lightroom.  Also tried a few in black and white.

I used pretty much the same bedroom set as Uilani's boudoir shoot, minus the tulle hanging from the poles.  We were working without an assistant that day, so I didn't want to risk having the pole falling and whacking someone on the head.  Lighting is 3 AB800s, the main in a 5' Octodome and two behind the folding closet doors in the background.

One of the things I learned on this shoot is that the edge of an air mattress is really hard to hold a pose on.  Will have to think about some way of adding more support underneath the sheets to make it easier next time.

Black Lagoon Anime Concept slideshow video

A big Mahalo to photographer Chase Jarvis who inspired this idea with his Hasselblad Masters FRAMES video.

This is a compilation video of the 300+ images we took on that shoot at the Naval Air Museum, mixed in with some behind the scenes images and finished images.  Everything was assembled in Final Cut Pro.  Music is from the alternative Stacktraxx collection available at DigitalJuice.com.


Black Lagoon Anime Concept Photoshoot from Todd Mizomi on Vimeo.

2nd shoot with wolfpup - "Black Lagoon" anime concept

 I really enjoy working with model wolfpup from MM.  She is one of those models that can work her poses and expressions so well that when she is in front of my lens, I can just go into chimpanzee mode concentrate on the shot and not worry about having to direct her too much.  She just knows how to rock the shot.

This was our second shoot together and this time we were lucky enough to be able to shoot at the Naval Air Museum at Barbers Point on Oahu, thanks to my buddy Chaz at After6Media and his friends there.

This was a great location to shoot at - tanks, APCs, Navy jets, Army helicopters etc.. Chaz said it best - like being a kid in a candy store.

Kecia Littman was our makeup artist on this shoot.  I had previously worked with Kecia a few years ago on a studio shoot on Oahu, and it was great to work with her again.

For this shoot, we went with an anime character theme - Revy from the Japanese anime "Black Lagoon"

This was a concept I've been wanting to do for a long time, but it wasn't until now that everything came together just right.

We started in the afternoon a bit delayed by the heavy traffic on H1, so although there were a ton of different things we could have shot, I chose to limit it to two specific ideas.  I also kept the lighting to just one light - the White Lightning 1600 which was enough to overpower the sun.

First set was with the tank. I setup the WL1600 with a standard 7" reflector about 20ft away from the tank and tested until I was satisfied with the angle and look.  I had wolfpup stand in front of the tank and just let her get into character.

Canon 5D 24-70mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f16

For props she is holding a Tokyo Marui airsoft G36K rifle.  The shoulder holsters hold two custom KSC airsoft 9mm Beretta 92F pistols "Sword Cutlass Special" from the Black Lagoon anime.

Black tactical gloves, combat boots and the military belt completed the look.  For the outfit, the model just needed to bring the denim shorts and black tank top (actually there was writing on the tank top, so she wore it inside out for the shoot).

By the time we started shooting the sun was now behind the tank and model, and the one WL1600 had to provide lighting for both.

When I took the first shot, the model was exposed correctly, but the tank behind her was a little on the dark side.  Because of the inverse square law, the tank was getting less light than the model.  This was ok for the closeup shot above, but for the wide shot I needed to change it up slightly.

I repositioned the model more to the front edge of the tank and moved the light more to the right so that her shadow would not fall onto the tank.  Since the model and tank were now both about equally distant from the light, the tank looked much better.

Canon 5D 24-70mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f16

Climbed on top of the tank for some additional shots.  Still using the WL1600 with 7" reflector.
Ordinarily I try not to use such a small light source on a model because of the harsh shadows, but thankfully wolfpup is one of those models that look amazing no matter what kind of light you throw at her.

Canon 5D 70-200mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f16

To get some motion in her hair for this shot, I had her turn away from the camera, then whip around and bring the gun up to acquire a target.  Shots like these I'll usually crop to 16x9 aspect ratio in Lightroom to give it a cinematic feel.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L iso100 1/250@f16

Got the idea for this from a Jack Bauer poster for "24".  When the model saw this shot she said it would make a great recruiting poster. ;-)

On some of these shots you might notice the tribal tattoo on the model's shoulder.  We didn't have time for our makeup artist to create the tattoo to match the anime character we were portraying, so I experimented with adding it in post.

We were starting to get into sunset, so we headed over to the helicopter gunship.

We mounted a 5' Octodome on the WL 1600 and used that as our main light.

Wide shot of Chaz shooting with his model Rose using the Octodome.  We took turns shooting with the Octodome and the models manning the gun.

 When it came time for wolfpup and I to shoot, I instructed her to really exaggerate her actions, as we were emulating an anime character.  This led to one of my favorite shots from this session.

When I worked on this shot in post, I noticed that there was no pilot in the shot.  Don't really notice it in the shot below because of the 16x9 crop, but in the uncropped original the entire cockpit was in view and it was clear there was no pilot.  To fix that (and do a slight director's cameo), I had my brother use his iPhone 3Gs camera to take a picture of the back of my head.  I comped that into the shot where the pilot would be.  You can barely see it here, but it's little touches like that that help to sell the shot.

Canon 5D 24-70mm f2.8L iso100 1/160@f8

We were wrapping up after the sun went below the horizon, but we were getting such great colors in the sky that I wanted to get in a few last shots.  While wolfpup got ready, we raised the Octodome up and tilted it down about 45 degrees.  Chaz then got below the light and held up a silver California Sunbounce mini reflector.  We brought wolfpup in as close as possible to this beauty lighting setup and got some great glamour shots to end the day.  An added plus was that the makeup colors Kecia used on wolfpup's eyes was a good match for the colors of the sunset.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L iso100 1/250@f8

There were so many other things we could have shot at this location, but there just wasn't enough time.  Hopefully we'll have the chance to shoot there again in the near future.

Boudoir Photoshoot with Kat and Uilani

A week after the shoot with Lia, Heidi and Uilani, Kat contacted me to set up a second shoot with Uilani.  We shot three different looks - two boudoir style and a fashion look.

For the boudoir look, I wanted to try something different with the set this time.  We setup an inflatable bed with a comforter cover and cream colored satin sheets.  For the background we hung white tulle from a pole supported by 2 C-stands, and four wooden folding closet door panels.

Behind the panels we setup two B800s with Rosco 305 gels and aimed them through the slats of the doors to emulate sunlight streaming in from the outside.

To help make it look more like a bedroom, we put a nightstand with a lamp next to the bed.  To get light from the lamp to match the flash units we were using, we replaced the light bulb in the lamp with an SB26  fitted with a Stofen omnibounce. Because the SB26 has a built in optical slave, it fired reliably whenever the main light fired.

Ran out of closet door panels for the background, so we used one of the white V-flats to stand in for a wall.

For the main light, we used an AB800 with a 5ft Octodome boomed above the front of the bed with a C-stand.  The power level was controlled via a wired Alien Bees LG4X controller.

For fill, we added a 4x8 silver litepanel just below the front of the bed. Below is what we ended up with:

When we started shooting, we noticed that on some poses because of the overhead position of the Octodome, we were getting a shadow on Uilani's chest.  To help raise the shadow area, we had Quddus hold another SB 26 aimed Uilani's face and neck.  As she changed poses, Quddus would also move and readjust to keep the light aimed correctly. 

Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 @ f8

Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 @ f8

Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 @ f8

Uilani changed outfits and after Kat changed the makeup look, we shot another set, this time shooting with the intention of converting to black & white / sepia:
 

 Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 @ f8

 Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 @ f8

Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/125 @ f8

For our final setup we headed out into the hallway upstairs.  Near the upstairs landing, one of the walls had a section of glass brick, with sunlight coming in from outside.

 To make this a deep blue color, we setup an AB800 with a beauty dish and 2 CTO gels (full and 1/2 cut).  Tried setting the camera to tungsten white balance , which would change the outdoor light to blue, but wasn't getting the right color tone I wanted.  Then I tried dialing it in manually with  the Kelvin setting on the camera, but it only let me dial it down to about 2700K. Iwanted it to go a tad more but because this was really pushing the camera color to its limits, my 5D basically said to me "hey, cut that out" and I had to make do with that. Because we were shooting in RAW, we could later go into Lightroom and bring down the white balance even further than what the camera would allow.

For fill, we used a silver photoflex litepanel.  As you can see from the picture, the section of glass brick is only 9 bricks wide, so there wasn't much room to play with. Uilani had a very limited area in which she could pose for this set.

Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/160 @ f7.1

Using the 70-200L helped compress the space and hide the edges of the glass brick wall.  Also shooting at 1/160th allowed me to drop the light level of the outside light coming in, which resulted in a darker blue background.

Canon 5d iso100 70-200mm f2.8L 1/160 @ f7.1

Octodome shoot part 2 - Sunset shoot with Crystal

 Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100 1/250@ f8

After seeing the results photographer Aaron Riveroll gets with his Octodome, I was anxious to try it out on location.

This time I was lucky enough to have two assistants - Ronald and Quddus, and this made the shoot so much easier. (Thanks you guys!)

For this photoshoot I worked with model Crystal Gregg from Model Mayhem.  This was a really fun shoot.  Not only is Crystal a great model to work with, she also had her family along to provide support and humor.  All we were missing was a barbeque and a cooler full of drinks.
(of course, if we DID have all that, we probably wouldn't have ended up with as many shots as we did.) ;-)

We started at Polo Beach with several outfits, shooting around the park area. Since I had been having issues with my Vagabond battery pack, I chose to hold off on using the Octodome until we got to the beach.  We used 2 silver California Sunbounce reflectors (medium and pro sizes) for our initial lighting setup.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100  1/500@ f2.8

This was shot with just natural overcast light and Ronald holding the silver medium Sunbounce to camera left.

Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100 1/500@ f2.8

When Quddus arrived, we assembled the larger Sunbounce Pro and used both reflectors to Light Crystal.  Quddus is holding the Sunbounce Pro to camera left to act as her main light.  The natural sunlight acts as a rim light on her legs, right arm and hair.  Ronald is standing behind the tree with the medium Sunbounce to throw additional sunlight into the back of Crystal's hair and her left arm.

I also wanted to experiment with creating sunset light.  While Crystal posed against a shaded wall, I had Quddus block off the stray sunlight with the Sunbounce.  I then had Ronald hold an SB26 with a CTO gel aimed at Crystal and I fired off a few frames.  Wasn't quite satisfied with the look, so I had Ronald turn the flash toward the Sunbounce and shot a few frames with the SB26 bouncing into the reflector to get this shot.

Canon 1DmkII 85mm f1.8 lens iso 100 1/250@ f2.8

We then headed to the road to a nearby beach (Polo Beach was a little too crowded for us).  Thanks to Quddus and Ronald, we had the Octodome set up on an AB 800 in just a few minutes.

There are 4 reversible gold/silver panels in the interior of the Octodome which can be setup to give different looks.  Since we were shooting at sunset, we used 2 gold and 2 silver panels to warm up the light from the Octodome.

 Canon 1DmkII 70-200mm f2.8L lens iso 100 1/250@ f8

For this full length shot, the Octodome is off to camera right and the sunset acts as the rim light.

Surprisingly, the Vagabond battery pack held up through the entire shoot this time.

I also tried out the Canon 7D on this shoot for some of the wider shots.

 Canon 7D 24-70mm f2.8L lens iso 200 1/160@ f8

 I can see why photographer Aaron Riveroll uses the Octodome on location. The look from this light modifier is really sweet!

Shooting with the Photoflex 5 ft Octodome

Finally got a chance to use my new 5 ft Photoflex Octodome on some photoshoots.  This studio shoot was done with 3 models - Lia, Heidi and Uilani.  Makeup and hair was done by Kahulani and we were again assisted by Quddus Ajimine.

I can literally stand directly in front of this softbox when shooting the model. It's gianormous. And this is only their medium sized Octodome. They come in small 3', medium 5' and freaking large 7' (you know, in case you ever need to light Godzilla someday).

I really like the way the light from the AB800 in the Octodome wraps around Lia. Silver Photoflex Litepanel for fill.

We were kinda pressed for time that day, since we had 3 models doing headshots in studio at the same time, so I didn't get to do much variation in the lighting.  I did try a slightly different setup for Heidi below, where I switched to the beauty dish.  I also had Quddus hold up a Lastolite Trigrip Diffuser in front of the beauty dish to further soften the light on Heidi.

 For Uilani, I switched back to the Octodome and also added a silver litepanel for fill, another AB800 with a strip softbox for the back light and a round silver reflector on the floor in front of her.

 What's really nice about the Octodome is that because of the size, it's really good for lighting groups.

For this last shot of the three models together, the Octodome is boomed above center , with 2 AB800s with red and blue gels behind for rim lighting.