Balletic grace

Balletic grace, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Lovely shoot today for a ballet dancer I have shot previously - Helena M.

The location was a converted stable owned by a friend and colleague whose Wife looked after us incredibly well - coffees and a hot prawn thai soup. Just wonderful - I do worry however that my assistant Adrian and the lovely Natalie (MUA) will get used to this. A roaring fire kept us cosy. Shot with the Hasselblad once again - today had a few gremlins with Phocus. I typically shoot tethered to Lightroom and was using the autoimport feature to grab the files from Phocus (as while Lightroom supports Hassie raw files it doesn't support tethering). Still all in all well worth using the laptop to see the shots at a far greater resolution than that of the Hassie back.

These were for Helena's dance portfolio and she was happy at the end of the day - job well done therefore!

DrF

Les jumeaux de Siam

Les jumeaux de Siam, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

And now for something completely different. This is the first posted image in a new series of mine exploring twins.

The model is the incredible Holly AKA Ivory Flame (www.ivoryflame.co.uk). A great day was had shooting with a fellow colleague - using his house as a studio.

Second real shoot with the Hasselblad and was able to shoot tethered throughout - clearly on a tripod also for this one.

Post production was fairly straight forward and I am not finding a need to sharpen the Hassie files beyond the default setting in Phocus - an absolute joy.

DrF

Keep it in the family

Keep it in the family, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Had a wonderful problem solving opportunity today that was just lovely. I had 1.5 hours to shoot the entire staff of Post Vintage (http://www.postvintage.com/) - a local Aston Martin restoration company (couldn't bring myself to say dealership or garage!). This is the Father and Son team that have started and built it up. Father turns 70 tomorrow and this photo, I am proud to say forms part of his present.

The setting is their showroom - very local to me. Lighitng was kept simple - one El quadra through a 100cm deep octa and once again I used the formidable Hasselblad.

Lovely people, great light.

DrF

Like Father........

Like Father........, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Had wanted to take this shot for a while as folk often say we look a lot alike. Lighting was very simple using one elinchrom quadra in a 19 inch McGillicuddy beauty dish just to the right of the camera and above the camera.

Fair bit of post production to line everything up as we have fairly different sized heads!

Wife competely freaked out by it - so must have done something right!

Taken with the wonderful Hasselblad - do I love this camera too much?

Regards

DrF

Hasselblad H3D-II 31

Ah the joys of new toys!

Have had this for a little over a week now and have done a couple of portraits for the family but today was the first chance to see how it handled against my usual 5dII.

I was shooting in a warehouse that has no power and is very dusty so I was not able to shoot tethered. As a consequence I had to use the rear screen rather more than I would have liked. Having read lots about how poor the screens on these digital backs are I can now confirm this to be true. Ok for composition but really shonky when coming to checking focus. I was ready for the narrow depth of field but would this manage with a moving/jumping dancer?

I shot mostly over f11 and as it was pretty cold and the warehouse is very close to home we all bundled back for lunch - a posh pee and coffee! Loading the images onto the laptop I could not have been happier with the results - all in focus - the continuous AF worked very well in addition to the focus and recompose. So do I feel I should have gone with the H4D - absolutely not. I picked this camera up at an absolute bargain price and am truly happy. The extra dynamic range is very noticeable and I did not miss the 5DII/85 f1.2 combo one bit.

All in all a happy man

DrF

Epiphany

Jessie, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Shot the wonderful Jessie Jing today - lots of great photos created - just need the time now to sift through to find the best - this is one of my instant favourites though

DrF

Time waits for no-one

Time waits for no-one, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Shot this one from the same shoot as the last - but this time used a paper roll and more of a conventional studio setup.

Lighting wise this was achieved with two El ranger quadras left and right through gridded strip soft boxes and a ranger through a 70cm gridded beauty dish as key light.

Post production in photoshop.

Grandfather clock is a family heirloom! Fun and games getting it on set but defiinitely worth it I hope you will agree.

Lauren was superb as usual - not often that I get the opportunity to shoot a X-factor contestant :-) - things are looking up for the rest of the year!

Enjoy

DrF

Lauren

Lauren, originally uploaded by DrFireball.

Another fun shoot today despite the cold! (Hired a heater to keep all involved comfy). This is just one of the many great shots that we created. More to come for certain.

Idea was to create an album cover/artist tear page. Started off with the Octa supplementing the natural light that was coming from all sides - metered at ISO 100 f2.2 1/125.

Shot the whole shoot with my fave lens the canon 85mm f1.2 II - so sharp with the 5dII - would love a few more focus points on the 5II but then you can't have everything - until the 5dIII that is!

Bit of post production in CS5 using a smattering of nik color efex along the way.

As usual I hope you like and please tell me what you think.

DrF