Simple lighting set up - dragged the shutter to underexpose the outside ambient light by a stop or so. Took a few shots of another dancer here recently (Jessie Jing) and realised that I had to have the frame of the window in the shot otherwise the lighting looked really false.
Here you can see the Elinchrom 186cm Octabank. Inside is the El RX AS Speed A head fired using a pocket wizard plus II. I do also use the skyport but I like being able to trigger the pack with the Sekonic L758 DR meter. Of course when you have the benefit of an assistant you also have someone to alter the power of the pack so the skyport is less essential.
Shooting with the Hasselblad and not tethered as the amount of dust in the warehouse is unbelievable and I do not trust my laptop to it.
Shooting from slightly lower down to elongate Emms.
Post production in PS via my own personal recipe - enjoy :-)
DrF
The sharp eyed among you will notice that the laptop was having an off moment here. I shoot tethered to Hasselblad's Phocus software but like using Lightroom (just used to it's workflow now) - so I typically setup the autoimport feature in Lightroom to directly export out of Phocus. Sadly everytime the 'blad is switched off I have to start and restart Phocus to get them all playing along nicely - to save time here I just "got on with it" without the tethering :-)
DrF
BTS shot from the recent shoot with Tamsin Isles. Tamsin is a fantastic make up artist based in Leeds. She wanted some shots with a 1950's styling - not hard as she dresses like this pretty much all the time.
The location is a casino with a number of bars - this one gave us loads of scope and the management bent over backwards that day to make the whole team feel at home.
I shot tethered as usual which as I have previously mentioned has the effect of slowing everything down and making things much more purposeful. The Phase IQ digital backs have wonderful iphone like screens I am told - but the H3Dii's screen is truly awful - cannot even rely on it to check focus.
I will upload the photo from this set up so that you can see the finished result. Two assistants that day plus the hairstylist Sabrina who was very welcome when it came to stopping me having a nasty fall!
Cheers
DrF
First shot out of the editing room from my latest shoot with the gorgeous Tamsin. Shot in a local Casino - great room with lots of scope (almost too much!). Had two assistants this time and I have to say this really is the way to go. Lots of help, lots of inspiration and subsequently lots of images to edit :-)
This was taken using the two octas as key and fill with a bare quadra behind the glass for effect.
Just a touch of post production - it's all good!
DrF
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
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
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
Didn't expect to come back with something like this today. Went to visit a friend and am now deeply jealous of the real estate he has! Perfect for location shots. This was taken in a practically derelict house on his land.
Almost too many choices of where to shoot but this I am very pleased with.
Lit by my 1200 Ws Ranger head in a wide angle reflector about 15 feet from the leaded, grimy windows. Balanced with the ambient light and warmed with cloudy WB in camera. A touch of post processing in PS and voila!
Hope you all like
DrF
Very pleasant evening with a friend.
Lee came over and lent me some DVD's - the side of the box being perfect inspiration for this one (original shot was of Clint Eastwood).
Second set up - other one can be seen on my flickr stream below this. This was shot using a Damian McGillicuddy 19 inch beauty dish literally just off camera right. Set up against a lastolite black pop-up background but as I was shooting at f1.2 with 1/1250 shutter speed I am sure the black background was irrelevant.
I have been finding love once again for speedlites - having become a fan of the bigger elinchrom stuff - both ranger's and quadra's.
What you cannot do with those so well though is shoot with such control over the hypersync to allow apertures as wide as this.
Sure I have a ST4 PW that allows me to go beyond the max sync with the ranger but that thing has to be near max power - fine for outside when battling the sun but would have fried Lee's face.
All the attitude and pensiveness kindly provided by a wonderful chap I can happily refer to as friend and colleague.
All in all much better way of spending the evening than watching reruns on DVD!
Cheers
DrF
Taken in Wiltshire on a hill overlooking Lyneham. Graham is a very experienced mountain rescue leader - I have been keen to take his portrait for a while and this was the perfect evening as there was no wind. This allowed me to use a 19 inch beauty dish (McGillicuddy) on a tripod.
I triggered the single 580 flash with the PW flex stuff. Shot changing between Av and manual mode to see how easy it was to achieve what I was after. The flash sits quite far back on the bracket unfortunately and loses a lot of power in the dish. Not an issue as the sun goes down of course. Moved the dish in pretty close also to soften the light.
In the distance on the right of the picture you can see a temperature inversion in the valley.
As ususal I was very warm as I was constantly moving things around - of course Graham was getting colder and colder and at one point dissapeared off for a quick run!
Lovely evening though and a great chance to get a photo of a valued colleague.
Cheers
DrF
Wow am I pleased with having finished the post production on this one!
Great shoot with Clare (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clare-Neruda/233156630088846), Natalie and Sharon at the a boutique Hotel in Harrogate - used a truly plush suite and had a long day. The shoot was to create an editorial storyline based around a girl getting ready then increasingly bored/agitated waiting for her beau before finally coming to a sticky end. How this happened is up to you although there are a number of clues around the shot.
Lighting was with a 70cm beauty dish to light Clare on the bed with two quadras gridded to light selective areas - even a strobe hand held to light the bedside light. The composited shots were taken with a Damian McGillicuddy beauty dish hand held. The camera was locked down on a tripod to allow a lot of masking to be completed in photoshop. About 40 layers in PS in all. But hopefully you will agree that it was worth it.
Cheers
DrF
Just one photo from the extensive selection of images created at a recent Boutique hotel shoot.
This was taken at the end of the day when quite frankly we were all very tired! The lighting for this was accomplished using a beauty dish as key with two gridded SB's camera left and right. I dragged the shutter and zoomed out on my 24-70 for the effect.
The shoot was an editorial idea themed around a suicide/murder in a plush hotel suite - two multiplicity shots and will certainly post them when I have finished their post production.
Enjoy
DrF
Available from today in Digital SLR Photography Magazine. Full page no less.
Happy days
DrF
Why are all my photoshoots on location freezing cold? I look at the likes of Drewshoots shooting models on beaches at sunset and feel there must be something Karmic afoot.
That said Fliss did a wonderfull job (as usual). This one was the last shot of the day as it started to rain and we needed to pack up quickly. Taken at Brimham Rocks (with permission! :-)) and this time sufficiently out of the wind that I could use a softbox - oh for an assisstant.
Lighting-wise this was pretty straightforward with the ranger providing key via a 100cm deep octa with both baffles and a single quadra with a full CTO cut to act as the search light.
The whole aim of the story telling to relate to the film the English Patient with Fliss playing the part of the wounded wife waiting to be rescued by Ralph Fiennes. With a little fashion edge.
Hope you like - more on my Flickr stream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/drfireball/
Just one shot from the "Rhythm and Rags" fashion show held in Chester. More photos available on my website - www.drfireballphotography.co.uk
Once the models had been through hair (Tony and Guy) and makeup I had the opportunity to take a few shots. I set up in the corner of a busy bar and cracked on!
I had taken my ranger and using a gridded beauty dish I was able to separate the models from the otherwise busy decor!
Good night was had by all.
DrF
Something a little different from me for your consideration. Taken in a great little (and reasonably priced) studio here in Leeds.
But really the main reason for me posting today is to celebrate my successful submission to the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers. As of today I have some new letters after my name - LSWPP - "L" standing for Licentiate.
Need to keep up the work and aim for the next level - Associate.
Other news - I am shooting at Chester Fashion Festival next week so you can expect to see some run way stuff here soon.
Cheers
DrF
Haven't blogged for a while - not because I have been quiet - rather I just have not had the time :-)
Still this shoot today more than merits a mention. Had a good fortune to work with Skyler who was over from the US and able to fit in a shoot. The shoot took place in NDP studios (well worth a visit if you happen to be needing to do a shoot in Leeds....)
Skyler is a professional ballet dancer and very easy to work with. In the space of four hours we managed about six different set ups. Helping me was Natalie Greenwell doing the make up. We have worked together and today she provided two themes.
Not enough hours in the day for editing - but finshed with around 60 photos which I am very pleased with.
Lighting was using my Elinchrom stuff (largely due to familiarity) rather than the Broncolor in house stuff. I used the quadra ringflash extensively either as fill or key light. This shot was taken with the El Octabank camera right (with ranger), a qhadra in the 100cm deep octa cam left and a strip lit (quadra again) recta with egg box cam left.
All comments welcomed!
Cheers
Dr
Great shoot this and very much a collaborative effort.
Taken from a workshop with aurumlight - head over to their blog for more info on future workshops.
Two day shoot - first involved taking the base frames and then a full day of photoshop :-)
Lighting by way of two Paull Buff Einstein units using Elinchrom Recta light mods. Einsteins were used as they can provide very short flash duration so that the milk does not blur when thrown.
And yes lots of towels were used - but no cows were hurt in the process!
Let me know what you think
DrF
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