ASSIGNMENT: A FAMILY SHOOT

Shooting a family can be approached in many different ways, the obviously one would be starting from the classic "all around the couch" portrait in semi-formal clothes and moving on from there. My approach here was instead to shoot the members of the Paftali family in their home clothes and slippers during their favorite home activities, which is something that I find much more interesting both for them and myself; something that better represents who they are and what they do. Once more, both due to my being increasingly more comfortable with them and most of all due to the extreme space constraints of the apartment I had to shoot into, small flashes did the trick for me here. A couple of teasers here, more images and the rest of the story after the break.

OK, so here we are. How do you pull off a shoot in an apartment with very small rooms and where the existing light (either artificial or the sun) doesn't help much? To me, going with small flashes is the answer: the flexibility and practicality of Speedlight cannot be beaten in situations such as these.

The shoot started with Ms. Ergül Paftali, whom I shoot in front of her old Omega sewing machine during one of her favorite activities - making clothes! For this, I used a SB-700 Speedlight (CTB) to add some light to the back of the room, plus 3 other Speedlights (CTO) for rim light (back of subject, camera right), main (above and camera left) and a gridded one (above camera left) to add a splash of light to the Omega sewing machine. Camera WB was set to incandescent to go along with the existing light bulbs in the room. After getting the image above, in order to better isolate the subject and accent some of the image's features (face, hands, clothes, the machine) I decided to experiment with PC-E lenses, starting with the Nikon 24mm f/3.5 PC-E:

and the Nikon 45mm f/2.8 PC-E after that:

I then changed the setup a bit moving the props around slightly to get a final image of her:

Ok, that was it! Time to move on to the next family member, Mr. Kadir Paftali, whom we decided to shoot with his books in his favorite armchair. For this part of the shooting, I used three SB-700 Speedlights: two CTO'd, one as rim (behind the subject, camera right) and one as main (above and camera left), and one CTB'd behind the camera on the right to add some cold light to the ambient (shoot at very low power, its effect is mostly evident only when you take it off). Camera's WB was again (slightly warmer than) incandescent to mix with ambient light. Besides the opening photograph, we got these:

Modifying a bit the setup, moving the lights in order to have 2 of them on each camera side, one as rim and one as a main for the subject on the opposite side I took a picture of both Mr. & Ms. Paftali on their chairs, in an intimate chatting moment:

Ready to move on - the last family member, Haluk Paftali, is a bass-playing law student, and I tried to show both aspects of his life during the shoot. For this, I used again 3 SB-700 Speedlights, CTO'd to match the existing light: one left of subject, one above camera left, one gridded to spot light the law books:

Then, we moved the subject to his favorite chair and we got these:

And, to finish the shoot, a bass-only sequence:

The whole shoot took about a couple of hours from start to finish, including changing setups.

Now for the technical stuff (click to go to the related product page): all images shown here have been shot with a Nikon D3x, equipped with the Nikon 24mm f/1.4 AF-S, the Nikon 35mm f/1.4 AF-S, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-S, the Nikon 24mm f/3.5 PC-E and the Nikon 45mm f/2.8 PC-E; lighting was provided by 4 SB-700 Speedlights, controlled by PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 & AC3; to support the Speedlights, 2x Manfrotto 5001B stand and 2 x Photoflex LS2214 8ft Stand have been used. Photos have been developed in Nikon Capture NX 2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6. BW conversion & split toning have been done with Nik SilverEfex Pro.

Thank you for reading this far, and see you soon on the blog! Stay tuned for more...

SUPPORT THE BLOG! USE THE BOXES BELOW TO START YOUR AMAZON SHOPPING!

     

ASSIGNMENT: THE PIANIST

Today's post is, again, about an assignment - and, again, about one I pulled off using small flashes. This time, the victim subject of the assignment was a young Turkish pianist, Ayca Yilmaz, whom I shoot before one of her recent many concerts in Istanbul. Here one of the pictures out of the set, the rest of the story, information about the lighting and of course more images after the break.

Turkish pianist Ayça Yilmaz, Istanbul 2012

OK, so here we go. The main problem with this shooting was, as often happens, the venue; the concert hall was actually in a museum, and more specifically in its temporary exhibitions' section: so, while the building was very beautiful per se, the exhibition's setting was - to say the least - uninspiring, with movable walls painted in some sort of tan color and filled with framed Ottoman art. To get rid of the walls, I underexposed the ambient to the point of semi-darkness, and relied on flash only for the lighting of the shoot, planning on relying heavily on rim light to separate her from the semi-black background, while adding some "stage light" look to the pictures. For the shot above, I used 4 Speedlights, 3 SB-700 and 1 SB-910 - starting with the SB-700s, I got one behind the pianist, one (with softbox) in front of her slightly left of camera, a third one to light the inside of the piano; lastly, I used the SB-910, cabled to my Nikon D3x, to act as a Master.

Using more or less the same setup, and taking advantage of the triangles created by the lines of the pianos' stringboard and lid to frame her, I took a couple more photographs:

Turkish pianist Ayça Yilmaz, Istanbul, 2012

Turkish pianist Ayça Yilmaz, Istanbul, 2012

Then, I decided to move on to a second setup: the chairs in the hall were actually pretty nice and old, so I decided to shoot Ayça from the backstage and towards the public to put the chairs to some use as background. Here I used 5 SB-700s: 2 were deployed to light the chairs, one again behind her as a rim light, one in front of her in the piano and one placed camera right to light her left arm - the SB-910 was still used as a Master only for this frame:

Turkish pianist Ayça Yilmaz, Istanbul, 2012

Last but not least, I decided to play with flare a bit to push the "stage light" concept a bit further, and moving a bit the lights from the image above, I got this final image:

Turkish pianist Ayça Yilmaz, Istanbul, 2012

The whole shoot, from start to finish, took about one hour including setup.

Now for the technical stuff (click to go to the related product page): all images shown here have been shot with a Nikon D3x, equipped with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S and the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-S; lighting was provided by 6 Speedlights: 1 x SB-910 & 5 x SB-700; to support the Speedlights, a Joby GorillaPod, 2x Manfrotto 5001B stand and 2 x Photoflex LS2214 8ft Stand have been used. Photos have been developed in Nikon Capture NX 2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Thank you for reading this far, and see you soon on the blog! Stay tuned for more...

SUPPORT THE BLOG! USE THE BOXES BELOW TO START YOUR AMAZON SHOPPING!

     

COMMENTS ENABLED!

Just a quick line to let you know that comments are now enabled for my blog! Let it rip...

ASSIGNMENT: SAVINELLI TURKEY

Today's assignment is about pipes, and specifically the smoking type. According to those that enjoy it, pipe smoking is the most relaxing kind of smoking, the best way to enjoy differently tasting tobaccos preferably in a warm, cozy environment, taking the time to go through the bowl slowly, either lost in one's thoughts or engaged in social conversations; and for that, one needs a great pipe - in fact, a pipe smoker needs many pipes, because is not good for a pipe to be smoked over and over without allowing it to recover for a day or so (differently than the photographer shooting them, a pipe, as the person that smokes it, has the luxury of a lot of time to rest!). Here is the client's first choice out of the set, more about this assignment's problems and solutions (and more photographs!) after the break.

Savinelli's Turkey distributor, Mr. Salih Araç in his shop, Istanbul, 2012

So, having to shoot Mr. Salih Araç, the local distributor of Savinelli pipes (one of the world's leading makers) in his shop in Istanbul, Turkey, I wanted the light to create a warm feeling, sunset-like; the first problem with this was that - unfortunately - Savinelli's shop's only window actually overlooks the alley of a shopping mall. So much for sunset's warm light! So, what to do when not having a good ambient light? Easy - we create it, so I set out to mimic a window-lit warm, evening sunset light with what means I had at my disposal: various Speedlights and colored gels to the rescue! The shop being on a first floor, I positioned a light stand outside the window fitted with a SB-910, gelled orange (full CTO); using a custom WB (around 4500K) with some underexposure it gave me this:

Zeynep assisting me in this shooting to test the "fake" sunset light I created, Istanbul 2012

which, under the circumstances, was close enough to late evening light for my purposes - with the advantage of being constantly available for the whole duration of the shoot. Then, I moved on to balance the light inside the shop; adding a bounced SB-700 with a 1/2 CTO gave me this:

Savinelli's shop, almost ready, Istanbul, 2012

Which looked good enough as a base to start adding the pipes on the counter and prepare the set for Savinelli's distributor,  Mr. Salih Araç, to - well - come into the picture. After he choose which pipes he wanted to be featured in the photographs, and placed them on the counter, I added two more SB-700 (also with 1/2 CTO gels) to spot-light the pipes, getting something like this:

Savinelli's shop almost ready for the shoot, Istanbul, 2012

I then prepared one more softboxed, 1/2 CTO'd SB-700 to light my subject, getting something like this (again Zeynep assisted me as model for this frame):

Test image for the Savinelli shoot, Istanbul 2012

Ok, time to call in the talent. After position Mr. Araç behind the counter, we moved to get the few different views he needed. First, a classical frontal view of him (a pipe smoker himself) among his pipes:

Mr. Salih Araç, Savinelli's distributor for Turkey, among his pipes, Istanbul 2012

Then, I moved on to try a couple different framings:

Mr. Salih Araç, Savinelli's distributor for Turkey, among his pipes, Istanbul 2012

Mr. Salih Araç, Savinelli's distributor for Turkey, among his pipes, Istanbul 2012

 and finally, a couple of close-ups:

Mr. Salih Araç, Istanbul 2012

Mr. Salih Araç, Istanbul 2012

and, in about 1h 15 minutes, I was out the door.

Now for the technical stuff (click to go to the related product page): all images shown here have been shot with a Nikon D3x, equipped with the Nikon 24mm f/1.4 AF-S, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S and the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-S; lighting was provided by 5 Speedlights: 1 x SB-910 & 4 x SB-700, controlled by PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 & AC3; to support the Speedlights, a Joby GorillaPod, 2x Manfrotto 5001B stand and 2 x Photoflex LS2214 8ft Stand have been used. Photos have been developed in Nikon Capture NX 2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Thank you for reading this far, and see you soon on the blog! Stay tuned for more...

SUPPORT THE BLOG! USE THE BOXES BELOW TO START YOUR AMAZON SHOPPING!

     

ASSIGNMENT: THE ARS NOVA QUARTET

Here I am again, with one more photo from an assignment; this time, a woodwind quartet. These four very young musicians are playing together since 2011 under the name of Ars Nova Quartet, and they needed a photo for an oncoming Festival participation: this is the final image, the rest of the story after the break.

Ars Nova Quartet, Istanbul 2012

For this shoot, we met on a Saturday at the Conservatoire where they study; I looked for a suitable place in the school's yard for the shooting, and found this wall with a sort of bas-relief that implied the modern feel of Ars Nova (New Art) compared to the alternative, a very old Ottoman wall. The wall offered the added bonus to be in the shade, though this was shrinking very quickly during the shoot, which caused some repositioning of the flashed as we went.

My purpose here was to give an evening, before-the-perfomance feel; therefore, I underexposed the ambient to the point of semi-darkness and used 2 Speedlights to lit the wall behind the group; these were positioned low and clamped on a chair behind the two musicians center frame. Then I added two more Speedlights left and right of the group, slightly behind them, to add some rim/hair light, and finally I lit them using two more Speedlights, one high camera right in a SB, one lower camera left for fill. All the lights were gelled, CTO for the main and fill, CTB for the background and rim, all controlled via PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 & AC3; WB set to tungsten. We shot a few frames while setting the lights up, and once ready we had to deal with some camera-shyness and self-awareness on the kids side, which was quickly got rid of through some jokes and laughs; once they were comfortable, the final frame presented itself. Total time for the shoot, about one hour from walking in to walking out.

Now for the technical stuff (click to go to the related product page): the image above has been shot with a Nikon D3x, equipped with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S; lighting was provided by 6 Speedlights: 1 x SB-910 & 5 x SB-700, controlled by PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 & AC3; for flash support, a Joby GorillaPod, 2x Manfrotto 5001B stand and 2 x Photoflex LS2214 8ft Stand have been used. Photos have been developed in Nikon Capture NX 2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Thank you for reading this far, and see you soon on the blog! Stay tuned for more...

SUPPORT THE BLOG! USE THE BOXES BELOW TO START YOUR AMAZON SHOPPING!

     

ASSIGNMENT: A SCULPTOR AND HIS WORK

So, here we are with the first assignment post on this blog! I was booked to shoot sculptor Peter Orban for his next exhibition, and the shoot requirements were for me to shoot a couple of portraits of him as well as images of same of his most recent work. The whole shoot had to happen in less than three hours due to previous commitments on both parts and this being the only possible timeframe suitable for both of us. More, I had to fly+train to the location (one far from any major cities), with the resulting constraints in the gear I could bring and use for this job...

One of the final images is here, the rest of the pictures, the whole story and some behind-the-scenes after the break.

Peter Orban, Senigallia, Italy 2012

For this assignment, I decided to travel as light as possible; so I filled my backpack with my Nikon D3x, my 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/2.8D PC-E and 3 Speedlights (SB-910 & SB-700) to be controlled by the PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 & AC3 system. As support for the lights, I used a GorillaPod, a VAL (Voice Activated Lightstand) and I had the Speedlights own footrests available if needed.

So, here we go!

Shooting requirements and constraints: the artist wanted to be shoot with a crystal sphere in his hand, being the sphere an underlining theme of his recent production and of the oncoming exhibition; the shoot was to be taking place outdoors, almost midday (=very harsh light); the whole shoot had to happen in less than three hours; I had to manage with 3 Speedlights and available light.

After a quick reckon of the premises, and being most of his work made of variously finished bronze, I thought that an old, rusty-red door in the shade on the back of the house would have been the perfect place for one of the portraits. For the photography above, I used a Speedlight with a Honl Photo Traveller 8 Softbox modifier high and 45' camera left, a second light was used to light the door camera light and a third to add some light lower camera left and balance out some of the shadows there - all lights were CTO'd (the blue catchlights in the sunglasses have been left on purpose!).

For a second image, I decided to use a bench placed under a tree overlooking the hills in the garden on the back of the house, and to light the scene as if it was late evening. To do so, I underexposed the ambient accordingly and used a VAL'd Speedlight camera right, added a second light on the ground camera right to light the sphere and the artist RH, and GorillaPod'ed the third light on the bench camera left, to open up the shadows on his right side a bit - all lights were CTO'd.

Peter Orban, Senigallia, Italy 2012

Total time for both portraits, around 30 minutes including recon and setup.

Bagged these two shots of him, we turned to his work - the sculptures - which were to be shoot in his studio/residence, a wonderful house overlooking the hills.

For the first of the 6 works, featuring a crystal sphere surrounded by bronze tree branches mounted on a wooden base, we decided to put the sphere's reflections to a good use to show the surroundings & especially the sky. Once more, I opted to turn daylight into late evening, and used my three available Speedlight to get this:

Then we moved inside, and worked on a sort of bas-relief representing a bronze torn letter which pieces had been re-positioned as if to put it back together, but lifted from the support as if moved by a breeze; the work was hang on a wall close to a corner, so I decided to live it there and lit it bouncing a Speedlight on the adjacent wall to get some light under the flying pieces of bronze-paper, using a second light on axis to make the polished bronze's writing bright in order to have them stand out (per the artist's request):

He also needed a detail shot to show the bronze's textures, so I used the macro capabilities of the Nikon 85mm f/2.8D PC-E to get this, using the same lighting setup:

Moving on, we organized a small set using a blackboard background, and we proceeded to shot the next work, lit using a VAL'd Speedlight behind the bronze piece about 45' camera left, a second one 45' high camera right and a third one low power on-axis:

Again, he needed a couple detail shots, so using basically the same lighting setup moving around the lights a bit we got these:

Without changing the lights too much, we replaced the exploded sphere with the next sculpture, which he needed 3 different views of:

Moving on, we had to shoot two more wall-mounted works; for the first, made of a wooden table and a bronze woven-like protuberance, he asked me if we could use the shadows of the bronze to create shapes on the wall that described the textures and volume of the work itself, so I placed my three Speedlights camera left, camera right and lower on-axis, and we settled for the image below:

The last work I was assigned to shoot was the most difficult of the bunch; a wall-mounted bronze, mirror-like disc with a half-sphere coming out of its center and a woven arc covering part of it... a reflections nightmare, so I decided to use one of the Speedlights to light the work from below through a huge white sheet of paper that acted as a diffuser; a second and a third light were placed on camera left and right to add some definition to the semi-sphere and to the arc:

After getting this, we thought it could be cool to shoot one more image of this outdoor, getting reflections of the cloudy sky in the disc, so with the help of one Speedlight we got this:

which officially ended the shoot, exactly in the timeframe we had.

Under the time, location and equipment constraint that we had to work with, I was quite pleased with the result - and, most importantly, the client was very happy with the resulting photographs.

Now for the technical stuff (click to go to the related product page): all images shown here have been shot with a Nikon D3x, equipped with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 AF-S and the Nikon 85mm f/2.8D PC-E; lighting was provided by one SB-910 Speedlight & two SB-700 Speedlights, controlled by PocketWizard MiniTT1, FlexTT5 & AC3; for flash support, a Joby GorillaPod has been used. Photos have been developed in Nikon Capture NX 2 and finished in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Thank you for reading this far, and see you soon on the blog! Stay tuned for more...

SUPPORT THE BLOG! USE THE BOXES BELOW TO START YOUR AMAZON SHOPPING!