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
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