Category: Behind the scenes

Technique: How it was done… Battery Shot

 Gavin   Behind the scenes, Equipment, Strobist, Techniques, Tips
Setup for the Battery Shot
Setup for the Battery Shot

I have a couple of questions about how I did the battey shot in this post so thought I’d post the lighting setup in the form of the sketch above. It’s a very simple technique and took about 5 minutes to do.

The foundation for the set was a sheet of black corrugated plastic upon which I sat my camera bag to act as a black background. I then roughly positioned two 580EX II speedlites, the one to camera left standing up on its penguin feet and the one to camera right laying down on its side. Both were fitted with Pocket Wizard triggers. I’d originally planned to use the window light to light the set with the speedlites just adding a cool effect to represent the concept of power. In the end I elected to use the ambient just as fill with the main illumination coming from the speedlites bouncing into a silver reflector.

I’ve repeated the final image after the jump for those that are interested. Continue reading Technique: How it was done… Battery Shot »

Adding a little edge…?

 Gavin   Behind the scenes, Equipment, Fashion, Strobist, Studio, Techniques, Tips

I was asked to do a portfolio shoot for Helga (featured here) the other day, but to produce something a little edgier and with some striking black and white images. As to whether I achievedit or not, I’ll let you be the judge.

We were going to be working in a office over in Docklands, not too far from the Excell Centre, and thankfully we were also going to be inside. Given the extreme weather we have been having of late, this was very welcome.

After a quick scout around the building we settled on the breakout room on th groundfloor as our makeshift studio. It was nothing special, just a semi-large room with a few chairs a couple of tables and a pool table. This at first appeared to present a few possibilities as we were going to be doing lingerie but the biggest advantage was the empty room opposite we could use as an impromptu salon.

The problems to solve were that the white painted walls were not very interesting and full length shots were going to be difficult owing to the nasty grey carpet. This shoot was going to be controlled by the lighting if it was going to offer up any images of note. When we first started out, it had all the hallmarks of being an outright failure. Continue reading Adding a little edge…? »

Omar Mansoor Fashion Show at Runway Club

 Gavin   Behind the scenes, Equipment, Event, Fashion, Strobist, Techniques, Tips

This was the last show in the Fashion Meets Music tour and the one that yielded the best images although the evening wasn’t withot a few technical hitches. Thanks are very definitely due to Ande from the Dilema Agency for all her hard work and efforts, not only thoughout the tour but especially for this event.

As one might ecpect with night clubs, the environment is dark and Runway was especially so as the next sequence of images show

Continue reading Omar Mansoor Fashion Show at Runway Club »

The Lady and the Tramp

 Gavin   Behind the scenes, Digital Darkroom, Fashion, Photoshoot, Photoshop, Techniques, Tips, Workflow
Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp

The Lady and the Tramp was a really fun project to do. I can’t claim credit for the idea though, that must go to the lovely Leanna, the model in this image. The brief was to shoot two images, one with her dressed as a Lady and the other with her as a Tramp, then merge the two together in PhotoShop.

With a little thought, preparation and patience it’s actually very easy to achieve although we weren’t without our difficulties on the day. Most of them environmental funnily enough. Continue reading The Lady and the Tramp »

Behind the scenes – Light Trails

 Gavin   Behind the scenes, Low Light, Strobist, Techniques, Tips
Behind the Scenes: Twilight Light Trails
Behind the Scenes: Twilight Light Trails
Twilight Light-Trails

Light Trails — Creating cool effects with flash and camera movement

Now I’ve found a good lighting diagram tool on the web, http://lightingdiagrams.com, I’m planning to write a series of posts that describe how I made an image and in particular how I lit it.

This article is the first such post and I’m going to start off really, really simple with the light-trail image I made on one of my twilight fashion shoots earlier in the year.

This is just about as simple as it gets when starting to add flash to light an image and the whole this was made from a single exposure, a single flashgun mounted on a light stand and a radio trigger. I did add a little spice though in the way that I created the background effect but I’ll explain how I achieved it and also why it works below. Continue reading Behind the scenes – Light Trails »