Lighting lesson with Jan

Lighting lesson with Jan (Allklier Photography)

one of the amazing photographers i work with agreed to give me a quick lesson in lighting. We had SMG model Shawn Herbold come out and i did the makeup before our session.

These were the shots that i took with the set up Jan used.

Jan showed me how to look at a photo and figure out where the light was coming from and what type of lighting was used. It was an INCREDIBLY useful lesson and i'm very thankful to have gotten it as a recent photo shoot i had with D'Angelo Midili turned out to be rather frustrating for me since i didn't even know where to begin!

Head shots at SPA

Anna Kharitonova Model

Freakishly Beautiful Makeup

Two soft boxes, white background, and a great little model. These were the head shots i created on thursday night at SPA.

very minimal touch ups done on lightroom, light/contrast/color tweaking but thats about it.

Don't really have much to say on these, except i'm very happy with how they came out.

Head shots anyone?

The amazing, the wonderful Natasha Sims was in town (Seattle) for the holidays and booked me for a head shot photo session. I think i'm up to 8 or 9 shoots now so i think they went over very well.

After learning a great lighting set up by andrew ness, i used the bounce card "method" to shoot.

Full hair and makeup was done by myself,
as well as all the editing which was done in lightroom.

Head shots, i strongly believe, should LOOK like the person in real life. So most corrections (not that there were alot) were done with makeup and lighting then a few adjustments in contrast, color, etc done in light room.

I really enjoy doing head shots, something about the face strikes my fancy and i'm thinking i might explore this medium further..

first lighting lesson

Danielle E Lewis (Model)
anphotography (instructor)

My first lighting lesson. Danielle, a wicked fun model, got together with myself and andrew ness to do a shoot and was kind enough to be my model for my first lighting lesson.

After doing her hair and makeup, and andrew getting in a few sets, it was time to learn. Andrew set up the "box" which is what we referred to the jungle gym of light stands, clamps, white boards and lights we set up so he could show me how to properly light a model with what i had at home.

These are the images i walked away with. Including this EPIC one of andrew!!! :)

I was incredibly excited to learn i was lighting everything ALL WRONG before and that there WAS a right way to do it.

Thank you andrew and Danielle for being so awesome and helping me further myself as an artist!

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle"

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle"

Another actor/filmaker friend of mine invited me on set to do hair and makeup for a project he was doing. JP was remaking two scenes from "The Friends of Eddie Coyle". The actors you see in the images are D'Angelo Midili, J.P. Giuliotti and Eric Riedmann.
It was an awesome experience, i was able to take photos of each actor in character as they rehearsed their scenes in between takes. Which i think made for some really interesting emotional photos, i'm very excited about this set.

I also pulled out my macro (i was thinking about selling it) and was able to experiment with it. To my surprise and excitement, it captured the expressions from the actors at a much more personal level then i was able to obtain with my other lens... so i think my macro is a keeper!

first time with studio light on my own

D'Angelo Midili (model)

My first time ever lighting my own shoot with studio lights. After a fellow SPA photographer gave me a quick lesson on HOW to set up strobe lights, i used two soft boxes on the model, and light the cyc with one more strobe, this was what i achieved.

I was incredibly frustrated because i went to the studio with no idea really about what i was doing. Fortunately i shot with Jan (one of my mentors and fav photographers) and he gave me a crash coarse on basic lighting in between sets on one of our shoots. It took me a good 30 minutes JUST to figure out how and why the lights were responding like they were and why the slave on one strobe wasn't working so i just set up another remote light thing on it.. and TADA, it worked.. SOOO on i went.. adjusting, moving, shooting, until i finally got a some what light set up that i figured would work. These are some of the photos that i produced.

Leaving the studio pretty annoyed with myself, for no good reason, i got the images on my computer and was actually impressed.. But i know NOW next time, i'll head to the studio with a game plan..

Krista Gibbon (Model)
freakishly beautiful (makeup and hair)
rita (wardrobe)

While on set doing a period shoot with ANPhotography, my Audrey Hepburn model Krista Gibbon was kind enough to let me take some photos of her using andrews lighting he set up. Here they are

while i'm still learning how to take photos, i also forget a few minor details.. one being, i left my white balance on tungsten which is what i use with my clamp lights, so that explains the blue cool tones.. I'm also finding the difficulties in posing my subject. Though in the past i've coached models for other photographers, capturing the actual pose/image while paying attention to cropping, lighting, shadows, etc etc is a lot more difficult then i thought!