model

Alex Kitching

January 08, 2018 in Studio, Flash

Having shot with a model from Tyne Tees Models previously in ambient light, I wanted to try the same within the studio.

I wanted to try and light the full infinity cove as a whole to allow the model freedom to move around in the cove and during the shoot wanted to try several different styles of photography.

I wanted to try an ecommerce look, with simply a model on a white background at first however upon seeing the models test card I noticed he had a good physique with lots of definition.

I thought it would be an interesting challenge in lighting the model to emphasise his physique taking everything I had learned up to this point, expanding on it and experimenting.

April offered to lend a hand throughout the shoot which was appreciated due to the possible complexity.

Days before the shoot, I was in contact with Alex, the model to verify times and locations. I also let Alex know expectations and asked if he had anything particular in mind we could try also. I let him know I was looking for a e-commerce 'asos-style' shoot but also a fitness themed shoot. I made him aware I have never shot something like this to both keep his expectations in check and to make him aware I would be spending time doing trial and error with the lighting.

The day of shoot, before Alex's arrival I spent time setting up the studio, pre-metering lights which would light the studio, setting up computers and my camera and getting lights ready with any modifiers I may have to switch to, saving time later.

I confirmed again time and location and upon arrival we went through the clothes Alex had brought with him, what we would be doing and simply cracked on.

I put on some music to make Alex more comfortable, asked him to stand in the infinity cove and ask April to meter and adjust the lights until they exposed at f/8. I chose f/8 as it is a 'sweet spot' in most lense as the aperture that renders the sharpest.

I then took a test shot.

This test shot allowed me to evaluate light positioning, and with an image imported into Capture One I could quickly and lightly tone the image, adding contrast and warmth to his skin tone. An upside to tethering is that the model can see the images been taken, and often found, as Alex has modelled for quite some time, he was spotting his own mistakes. However, a downside is that Alex could also spot mistake I was making, adding some pressure to the situation. Particularly as it's my job to assess and control every aspect of the shoot.

Overall I was happy with the lighting, I move the softbox around slightly as I didn't want split lighting and though the background wasn't a 255 white as intended, I was okay with that for the time being.

I had noticed from previous shoots tethering, it's very easy to take a picture, look, take a picture, look. I don't shoot this way untethered so I made a conscious effort not to with this shoot. Luckily with Alex being fairly experienced he was able to keep up and change poses quickly with me giving some directions every now and then.

When shooting wider shots, was getting parts of the set in the shot, something I've been experimenting with a little since our workshop with Richy Leeson..
However, I noticed getting a full 255 white background was difficult due to shadows cast by Alex and the lights themselves. I could fix this in post however personally I found myself like the shadows, as it seeming gives a behind-the-scenes imperfect look. Though I would like to try this again so I can actually perfect getting a 255 background easily.

I could have moved Alex away from the background to reduce his shadow, however when shooting white, the depth of the infinity cove proved a problem as the white floor didn't seem to extend far enough out. Fine for headshots as you don't see the floor, but for full length images I found i struggled.

I then started to stop down the background lighting to give a grey background. The flexibility of a white background is that depending on exposure you can range from 255 white to total black. As the exposure stopped down, I asked Alex to change clothing as to not blend in with the background.

I rather like these headshots. The lighting changes slightly from a slight loop to butterfly which provides a flattering even lighting and the changes in pose allow for variety in house the light hits his face.

Moving on to physique type shots I start by simply lighting Alex with a softbox, high to the camera left point down. I knew this wouldn't give me the desired results but would provide me with a starting point.

The result is a very flat light, though some shadows are being cast they are very soft and filled in therefore the image lacks the depth and shape needed to emphasise Alex's physique.
In the last image, Alex is too far back in the cover and his also being lit by the barn doors so I had to be careful in where to position him. However is did give him more definition.

I decide to butterfly light Alex with a beauty dish (albeit i make-shift one as the college doesn't seem to own a bowens mount beauty dish); an idea I got from my research. The beauty dish would create a harder light that a softbox and more contrast. The top down nature of butterfly lighting would also allow add shadows cast by muscle definition.

At the same time I side lit Alex with 2 stip boxes and aslligned them so only the very edge of the striplights would light alex. This was to prevent light wrapping around him and filling in shadows, I wanted the light to simply glance the muscle.

I find the the contrast and positioning of the lights add definition however the beauty dish is highlighting the models face in an unflattering way giving him a shine.

Removing the beauty dish and roating the stip boxes to match his turned post resulted in very dramatic lighting that emphasised the definition in his body further as the beauty dish was no longer filling in the shadows.

However, depending on pose I've lost light on his face and as the stripboxes aren't in front of Alex there are no catchlights in his eyes which I find help to added some interest there.

Switching set-ups I went back to a simply 1 light set-up opting to use a softbox for its ability to spread light.

I asked Alex to sit on an armchair I borrowed from set design and placed the light above him facing directly down.

With the angle I asked alex to sit at the light should still create shadows around his muscles creating definition and the spill of light should mimic an almost spot like look casting a pool around him.

The resulting image lit alex well, however his brow bone cast shadows into his eyes and the light is a little too soft.

I decided to raise the softbox higher making it a smaller light source and therefore giving off a hard light.

Here the light is hard enough to cast shadows and I asked alex to lean his head back slightly on the cahri which allows light onto his eyes. another downside is the state of the infinity cove itself. There are a lot of scuff marks, which though can be edited out, take a very long amount of time to correct.

Overall I really like the outcome, I think the lighting flatter Alex and emphasises his physique well.

I wanted to try the same with a black background I moved the chair and Alex out of the cove.
I needed for the light to spill around alex and the chair but nothing else to underexpose the background enough to be black.

However the softbox spread the light too far and the room was not big enough. I tried to flag off the spill of light however the boards used are of very low quality, there are white edges to them, the black paint is more a grey. However there was a simpler fix, reducing the spill of light.

I swapped the softbox out for the beauty dish. The bowl shape of the dish directs the light into a more concentrated bowl.

You can still see the background however it is much improved and is dark enough to be worked out in post production.

A problem I had with the beauty dish was, to get a smaller pool of light, I had to move the light closer. Even on its lowest setting it metered at f/16. Being so close to the subject meant the light fall off would be greater.

In this image you can see the difference in exposure from Alex's forehead to his fingers.
This is due to the inverse square law. To try and put it simply, the closer the lightsource, the brighter. The intensity of the light is inversely proportional to the square of the distance.
The further away the lightsource, the lower its intensity. However, the difference in intensity (sometimes called light fall-off) reduces as the distance increases.

In this diagram, the yellow gradient represent light and it's intensity. We see the in light 'fall-off' the further it extends from the light source. However, we also see, the difference in intensity between points A and B is greater than the intensity between point C and D.

In the above image of Alex, if the size of the pool of light being cast didn't matter, I could have moved the light higher. This would have resulted in a lesser difference in exposurse between his head and hands.

Click here to see a gallery of all the images from this shoot

Josh Glennon Shoot

January 07, 2018 in Lighting, Ambient

Throughout my time on the course I've been told by several members of staff, that to make it and be the best, I've got to step-up, put in the time and effort and push myself further than just what the rest of my cohort are doing.

The biggest problem I've found in photographing people is they are friends or people who are generally not used to being in front of the camera. People would smile for their pose in a candid or snapshot fashion or wouldn't pose at all. Helpful in learning about light and technical side of things but often left me feeling unsatisfied with images due to the subject being photographed.

I also know the importance of making contacts within the industry and, being a student often gives you a pass and a chance at things I would otherwise have to pay for.
Due to these reasons I took it upon myself to contact Tyne Tees Models. A north-east based modelling agency to ask if it was at all possible to photograph their models in return for the images (Time for files) along with a link to my website to act as a portfolio. They accepted and said I could have access to new faces and models that needed testing.

I knew I wanted to photograph men this was due do several reasons; The first is that I find men easier to photograph, though they are often less comfortable in front of the camera, I find men need less work in regards to posing and styling to look 'cool' within an image. I also have a preconception that when photographing females models there tends to be an emphasis on beauty. I wanted simple and relaxed images that portrayed metropolitan guys with an air of confidence about them but that where also more commercial in style and less 'instagram'.

I was nervous going into the shoot, I have never worked directly with models in the past and was thrown even more out of my comfort zone by being told the models all preferred to be shot in Newcastle. I struggle with anxiety, particularly with places I don't know, people I don't know and travelling, so simply getting there produced problems for me. I asked if I could bring an 'assistant' to help hold reflectors and equipment, which was true but also it meant a friend that would ease my anxieties.

Luckily, we had recently been on a trip to Newcastle and while there I noticed several places that would make for an interesting place to photograph. I found the places on Google Maps and used the street view function to screenshot the places for easy reference on my phone and confirmed time and place to meet Josh.

I made sure to arrive early and I walked the planned route in reverse to make sure there were no issues like closed roads or building work. Unfortunately the shoot was taking place on a Sunday which is market day at the Quay side. This meant more people than usual in the area.

I took a few test shots in the location I was in, The Baltic, of my assistant so I could get a feel of how the images where going to look. I started with my 24-70 f/2.8 lens which would allow my different focal length and a wide aperture to through the background out of focus.

Josh arrived and shooting began.
To begin with we a posed with issues from hard light outlined here.

This is amongst the first images I took of Josh. Instantly I was happy with how comfortable and natural Josh looks in the image. He has very sculpted features which catches the light well and he's styled close enough to my brief.

One thing I noted was although the background was nice and out of focus, particularly thanks to the distance from Josh, I wanted to really isolate Josh from everything and make the background as creamy as possible when I wanted to, know i wouldnt always have this level of distance from the background.

Knowing the capabilities of the 35mm f1.4 lens I own, I soon switched. Knowing it may not be as ideal for close up shots, but also that I would be more inclined to take mid/full-length shots of Josh later in the day.

ISO 100    f/2.8    1/250sec    70mm — ISO 100 f/2.8 1/250sec 70mm

ISO 100    f/1.4    1/400sec    35mm — ISO 100 f/1.4 1/400sec 35mm

I positioned Josh in against this wall in the open shade to have soft directional light hit his face. The light is soft enough to reduce flaws in his skin but the directional light is enough to still add interesting shadows highlighting his features. The wide angle of the 35mm meant I get to get fairly close to Josh to get this shot but allowed me to get in the background of the baltic being directly lit by the sun.

Here, I've used a prism against the lens to refract the light hitting the lens this creates what looks like a light leak or double exposure. What we're seeing is what was at a 60 degree angle from the cameras point of view. The wide aperture helping to blur were the refraction meets the actual image.

Also, on Josh's face, you can see that there is a very subtle warmer tone the the left of his face. I had asked my assistant to angle a reflector towards Josh. Though he was stood in open shade it was enough to very subtly add that hint of directional warm light.

With this image, I used a reflector to cast some warm like onto Josh's face creating a loop lighting effect.

This is enhanced his jawline and given his cheek bones definition. You can also the golden light being cast onto the slightly reflective surface of the billboard which serves to separate the dark side of this head from a dark background.

In this image of Josh, it's golden hour and the sun it setting just slightly to camera left. You can see he being side lit.

I had to be careful as when shooting into the sun, even indirectly, can produce lens flares, which my lens hood helped to shade the front element. However after seeing this shot, I decided to remove my lens hood and shoot from a lower angle.

This would make Josh seem taller due to perspective, and it would also allow the sun to hit the front element of the lens directly.

ISO 100   f/1.4    1/1000    35mm — ISO 100 f/1.4 1/1000 35mm

ISO 100   f/1.4    1/640    35mm — ISO 100 f/1.4 1/640 35mm

The result is a flare which I think, due to it's central placement adds intrigue to the image. Josh is a little washed out because of the flare but I think that adds to the ambiance of the photograph.

Unfortunately due to the different angle we now see background distractions like a road sign that Josh's body was covering when shot at eye level. However I don't think this detracts from the overall image making it one of my favourites of the day.

The lighting conditions did prove difficult at times.

For example the above image, being back lit, meant my camera's built-in meter would at times read the background. I tend to shoot with spot metering and, as I was utilising focus recomposition a lot in this shoot, I found myself forgetting I had already metered for Josh's face and quickly flicking the dials on the camera to change expose for the new incorrect exposure when my focus point would move during recomposition.

Resulting in images like this.

Before even taking this picture I knew the under lighting wasn't going to work. However, Josh himself expressed interest and I was intrigued to see if the colour would help alleviate the unflattering and creepy feel under-lighting gives.

It didn't. We're used to seeing parallel or top-down due to always seeing things lit from above thanks to the sun.

It gives off a macabre look that can definitely work in certain situations when that is the intention, however luminous teal underlighting creates a sort of juxtaposition that simply doesn't create a flarrting image.

Throughout this shoot I found myself actively looking for places with interesting light more so than I usually would. I wasn't just looking for well lit places with soft lighting I was looking at how like reflected off the environment and how the colours of the scene could add to the image.

Here, the sun had just set so daylight had a very blue tone to it. I saw that under a bridge that had very warm orange lighting which I thought would contrast well. Particularly with Josh himself as he has ginger hair and is wear a lot of blue.

The colour of light and styling seems to mesh perfectly so I positioned Josh under the light but far enough away it would only cast a rim lighting which you can see wraps around his back hitting the top of his head and his arm to the left. The light hitting his face come from the opening of the tunnel under the bridge.

I sat off centre to Josh and asked him to look straight down the lens causing a directional light creating a very near rembrandt triangle which I was pleased that I noticed on the day itself as opposed to being a lucky mistake, making this one of my favourite images of the shoot.

In this picture, we were simply walking by and I noticed the setting sun streaming through.
I stood Josh just against the wall of the bridge support where light was hitting and it creating a beautiful rim like making him pop from the background.
Though it seemed dark in person, I was able to see enough light and how it was hitting Josh's face asking him to face the camera creating a directional light which emphasises his bone structure due to directional light give form, depth and shape resulting in my favourite image of the shoot.

Selected images

Click here to see all the images of the day