Introduction:
A while back I had the opportunity to meet with Jenny and Brad to talk about shooting their wedding, as part of the meeting I did a just-for-fun test engagement shoot with them. Well last weekend we met again to actually shoot the actual engagement shoot. John, a friend and second photographer, recommended the downtown Toronto Distillery District location to us and it was a wonderful location for us to shoot in. The unique cobblestone architecture and softly falling snow really add to the mood and ambience of the location. Due to the horrible Toronto traffic we arrived a bit later than we wanted, the sun was quickly setting and heavy snowfall was creeping up on us.

Shooting Details:
Because the sun was setting and it was snowing and/or about to snow. What little light that was creeping through the clouds provided us with a nice soft diffuse light source. I shot this with a new camera, a newly purchased Canon 1D Mark II, and a new Canon 70-200mm F4L IS lens borrowed from John. Most of the images were shot with the couple far away allowing them to act as natural as possible with two photographers shooting firing away all around them.

What I Learned:

• The Canon 1D Mark II is indeed weather resistant as it took a pounding from the wet snow and kept firing away.
• Camera batteries don’t last as long in extreme weather. Always keep a backup set somewhere warm like in your jacket.
• Snow is cold but looks good in photos.

Photos:

Introduction:

Since I already had a bunch of models in formal dress clothes from the “Shooting in the Rain” photo session and because the weather outside was pretty nasty since it was rainy and all, we decided to head inside to do some more individual shots. Having no studio at the time we decided to shoot the portraits using a off-white wall in the hallway of one of the campus buildings at my university.

We decided to play along the theme of the models being so dressed up but shooting them differently than one would expect. I think these three photos work great as a series that shows how these models can be “dressed up”.

Shooting Details:

I really like simple lighting when shooting under time constraints so I employed a very simple one light setup here. With the help of a few assistants we were able to put a single speedlight (Nikon SB-25) shooting into a reflective umbrella high above and towards the model from directly above their heads. By varying the umbrella angle and the model’s distance to the background wall we are able to control how much light hits the background and how well lit it is. I enjoyed using this lighting as it creates deep shadows underneath each model’s eyes and it is really fun and unique after shooting so many other simple one light setups.

Things I Learned:

• Keep your lighting setups simple. Learn and perfect a single lighting setup and keep on using it till you master it.
• If people question why you’re shooting people in their underwear on campus, say it is for a “school project” and they will continue on their way.

Photos:

Introduction

So I had planned a large photo shoot all by myself with seven models. They were all to wear formal black dress clothes/dresses. It was going to be a pretty big deal. Unlucky for me I planned the shoot on a day with heavy rain and freezing cold temperatures. I didn’t want to cancel the shoot so I decided to shoot within the limitations that the rain brought us. Obviously we would need to find some sort of shade. I don’t really think the rain affects guys wearing suits, but rain and cold weather is definitely a recipe for disaster with a female model wearing a thin black dress.

As you can see in the photo below, compliments of fellow photographer Chi (thanks for helping out!), we positioned the models under a large overhang that protected them from most of the rain while still allowing some soft diffused light from the cloudy sky to provide the main light. I also shot from far away with a telephoto lens to compress the subjects and bring them all closer together. Also it helped to blur out the boring and distracting background. Please ignore the behind the scenes photo that shows me semi-mooning the camera.

Shooting Details:
Not much to talk about here, just meter for the natural light and shoot at an aperture that balances shallow depth of field to get rid of the background yet still retaining enough depth of field to keep everyone in the group relatively focused. In this case I used an aperture of F5. Pose the group, making sure each individual looks good, and shoot away!

Things I Learned:

• When shooting outoors in the cold, have the models bring extra clothing or have them hide indoors while you setup.
• Don’t let Chi the Photographer shoot behind me, or at least pull my pants up when he does.

Photos:

Introduction:
The last post showed some of the behind the scenes and test photos that we did while all the models were getting ready but in this post I’m going to show you the result of a several hours of photography on a Sunday afternoon! After all the models were ready we moved into the Rotunda Theater on the Queen’s University campus. The theater is where Queen’s drama students practice and rehearse for their performances. The awesome part about this theater is that it a a giant room that is painted completely in black! Also there are lots of drama props and set pieces that are great for setting up a shot.

After shooting in the middle of the theater for a while I realized it wasn’t working as everyone was too far away from each other and there just wasn’t enough interaction going on between the models. I scoped out the location quickly to find a dirty looking corner that looked just big enough to fit all the models. We moved to this location and it was much easier to pose and have the models interact when they were so much closer together.

Shoot Details:
During the shoot we only had access to two small battery operated speedlights. I placed one of them, a Canon 580EXII onto a light stand and had it shoot into a reflective white umbrella placed off center at camera right. The umbrella was carefully placed far enough away so that it’s light would be more uniform when hitting the large group of people. If the umbrella was placed too close the light falloff would be too much and the people closer to the light would be too bright while the people further away would be left in the dark. By placing the main light for the group further away, and increasing it’s flash output power, the light is more evenly distributed amongst the group.

Unfortunately because of the posing and locations of the models, the two furthest back models were left in the shadows of the models that were in front of them. We addressed this issue by attaching a DIY grid spot to my Nikon SB-25 speedlight an firing a tight beam of light directly at them from camera left.

A detailed lighting diagram can be found immediately following the promo image below.

Things I Learned:

• Take lots of photos/consecutive images when doing a group photo. This helps if someone is blinking and you can easily Photoshop in open eyes using the computer later on.
• Make sure each model looks good individually and the group shot will magically fall in place.
• Grid spots are useful lighting modifiers to get rid of unwanted shadows.

Photos:

Introduction:

Last weekend I was able to work with an entire team of creative talent. We (me and fellow photographer Jess Lancaster) had art directors, make up artists, hair stylists, and models available to work with when we did this year’s Vogue Charity Fashion Show’s marketing campaign. This article details some of the stuff we did before the big shoot! All the shots here are just test shots with the final outcome (Spoiler: It’s a sweet group shot!) to be talked about in another post. Because there were so many models and not that many people to do hair and make up some of the models finished earlier than others. To keep things running smoothly and to not have any of the models bored out of their minds come actual shoot time we decided to do some fun test shots of them in a fashionable setting!

Here are some photos of the setting so you can see that we really didn’t have much to work with in terms of studio or a location. It was just a large empty room that we found on campus that we could use to change and get the models make up and hair done. We used the bare wall as a “studio”. Unfortunately the walls were a light shade of pink, but as you can see in the FINAL photos at the bottom of the page it doesn’t affect the final outcome too much. The following shots, I admit, are not very good but I wasn’t in my PJ mode yet as I was thinking so much about fashion; but they do show the room and the process of getting ready for a big big shoot like this.

Fellow Photographer Jess Lancaster testing out a “sexy” green hat!

Marjorie getting her make up done.

Melin helping Vicky with her make up.

Models Mason and Jake. Note the pink walls we used as a background behind them.

Shoot Details:

For these photos we really wanted to keep it simple. Hence we went with a one light setup and used ambient coming through the windows as fill. The light setup was a simple small portable Nikon SB-25 speedlight shot into a reflective umbrella. We kept the umbrella high up aiming downwards to the cameras left at all times to maintain some consistency between shots. With this setup depending on how the model poses and the angle that you have the light setup on you will get some very contrasty shadows on the unlit portion of the image.

Ways to fix this include lowering your shutter speed to pick up more ambient light to fill in those shadows or simply moving your flash and umbrella at a different angle to the model. Generally speaking it is good to have enough light on the face to show both eyes. But you also want to maintain some shadows on the face to give it contours and to highlight details instead of just “nuking” the face with light creating a well lit but boring/flat photo! It’s really all about balance and practice.

Also in some of these photos you can notice some shadows on the wall. This is created when the model is close to the wall. I have intentionally added it to some of these photos but if you would have wanted it removed, you can just position the model further away from the wall before taking the photos. The further away from the wall the model is using a one light setup like this the less shadows there will be! But this also means less light from the umbrella is spilling from the subject and hitting/lighting the wall and the wall will get darker when you bring your model and lighting setup go further away from it.

Things I Learned:

• Wardrobe is again VERY important. When doing fashion photos imagine the clothing is a “model” as well and think of interesting ways to arrange and “pose” the clothing to best fit with the idea of the shoot and the model’s physical body as well.
• Bring duct tape and safety pins to a fashion shoot as they are invaluable for making the clothes fit a model perfectly. Also duct tape is useful for taping flashes to random things and works as a lighting stand in tight spots.

Photos: