More to come! Still editing a bunch of em’…

Introduction:
I was shooting with a couple models for fun and found out one of them did some modeling one summer for Calvin Klein underwear! Now I can totally see where his style of posing/modeling comes from. For the other model he had a very dark brooding expression and while we were just going to shoot him topless with jeans we found two random strips of black cloth that we quickly “fashioned” into a Dark Jedi cloak!

Camera Details:
This type of lighting is easier than it looks. Just place the light and umbrella above the model aiming downwards and towards the face! Changing the angle of how you position the lights changes the shadows on the face. Try it out it is super simple and effective. Works better for people with chiseled abs though.

What I Learned:

• You can make “fashion” out of anything. You can even make your own clothing out of a few scraps lying around!
• Flat lighting is boring. Play with shadows and the absence of light.
• Strong people make better human light stands as lights and stands are HEAVY.
• EXPERIMENTING IS GOOD!

Photos:

Introduction:
The big day of the Vogue Charity Fashion show at my university finally came. This year the venue was a lot larger and we were able to hold the show at the newly renovated Grand Theater in Kingston Ontario. The show was a lot harder to shoot as it was no longer a single long runway but it was now the whole stage plus a weird “C-shape” runway. It made for a good show but boy does it make things more difficulty for the photographers. Instead of posing at the end of the runway the models posed EVERYWHERE (as there was no literal end to this runway). In the end the lighting was decent, got some good images out of it, had fun, and raised a ton of money for Camp Outlook who are an organization that provides at-risk and underprivileged children a chance to experience wilderness camping!

Camera Details:
Here is a quick and dirty guide on how to photograph a fashion show. For performances such as this where the background can be very dark and where the subject is well lit I suggest using the manual mode of your camera and no flash. A lot of people make the mistake and try to use flash. But honestly the stage is well lit in venues such as this and you should have no trouble if you have a decently fast lens. I was using a Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS but was shooting at F4 for most of these shots. For runway shots people move pretty fast so get a decent shutter speed of at least 1/160th of a second and set your aperture and ISO speed appropriately. Remember a sharp noisy/pixely photo is better than a blurry clean photo! I use AI Servo/Continuous Focus (for you awesome Nikon people!) assigned to the EV-lock button on my camera but it’s a personal preference if you like the old “focus-and-recompose” One-Shot method instead.

Photos:
More photos in high-resolution format can be found HERE.

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: