Shot with model and punkrocker Tiffany Cadillac recently. She had some creative looks that she had come up with so we decided to meet up and shoot them. Hair, makeup and styling was all done by her.
We did maybe 7 looks or so. Still processing the photos but here are two quick photos from some that were taken.
Will post the rest maybe next week when I have finished with them ;D
So, took these pics maybe 2-3 weeks ago of model Sascha
A bit before this Mijonju brought out his lappy and gave me a quick lesson on photoshop
and how he edits images. Got some good advice and was able to do some basic editing of some photos.
However, for any type of beauty work you need to do a lot of stuff in post so I subscribed to Lynda and watched a few photoshop series by Chris Orwig then decided to use the above
photo as a “lets practice retouching” photo.
I pretty much have opened the picture up in photoshop everyday for the past 3 weeks. Some days I just opened it stared and asked what? why? how? and never actually edited it at all and in the end just closed the file.
Other days I would do a little editing, sometimes leaving the result, sometimes deleting it and starting again.
As with anything you dont really know what you like untill you know what is actually possible.
I went away and started looking at other photographers work to see how it is processed.
It is funny once you know about editing because you can look a photo and see what the person did in post.
I saw a lot of amazing work that pretty much blew my mind.
Also at the opposite end of the spectrum saw a lot of “Got plastic?” “Got airbrush?” “Oh no, they went too far….” type of stuff.
I guess in the end it is what is. You edit stuff the way you feel and according to your vision so there isnt really any right or wrong solutions.
This image might be about 95% finished. There are maybe 1-2 really small niggly details I would like to fix, but I think im not too sure how and I am cool with the way they are for the moment.
Oh well, got quite a few shoots lined up this month. Should be fun to see where it goes!
Probably start shooting street portraits again next month :D also have a lil fun project lined up for when I go to climb mount Fuji again this year.
So with the weather sucking since forever decided to do a bit more studio stuff. After all the bad weather rainy season is probably also around the corner which sucks even more…
Decided to up some shots with Stacey from a week or so ago. Messed around with a few setups, beauty look and some other stuff.
Ended up making a composite out of one of the looks.
Shot some film too.
Medium format with the Pentax67:
End up going darkroom the following weekend and making some prints.
Was going to post a little darkroom field report but forgot some of the prints in the darkroom lol…
Pretty happy how the film dev is going. Have had thin negs, badly damaged and scratched, completely ruined negs… However the past few devs have gone really well, close to flawless in terms of density and scratching/dust etc.
Shot some large format too:
Noticed from the last shoot I did that my large format camera needs a lens hood. Using a light on the back ends up creating some very funk effects without one…
Oh well, got a few more photos from another shoot to try process and also might try to line up a few shoots for GW ;o
Pretty interesting though. With street photography and stuff I found myself not really caring too much or worrying about doing any post processing to my work (or even really the quality of my work just the content). But with this type of photography you kinda have to. As a result, I find myself staring at my photos for ages thinking about them, what to do and how to make them better. Kinda like in the darkroom making prints. Actually making me a bit more detailed oriented :)
Quick pic from a portrait session I did with Stacey last week. WIll post some more pics and a write up later.
Actually went darkroom 2 days ago. Will up some scans and a little report about it tomorrow or something.
Have a nice day folks.
Did a shoot with Julia about 2 weeks ago. Alani came along too. Shot some outdoor and indoor stuff. Been trying to learn some photoshop recently. It is funny I find that at this point I jump between Lightroom, GIMP and photoshop depending on what I want to do…
Was shooting large format outdoors so maybe only took 3 different looking shots. Came inside met up with Maity and shot one setup. This is the shot I liked the most from the indoor setup:
Feeling ridic lazy and tired recently.. so much film to scan so many shots to try and process…
Shot some photos of Adriana on film. Developed them last night and they came out nice. Might be the best batch of negs I have done so far, nice density. Still have a little dust and a few scratches though but way better than the past two batches….
Shot some colour too, but bw looked way better. Not sure if its due to me letting the dude in my local shop dev them… (i never learn).
Tried to get the iso400 film I shot at iso100 by accident developed, but the shop told me the most they can do is develop it at iso200 and it will cost 2x the normal cost LOL (gamboooollll).
I told them to chill to not do anything and I will decide today if I want it developed…
So yeah did a shoot with model Adriana and hair makeup partner in crime Maity recently.
Fun times :)
It was the second time shooting in my home studio setup. Had a post about the first shoot I did but tumblr deleted it :(
Few months ago I thought to myself, why not turn my home to a mini studio? Did a bunch of research, checked around and came to the conclusion it was not feasible because the ceiling is too low and layout is too narrow. So I gave up on the idea….
Ended up paying to use other studios for a bit. Next thought was how about finding a dirt cheap building to rent and maybe turning that into a studio?
But after a bit of research that wasnt feasible either. Everywhere was too expensive, and the places cheap enough didnt have the right layout to make it work. So I gave up on that idea too….
About 2-3 weeks ago I started thinking about it again and went to Yodobashi to check out the price of seamless background paper and a stand to mount it on.
Not too expensive, but I still wasnt sure.
A few Saturdays ago, I remember writing a tweet about backdrop stands and Uchujin (check out his photography and vid documentaries) who I ended up bump into that same day
kindly offered to lend me his background stuff. In the end I opted to just get my own since it was cheap enough and didn’t wanna make him go through the hassle of lugging heavy stuff around.
That same day as I was walking through Shinjuku station pondering about whether to get the stuff or not someone tapped me on my back. I look around and its Genevieve (check out her photography). She said she recognized my hat from afar lol..
Spoke to her a bit and I tell her that I saw a cheap backdrop mount and was pondering getting it. She tells me she has the exact same one I was thinking of getting and we speak a bit more about it.
That more or less makes my descion for me to get it.
So yeah FF back to the photo shoot. The plan for the day was to initially do bunch of beauty shots using different colours. But things ended up going a bit slow and after the first natural look shot kinda just changed it up and improvised.
Adriana was great though, she brought quite a few outfits.
After the beauty shots it more or less turned into a game of how many looks and trying to push the limits of my house.
Ended up moving the light from front to front to side to side, used tables with white cloth for reflectors, black paper as scrims, added a bunch of lights, took some away, used multiple modifiers, moved closer and further to get a different colour background.
All this while Maity rocked the makeup and Adriana rocked my camera.
Probably still a few things left to try and to try improve for the next time, but pretty happy with the way things worked out.
Might try shooting some beauty stuff for a while ;o
Shot some film and managed to expose iso400 film at iso100, and waste some large format. Seems im forgetting or unable to use the camera efficiently since I havent used it regularly for a while…
Might post some film shots if any came out ok…
Did a little shoot with Japanese Rapper Micho a few months back.
She released an album last week that is available through free download and can be found here:
Download it and give it a listen :)
Here is here music video on youtube for her single -> Youtube
She is also on twitter -> https://twitter.com/#!/MICHOmic
And has a FB page - Facebook
Go show her some love :D
The shoot was initially for a magazine that was suppose to be released this month, but ended up getting cancelled at the last minute.
Think it was meant to be a 2 page spread with like a small profile pic type shot with some text (pic above) and a biggish size composite taking up a large amount of the other page.
Ended up making 2 composites, first one above would have perhaps taken up a whole page and there would have been text at the bottom part that has some negative space.
Tried to make the pictures next to each other kinda flow like a sequence. This composite was the more of a chilled quiet atmosphere.
The other composite I made was a bit more loud and wild.
I was looking through a photobook called Portraits by Michael Thompson when I noticed he had a lot of these cool pics where he had JLo, Mariah Carrey, Fergie and a few other people dancing and took a bunch of those sequences to make one photo.
I asked a bit on twitter how to make something like that, then ended up issuing myself a challenge saying no sleep till I get it done.
Started 5pm went bed 2am that night lol. Ended up owning myself multiple times and having to start from scratch….
Oh well, at least I got a rough idea how to make layered composite now.
Actually liked this profile shot too, although it wasnt gonna get used, yellow and black is so nice ;D
Think there are quite a few other decent pics that got taken but they are destined to rot on the HD of my computer…
Anyway once again, download the album mayneeee:
If you like it then feel free to reshare, reblog this or post the link on ur own page etc.
Peace!
Was looking through some photos and realized there were a few more of Lareina I took that I liked. Thought I would upload one real quick.
Have a nice Sunday peeps.
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is…”
A little reflection from the shoot the other day, the perils of shooting strobes using film.
Given a lighting setup that consists of a set of lights with different modifiers and the model in the optimal spot to give you the result you want. Depending on the modifiers being used the amount of freedom the model has to use in terms of turning left and right tilting their head up and down and moving in any direction before the lighting changes from:
Optimal -> Satisfactory (not exactly the way you wanted it but still good enough) -> Unsatisfactory( light completely missing, irrecoverable under or over exposing)
is a factor I forgot to take into account a few times.
The setups I used for most of the shots unfortunately provided very little freedom, however I didnt notice it at the time. Stuff like slight turns and leaning forward lead to irrecoverable under and over exposure and stuff like the head light I was using when I tried out a three light setup completely missing the models head and coming into the lens creating some very unwanted flare…
Kinda makes you wonder whats the best way to work at it. Having to constantly stop every other shot to move the light (and probably re-test exposure etc) is a pretty good way to kill a flow and vibe of a shoot.
With digital its not a biggy since u can check and even choose to just reshoot the ones with problems after, but such luxury is not afforded with film.
I guess maybe the best thing to do is just use an octabox all day and not even have to worry about much since it seems to give a ridiculous amount of freedom for the model to move in.
Oh well…
The tattoo on her shoulder that says ダメ人間 = dame ningen = Useless human being/Good for nothing person.
I was surprised she had that tattooed on her since she is far from one. She models, writes poems, sings and plays instruments. Check out her youtube channel she made recently for some of her stuff -> http://www.youtube.com/user/gaijinlareina
I asked her to contradict the meaning of the tattoo by showing it and sitting up tall and proud.
For some weird reason I actually want that same tattoo lol…
I actually like this shot, but thinking about it in hindsight maybe I would have put a light on the left to get rid of the shadow.
Light setups were all pretty basics, 1st and 3rd pics are just a beauty dish as a single light source, 2nd pic is 3 lights, beauty dish key, octabox fill and a striplight as a rim light.
Been a pretty lame week, here is to hoping the new month brings forth good fortunes.
Peace.
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
Really love this quote, crazy how true it is…
Went to the studio on the weekend to shoot some with Lareina and Jo came along to shoot too.
Was a pretty crazy day, I was more or less dead before I even left the house. I was gonna shoot large format but changed my mind at the last minute to go with medium format because I wanted to shoot colour too.
Ended up semi freaking out at 8:30ish not remembering how exactly using strobes work with the pentax67. So I decided to shoot a test roll of bw neopan, dev it and make sure the flash worked properly. I have never developed MF before, so after taking the shots I spent like 40 minutes trying to put the film on the reel in the changing bag but it wouldnt go in. I gave up and put it on the reel in the light as practice (wasting the film) then retook the shots.
Deved the shots and half of them were lit and half of them were black. I re-shot and re-deved again and finally figured out what was the problem (3 rolls wasted).
Got to the studio and tried to shoot and the flash didnt go off (4 rolls wasted), in the end I worked it out though.
Shot quite a few rolls, 3 colour and 3 black and white. I deved one roll and here are three pics from it:
The other two black and white are hanging in my shower drying and ill try scan them along with the colour before Wednesday. Will post some more stuff this week assuming I got anything worth posting.
Made quite a few retarded mistakes with the lights while shooting, but I guess thats what happens when you know stuff in theory but never actually do it in practice.
Oh well, hopefully get to shoot more with Lareina in the future, really cool and easy to work with. Only problem is that my favourite colour, blue, is her worse colour :(
I actually turned the comments feature on as an experiment, will leave it up for a while and see what happens.
Recently I have itchy finger syndrome and have been wanting to shoot at any opportunity i can.
Unfortunately the weather has sucked of late so its kinda hard to go outside and try and take photos of people.
Last week the weather wasnt so bad so I decided to holla at Number Fifteen who works near me and find out if she wanted to do an impromptu lunchtime shoot.
She was game so we met up at lunch time at the spot I originally took her photo.
After spending the past two weeks in a studio, shooting outside was kind of a relief…
I pulled out some Astia and was gonna shoot in the sun, but based on the location any shot would result in either weird shadows from trees or her squinting from the sun.
Abandoned that plan and decided to find some shade. Shade is all good and whatever, but when you have iso100 film and a camera lens combo that needs 1/125 shutter speed life starts to suck.
I dont particularly like taking full body or even three quarters at F4 or below apertures, so I decided to just take some close ups and make a composite.
Lesson learnt, iso100 film needs careful planning before use lol..
Also would be interesting to see how Astia looks overexposed by a stop in the shade, but I would probably need a tripod or another camera to accomplish that…
After shooting the Astia I decided to switch it up and hit another area but this time using portra 400.
The extra speed more or less gave me the freedom to try what I ever I wanted to and ended up messing around taking shots from different angles and distances.
So yeah, I guess as the sucky weather continues I will probably just go studio or shoot some park scenes with a woolly hat, scarf and some gloves on my own…
Until next time :o
Quick shout out to Mia for coming out to hang and be experimented on :D
She is part of a band called Sterling (check them out).
They just so happen to have a gig tomorrow details are here.
So yeah, plan was to just mess around with strobes in the studio with Irwin. Ended up mainly just messing around with the beauty dish.
It was my first time using a beauty dish, I think that I might be in love. It is probably not versatile enough to be a desert island modifier but for head/shoulders half body stuff I could see myself using this a lot.
After shooting a few shots of tmax400 over the past few weeks, I’m thinking to myself that I’m not really feeling it.
It is a pretty boring film, has no character or anything to it. To be honest, I actually think bw polaroids look 100x better than it.
I bought a few packs of a bw film called Arista from FreestylePhoto last week. I think im gonna give that a try for a while and see how that looks. One last thing I might try though is to develop tmax in tmax developer (I hear it comes out best in that).
Had a bit of a nightmare the week before trying to shoot color with strobes. Lost 2 sheets because of a holder mishap and then lost another 2 because my lens wouldnt sync. 150mm lenses are really rare for some reason, cant find any in stock. The one I found was really old. I did some research and I read a lot about old lenses sometimes having sync problems. I ended up just buying a 210mm fuji lens (large format lenses are cheap). This was shot with portra 160.This file is low res so you probably wont notice, but the amount of detail and color is actually really sick. Next step is to actually try using it outdoors.
Took a few more bw shots, but wasnt really too happy with the way they came out. Shooting in a studio without any props and just a white background is kinda weird. Since there are no interesting backdrops/colors/compositions to save you, you have to either get the person to do some interesting or pull out some sort of crazy lighting to get anything interesting. Defo a completely different challenge and skill set needed…
Prolly gonna need to come up with some lighting setups before hand next time since I dont know enough about lighting to be able to just make up something cool from scratch.
And as a parting question, what bw films do you like?
Catch me on twitter -> @mrportraitist
Or on my FB page -> Facebook
Peace
Intro
So, I needed to test out some of my gear and Joanne (@tenminuteshate on twitter, follow her) who writes ten minutes hate (http://10mh.net/ check it out or I will destroy you!!! (kidding about the destroy you part)) was kind enough to donate some of her time.
Motivations
I have had some lighting gear for a long time that I have never really used. The plan from next year is to actually start using it on some sort of regular basis. I also ordered some flash transmitters and bought a special lens that will let me use flash with my pentax (didnt get a chance to test it out). Lastly I wanted to try out a couple of lighting techniques. Some worked and inevitably some didnt hehe.
Will probably do more of this next year.
Here are a few pics:
Technical Mumbo Jumbo
For those who dont really care about what I used/tried to do etc feel free to stop reading now lol.
Gear
Used a sb-600 flash, EzyBox 24inch softbox, V5 cactus transmitters, d700, 50mm and 135mm. I brought my Pentax with me but because the location sucked I opted not to use it.
Shot 1
I wanted to see how the sb-600 performs in bright open daylight. I used the sun as back lighting and softbox to light her face. I took a few more shots but then it got a lot brighter and the sun started creating nuke type back lighting which I didnt like. Early conclusion, sb-600 in open light during the day is gonna be tough to use hehe.
Shot with 135mm, softbox camera left above
Shot 2
Gave up and decided to retreat to the shade. Worked well since I could actually control the light a bight. Wanted to go for a slightly dramatic look with light on the left falling off into shadow. Needed more shadow, but happy with how it looks.
Shot with 135mm, softbox camera left above
Shot 3
My fave shot. Luckily got some nice wind. Light is in front of the camera slightly to the right at around eye level, and shot from below with me sandwiched between the light and the railing she was sitting on using a 50mm.
Shot 4
Straight out of the Zack Arias play book. I was waiting for the sky to go to F4 250 and do some sky background shots since my hotshoe doesnt have enough juice when it is too bright. Unfortunately, it started getting really cold so I just ended up shooting at like F11 1/250 and boosting the saturation of blues in lightroom to 100 to eek out the little blue I was able to get in the sky. Shot with 50mm light camera left up high.
So yeah thats it. I guess the biggest step as always is actually getting out of the house and trying to do something!
My name is Ade, catch me shooting portraits in the streets of Tokyo.
