In the Studio
Denzel Douglas
This afternoon I got a quick assignment to photograph Denzel Douglas, a point guard here at Casper College who signed with Idaho and I thought it’d be another good chance to practice my on-location lighting. We only have two Dynalites here, so I had to use an on-camera 550EX to trigger the optical slaves on the Dynalites set up on either side of Denzel. Not ideal, but it worked out OK.
In case you care:
1/200 sec. @ f/13, ISO 100. Two Dynalites set on each side at 1/8 power. Front fill is a direct 550EX at 1/4 power @ 50mm.
The Violist
I had to shoot a portrait today of Michael Wilson, a local viola player, for our arts section. I had originally planned to use two lights, but I ended up forgetting them and just had the one I usually keep in my bag.
Probably for the best.
When Stars Align
A few weeks ago, the Trib’s photo editor, Gerik, told me that I was going to shoot the cover photo for the Basketball preview section the paper does each season. You might remember Parker Eshelman’s shot of Aldon Smith for the football section, so I knew this portrait had to be just as bangin’. After a media day snafu (I found out about media day the day of, and didn’t have enough time to plan) I set up another time to meet with the two players for the image, junior forward Laurence Bowers and freshman guard Phil Pressey.
This year’s concept was “when stars align,” speaking to the ability of Missouri coach Mike Anderson’s ability to produce quality teams with three-star recruits such as Bowers and using that success to recruit five-star recruits such as Pressey.
Parker and I tossed around a few ideas, toying with the idea of poking holes in a black seamless, then lighting it from behind, creating a “star” effect. One night, while laying in bed, I had this idea in my head and couldn’t sleep, so I sketched it out.
Ultimately, we decided that putting lights behind a seamless would be too difficult because we had no way to suspend the seamless in front of the lights. Instead, I used cinefoil to create small snoots to put on the front of two white lightnings, which acted as the “stars.” It was a pretty simple setup: Two “stars” (white lightnings), two side lights (SB-800s) and one key (an SB-900 with softbox attached to a boom). All the lights, except for the White Lightnings, were triggered with PocketWizards.
But, being me, I had to test my idea in the Tribune photo studio before doing it for real.
Then it was time for a field test.
Pretty simple, eh? And if you’re wondering, here are the tech specs:
Key light: Nikon SB-900, Manual, full power at ISO 400, f/16.
Side lights: Nikon SB-800, Manual, 1/2 power, ISO 400, f/16.
“Stars”: Two White Lightnings, full power. Also, these have an optical slave, so they were triggered when the other lights fired.
Shot on a Nikon D3 at f/16, 1/200, ISO 400 with a Nikkor AF-D 50mm.
Also, a huge thanks to Parker for helping me with the lighting scheme, testing it out, helping pose the players and telling me that my first attempt was so bad that I needed to do it again.
How I’ll probably end up making a living
An outtake from a portrait shoot with a kid from MU who owns three — yes three — companies.
Don’t Wig Out
Multimedia of the complete absurdness of that night is soon to follow. Check back soon.
Hail to Ol’ Mizzou
OK…so my KU friends will probably kill me for this, but hey…I just do what I’m told.
Also, I’ve never done a shot like this before so tell me what you really think so I don’t screw it up next time.
Anyway, shot this for the upcoming football preview in the Missourian. It’s a bunch of old MU football stuff, including the football from the first Homecoming game in the nation in 1911 (Missouri and Kansas played to a 3-3 tie in Columbia) as well as an old letterman’s sweater and some work boots converted into football spikes, also from sometime around the turn of the century.
Blown out
Yeah, Overexposure.
In a retro mood
I shot some more portraits for my friend, Jennifer, last night. This one seemed kinda retro to me. Maybe the color?
Either way, I can’t take all the credit, she’s a great model.
The more and more I do it, the more and more I’m a fan of the studio. That’s not all I want to do, but hey, it’s a nice change of pace sometimes.
Laughing man
Alex :: Columbia, Mo.
Shot this for my studio class. Never really worked in a studio before…
But I could get used to it.