Last Friday I had a shoot with one of my favourite models Eve. Eve was starting a new job the following week so this would be her last shoot for awhile unless I can persuade her on a weekend. Anyway she wanted to do a lingerie shoot and had this concept in mind. I had only done one lingerie shoot before and that was probably over a year ago. Luckily our bedroom had been recently repainted...like the day before and my wife is into shabby chic style of furnishings. Eve had her makeup done by Charel Cowan and I have to say it was awesome makeup. Eve had some Skittles and after doing a few shots at the dressing table Eve put 100's and 1000's on her lips and proceded to scatter Skittles on the bed.
For lighting I used two continous lights reflected by silver umbrellas with my flash shot up on to the ceiling. I am very pleased at the outcome of the shoot and have had numerous comments as well as expression of interest by other models in doing something similiar. I think what worked with thsi shoot was I know Eve well, we have worked together numerous times, I took my time and I was able to tweak the lighting alI went. One of my more enjoyable shoots and yes my wife is very understanding. Full gallery here.
Okay one of my photography friends invited me to a shoot. He said we are going to be doing something radical and what you don't see much of. Well he had me interested and in the week leading up to Sunday I got an inkling of what we might be doing, due to a post by another photographer on his page. It was a link to a Nikon site with a Joe McNally video showing you how to use repeating flash. So Sunday rolled around and we had two dancer models, a black backdrop in a studio. Now when I saw the Nikon post my heart kinda sunk as I thought there is no way you can do this with a Canon. Well the Canon 580 ex flash does have a strobe feature. So here are my first attempts at Strobing.. Need some practice but you get the idea. So guess what my next EBay purchase is going to be? Yep you guessed it..here is the Link. Thanks Allan & Mel for letting me share with you guys.
I was lucky to get two cameras from Su's mother, Pam, a Voightlander and a Olympus Trip 35mm that belonged to her late Husband. Recently via eBay I purchased a Kodak Box Brownie Flash II.Voightlander is reputedly the oldest names in cameras. In 1956 they sold out to Carl Ziess Foundation. In 1972 Zeiss/Voigtländer stopped producing cameras, and a year later Zeiss sold Voigtländer to Rollei. On the collapse of Rollei in 1982, Plusfoto took over the name, selling it in 1997 to Ringfoto. From 1999 until the present time (2010), Voigtländer-branded products have been manufactured and marketed by Cosina. (source Wikipedia). The one I have, I have not been able to positively identify but I think it is of the Compur folding range made in the 1930's(guess). The Kodak Box Brownie Flash II camera I have is about 1960's era and can remember my father having one. The Box Brownie cameras put photography into the hands of the people and was a simple camera that even children could operate.It was made for 70 years from 1900 and about 125 variations of the first camera. I bought mine on Ebay for about $30 and intend to use it on themed photoshoots I have in mind. The last camera is a Olympus Trip 35 and was made from 1967 to 1984 and in the 70's was made famous by David Bailey in a serious of advertisments. Over ten million were sold(source Wikipedia) so I don't consider it worth a lot but handy to have anyway. Who knows might get a roll of film and get real adventurous.
Okay so I have been very slack and not posted anything for ages. In that time we have had a cyclone up north, an Earthquake in Christchurch and an Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. Quite depressing really that with travelling for work meant I kinda lost my groove. My good friend Melanie has recently posted on her blog with renewed vengance and she spurred me into resuming my posts.
As many of you know I am an avid eBay watcher and manage to fritter my money away on the odd photography gadget. My lastest aquistion is a LED ring light a bit cheaper than a ring flash or Macro Flash and must say I am impressed. Some of you may remember my purchase of a LED light about a year ago. I must say I like this form of light as very little heat, bright and white. Of course I had to test it out.....
Film noir literally means "black film" in French and features themes which are more negative than positive, with an overall dark and shadowy outlook--being filmed in black and white. This film genre takes in detective and crime noir as well as many gangster films of the 1930's.
So it was back in November that I took part in a Film Noir Workshop with Creative Photo Workshops. My images from this workshop have received a great deal of comment from my friends and family. Generally they like the images and it was based on this popularity that I decided to load a few images to the website Strobox.com. Loading photos to this site is about sharing info so it is important to show a diagram of the lighting setup so others can see how you did a particular image. Some of my images have got praise some have been roundly criticised but in all they are trying to give you pointers to improve.
So it was with some surprise I received an email from the moderators of strobox to say you did not win but we are giving you a prize anyway. That is a Bokeh Masters Kit. A what you say? Well that will be the subject of a further post. Meantime I decide to do some reasearch on Film Noir and with the help of Goggle and Wikipedia here is a bit of a summary.
Film Noir- Many of the genre's hallmarks: a cynical private detective as the protagonist, a femme fatale, multiple flashbacks with voiceover narration, dramatically shadowed photography, and a fatalistic mood leavened with provocative banter.
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic film noirs are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting).The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in noir and had already become a cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood moviemaking. While black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, the color films Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Niagara (1953) are routinely included in noir filmographies, while Slightly Scarlet (1956), Party Girl (1958), and Vertigo (1958) are classified as noir by varying numbers of critic.
Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects (such as during the strangulation scene in Strangers on a Train), and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm
Noir heroes are flawed humans and always shown to have character imperfections. Many of those heroes are detectives, taking the cases of mysterious women who draw them into a tangled maze of evil by making use of their hypnotic sensuality. Detective noirs are among some of the most popular films of this genre. Films like the Sam Spade mysteries began the whole detective and crime noir sub-genre and cemented actors such as Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the minds of noir buffs. Here are some 40's and 50's examples of Film Noir.
The Maltese Falcon, Shadow of a Doubt, The Big Sleep ,The Killers
The Asphalt Jungle, Sunset Boulevard,Kiss Me Deadly ,Touch of Evil
Believe it or not this style of film is still being made today and in the 60's the science fiction noir was recognised.
Chinatown,Raging Bull, Blood Simple are more recent examples with Alpaville as the science fiction example. I must say that I am wanting to do more of this style of shooting.
el
I received another Oliver Cameron booklet in the mail the other day. This one covers Boudoir Photography I already own two other books one called a Wedding Photography A Guide to Posing and Wedding Photography a Guide to Photojournalism. I have found these booklets to be a fountain of knowledge.
This new book is really great beacuse the Author/photographer Tammy Warnock has used plus size or "fluffy" girls as she calls them. There is just the right amount of words but heaps of photos to give you ideas but more importantly how you can take photos of the more cuddly women and make her look glamorous. Tammy mainly uses natural light however will use flash and reflectors. Her main lens is a 85mm f1.2 lens but says you could do just as well with a 50mm f1.8 lens. So as they say invest in knowledge get a copy and whilst you are at it buy the other two books. All three books are worth having and best of all they are small enough to pop into your camera bag.
