Archive for the ‘Studio’ Category
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
I had the pleaseure of working with the players from the 2010 ANZ Netball Championships last Friday. I had been contracted to take the media shots of each player during their other media committments on the day. The players are some of the nicest, and lets admit, tallest, ladies I have ever worked with. Great at following direction and happy to have a little fun when I lost my mind at the end of the day and asked them to stick their tongues out!!
The setup was nice and simple with 2 front lights and one rear 3/4 rim light. All shot on white seamless paper. The lights were the Elinchrom Ranger Quadras connected to the mains. They ran all day faultlessly. I shot tethered to my laptop so the players and I could see what was going on.
I shot a quick video on the 5D to show the room layout, and to see a couple of the more fun photos from the day.
Much thanks to Michael Bradley from MBPhotowho was a kind boss on the day, Looked after me, bought me sushi and coke and kept me in line.
Tags: 2010, advertising, ANZ Championship, backdrop, female, feminine, Homebush, human, human being, human beings, humans, media, Netball, novotel, people, person, portrait, sports, sports & recreation, strobe, team photos, team sports, white
Posted in Elinchrom, Flash, Netball, Sport, Studio, Video, commercial | No Comments »
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Yet another of the shots I’ve always wanted to do. A little cliche, but hey. It’s a part of my little elements project, this is, of course, fire.
This video will give you an idea of the setup used. Not all the secrets are here, like how to light the match, but that’s for you to work out!!
Tags: commercial, CTB, fire, Flash, FlexTT5, gel, lighting, match, pocket, remote, setup, smoke, strobe, Studio, Video, wizard
Posted in Flash, Pocket Wizard, Studio, Video, commercial, product, remote | No Comments »
Monday, April 20th, 2009
I’ve always wanted to do the standard water droplet photo, but never had the time on my hands……until a week or so ago.

Click Image or HERE to go to gallery
Here’s the studio set-up for the shoot…..
It was a bit of a laugh and good to have done….I do need to get a life though eh!!!
Tags: Blue, CD, Colours, Droplets, Drops, DVD, Flash, FlexTT5, Gels, pocket, red, remote, Studio, Water, wizard
Posted in Flash, Pocket Wizard, Studio, Workshop, commercial, product, remote | No Comments »
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
I’m geeking out on product photography at the moment….if it’s clean and near me I’ll shoot it.
Watches have always fascinated me when it comes to product photography. I look in these glossy magazines and see the shiny metal objects that cost more than my car (not that that’s saying much), and I admire the way the photographers use specular reflections to create texture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specular_reflection). If you shoot a shiny silver watch alone it will look like a big silver thing with no way to discern the difference between surfaces. Specular reflections of white and black bounce cards can create texture and depth to the subject.
The watch was lit by a ring flash front-on and 2 flashes underneath. 2 white panels of foam core and 1 piece of black cardboard were used to create the specular reflections. Next time I won’t use a ring flash and use a double diffused strobe to prevent the reflections in the watch face glass.
Tags: close-up, commercial, macro, product, specular, Studio, swatch, watch
Posted in Flash, Pocket Wizard, Studio, commercial, product | No Comments »
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
I’ve been wanting to do the whole multi-pop flash thing for a while now, so with the upcoming MTB world cup I though it would be time to get it sorted. The problem with most multipop exposures is that they all look washed out. There is no MAIN exposure. To get around this I am using 2 fashes – one for the multipop and the other for the main exposure. You do need to have a very dark background like the night sky.
Here’s the idea :
1. Have a guess at the exposure time for the frame. In this case 1/2 a second.
2. Work out how many pops you want in the shot. In this case 4
3. work out the timing for the pops = 8 hz, 4 pops in half a second.
4. Work out the main pop exposure, remembering that shutter speed is not important only aperture.
5. Set the camera for ISO 200, f5.6 0″5 exposure (manual of course)
6. Put a Multimax on the camer hot-shoe. Multimax’s are able to hold the exposure open for the 1/2 second. The PLUSII units only send 1 pulse at the start of the exposure.
7. Connect a PLUSII to the multipop flash and set the 580 for 4 shots at 8hz
8. Connect another Multimax onto the Main flash and set the delay to fire on the 3rd of the multi-pops.
Take a test shot…..

You will see there is ghosting on the 3rd exposure. This is caused by the main and multi not firing together. Hmmmm don’t forget that the PWs have a 0.002 sec transmission delay. Back the delay timer on the main off by 0.002 sec and test again.

NOICE!!!!
SETUP Geeky stuff….
* Exposure Time = .5 Sec
* Flashes per exposure = 4 = 8hz
* Main Flash delay = ((.5 / 4) X2 ) – .002 = 0.248 (NOTE – Delay starts at the first POP so the first shot is 0, then 1, then the main flash on 2 or after 2 delays – Make sense??)
* Main flash exposure = f5.6
* Main flash power = 1/64, Multi is 1 stop down at 1/128th. (This ratio works all the way up to 1/8th power – Multipops abive this are not recommended/possible)



Now I just have to do the same thing with a MTB flying through the air at 60km/h…..Worth a try though!!.
Tags: delay, effects, Flash, geek, Mountain Bike, Multimax, multipop, pocket, Sport, strobe, Studio, wizard
Posted in Flash, Mountain Bike, Pocket Wizard, Sport, Studio, commercial, remote | No Comments »