June, 2004:

This weekend was my first studio shoot with a person other than Jess. It was much more challenging than I expected. Of the 40 or so shots I took, only 4 or so were what I would consider “good enough” and none of them were “great”. However, I learned quite a few valuable lessons.

# If you’re in a small room (and therefore using a wide-angle lens), and you want to photograph a model from head to toe, 6 feet is *not* enough height for a backdrop and 8 feet is *not* enough width. Regardless of what you do, you will end up wanting to shoot at angles that cause portions above and the the side of your backdrop to be shown. 8 feet of height and 10 feet of width are right about the bare minimum that I would consider workable.
# The color of the walls in the room you are shooting in really does make a *huge* difference. I was in a room with red walls, therefore, all of the images have a reddish\pinkish tint to them that had to be corrected in post-processing.
# It takes a lot of practice to be able to point two strobes at a model and only see one shadow.
# In a perfect world, a studio would have at least 10′ of available space between the model and the backdrop, and at least 5′ of space in front of the model.
# Being tethered to a strobe by a PC Sync cable really limits how quickly you can move and react.
# Reflectors make a much greater impact than one might first imagine.
# A well placed diffusion panel works equally as well as (if not better than) a softbox.

I had a few things working against me at the shoot. First of all, the house we were shooting in had a broken air conditioner and no windows open. It was hot, sweaty, and stuffy.

Secondly, we were very short on power outlets. Next time, I’ll remember to bring an extension cord and a power strip.

Finally, electrocution sucks. At first, I thought one of my new monolights was malfunctioning because, when I had the PC Sync cable attached to it, I would get a nasty shock holding the camera. Since I was holding the camera with two hands, the shock entered my body in one hand and exited it through the other, travelling through my chest in the process. It didn’t feel nice at all. At first, I made due simply by hooking the sync cable up to the other light and setting the first light in “slave” mode. However, at one point, I decided I only wanted one light coming from the side of the room where the “bad” light was. After getting shocked a few times, I decided to swap out the lights. However, I kept getting a shock, even then, and couldn’t figure out why. When I got home I tested both lights to determine which one was giving me problems, yet I never got a shock. It wasn’t until later that night that I realized what was probably happening. Most likely, the outlet on one side of the room was poorly grounded, causing the light, and therefore the camera, to be “charged”.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the shoot. Sure, I only got 4 decent images, but I learned so much. “Rachelle”:http://livejournal.com/~titania_kitty was very patient, and very naturally accepted many different poses without much direction. She was a real pleasure to work with.

The idea for the shoot was to make a modern recreation of the story of Pan and Syrinx. I wanted a metal trash can as a prop as well, but was unable to find one for free and couldn’t find a place that carried them to buy.

bq. “Pan and Syrinx”:http://photos.revjim.net/pan_and_syrinx/ (NSFW)

Any comments, suggestions, or criticism you might have will be greatly appreciated.

The photoshoot plans for this weekend have been going very well.

“Jess”:http://livejournal.com/~sivatonight/ has been a HUGE help in running a bunch of errands today to get little bits and pieces of this and that. She’s been a great source of calm and order, which I sorely need, sometimes. And, she managed to put up with my “well, it needs to look just like this… only different” type requests and manage to carry them all out perfectly.

“Tony”:http://livejournal.com/~joiseyguy/ has also helped a lot by offering his experience, advice, and by loaning me a rather expensive ($100ish) white backdrop/floor covering and a few slave strobes if I decide I need them.

Also, thanks to “Freecycle”:http://www.freecycle.org/ and a kind lady named Carol in Flower Mound, I obtained the chain-link fencing I needed for a prop for free. I’m still looking for a metal trash can and about 5′ of heavy chain (the condition of these items is unimportant), however. If any of you live in the DFW area and happen to have these things that you would be willing to give/lend me, please let me know.

Tonight, I have a few tasks to accomplish. First, I have to stop over at Tony’s and pick-up the previously mentioned backdrop. Then, I have to calculate the materials I will need to build a few pieces of lighting equipment (two light panels (think, a very tight, portable, slightly see-through curtain measuring about 6′x4′) a small floor light stand to hold a backlight, and a backdrop holder). Then, I have to run to the hardware store and pickup any of the above props that I haven’t been able to find otherwise, and the materials needed for the equipment. Then, of course, I have to build the equipment and “sew” a bit to cover the panels with material. I also have to build one of the props but it is crafty in nature so I imagine Jess will be glad to take that task off my hands. Then, if I end up buying a trash can, I get to go out in the parking lot and beat the crap out of it. That part will be fun.

After all that is said and done, I get to go back in side, move all the furniture in my living room to one side, put all of my dining room furniture into the living room, and then create tomorrow’s shoot scene in my dining room as best as possible so I can make sure I have a general idea of where I want the lights placed and how I want the scene established, and basic poses I want to see “Rachelle”:http://livejournal.com/~titania_kitty in.

If any of you are bored, like working with hacksaws and PVC, and don’t have anything to do tonight, feel free to give me a call.

Then, tomorrow, I have to get up at about 8am (which isn’t a problem for me since I’m usually up by 6am anyway). After getting myself ready, I have to prepare all the the stuff I will need for transport. Then I’ll stick my camera my tripod, and the two light panels in the truck. At 10:00am Jess and I will get to Joel and Emily’s. We’ll go to a nearby park and do their engagement photos. Afterwards, I’ll go back home, recharge my batteries (just in case) and unload the card. Then, I’ll load up the truck with all the rest of the needed materials and we’ll arrive at a house in Plano at 4:00pm where Rachelle’s shoot is taking place. After 2-3 hours of shooting with her, I’ll head home, unload the truck, breathe for a minute, and then head over to Justin’s house for his birthday party.

Then, on Sunday, Jess and I are driving out to White Settlement to see my new niece.

Damn… this has been a busy week.

I’m not good with titles

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Thanks to Jess and her excelent reasoning, we bought a few monolights yesterday. Last night, after I had worked on the softboxes for quite a bit, I built a quick makeshift studio so I could try them out with Jess.

The lights were great. Very bright.. enough that I’ll get plenty of use out of them before I decide I need something bigger and better. The pictures, however, were only so-so. Without the softboxes, the shadows were pretty harsh. And with only one real tripod (my camera tripod) placing the second light became problematic. And, with the limited space I had available (6′x8′ ish) it was even harder to produce any kind of control. The most difficult task was trying to keep the wall behind her clear of shadows. I’m going to look at some more examples of studio work online, so I can get a feel for how others deal with shadows and what I like best.

So now I’m practicing like mad trying to get everything figured out so that I can do it right the first time for the shoot this weekend. If anyone feels like being a very patient friend and model either tonight, or tomorrow night, give me call or shoot me an email.

I have two photoshoots this weekend: Joel and Emily’s engagement photos, and a very cool shoot with “Rachelle”:http://www.livejournal.com/users/titania_kitty/. Hence, the desperate need for the softbox. I’m very excited about the shoot with Rachelle. I think that the idea we have is great. I’ve run it by a few people and they all think it will work really well. The hardest part will be that it is a studio shot and my studio experience is quite limited. So, I’m trying to get in as much practice as possible between now and then.

There are still a few things I need for this shoot. Namely, something to put on the ground, a big metal trash can, a strech of chain-link fence, and something to hold the fence up. If any of you have any of this stuff lying around your house that you’d like to donate or lend, please let me know.

I decided to build my own “softbox”:http://www.profoto.com/product_category.php?catId=103 out of PVC. This went pretty well. Then I decided to build a light stand to hold it up with. That’s where it started getting complicated.

The box weighs about 5 lbs — maybe 10 — and the light adds another 3 lbs to that. The problem is, all the weight hangs on one side of the pole so, no matter what I build, it wants to tip over. Last night, after talking to “Tony”:http://livejournal.com/~joiesyguy/ I realized that it’s not possible to hang such a weight on one side of a standing pole without having ridiculously wide legs — at least wider than the box itself.

So, with advice from Tony, I’ve realized there is only two ways to do this: a) build a frame that fits entirely around the softbox that sits on the ground and it tall enough to be useful (5′ ish), or counter-weight the light pole by placing sandbags or water weights on the feet that are on the opposite side of the light box itself.

Without bothering with the physics of levers to determine how much weight I really need, I figure 2 or 3 times the weight of the box itself should be enough (if someone has this kind of physics knowledge on hand, let me know, and I’ll give you the exact measurements so you can figure it out for me).

So now I’m debating whether to go the frame route, or the light pole route. If I go the light pole route, I’m trying to decide if it would be cheaper to go buy a mic stand from a music store and adapt it to my needs, or build it out of PVC.

Last Sunday, Jess and I went to my parents house for Father’s day. Around 5:00pm, my dad and I decided to go out to the Bear Creek Park Trail, this little walking trail near a creek, and take some pictures. The “chiggers”:http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/arthopo/chiggers/ didn’t like that I was there at all, and the mosquitoes weren’t too happy about it either.

As far as I know, I’ve never had a chigger bite before. Let me tell you, they hurt… bad. Jess counted about 15 mosquito bites across my back, and I have at least 15 chigger bites on each ankle. My back itches like crazy and my ankles burn like fire. My dad said he got bit up a little too, but, by the sound of it, not as bad as me.

I’m an Uncle… again. My brother’s wife went into labor late Tuesday afternoon and my new little niece, Madasyn Hope, was born 6 lbs, 7 oz, 18 in, at 6:38pm Tuesday night.

ready for winter

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Even aliens are more accepting than we are.