1 Light Photography

Using strobes outdoors has been a challenge for me.  I shoot mostly outdoors, so I tend to rely on using natural light and wide open apertures for my lighting.  I’ve used strobes mostly during wedding shoots to fill in shadows or when shooting indoors in dark churches.

Since I began venturing into model photography, I’ve studied every book/training DVD/website I could get my hands on in order to better understand lighting.  I wanted to learn how to use strobes not merely as a fill light, but to add that little extra kick to an image.  

One of the first things I learned was not to start by buying a whole bunch of studio lights.  It’s far easier and more efficient to start simple – 1 light.  Once you understand what you can do with that one light, then you can go on and add more lights to your gear.  The idea is to go slowly, adding one light at a time while learning what that light can and cannot do.

This past Sunday, I was fortunate enough to work with Sara, a model from South Carolina who contacted me through the Model Mayhem website.  We shot in the garden and the beach at the Sands of Kahana.  This gave me a great opportunity to practice what I had learned – using a single strobe on a lightstand to supplement/enhance the natural light.

Most of the images we shot were done with a Nikon SB-28 in manual mode, triggered by a Pocket Wizard on my Canon 1DMkII.  This image was done with natural light, and the SB-28 behind her acting as a hair light.

Here we reversed the setup.  The SB-28 is now the main light, overpowering the sun.  The sun is used as a rim light to pop the model off the background.

I also had an Alien Bees AB800 and a beauty dish with me but unfortunately the battery pack for that strobe died on me that day, so I ended up having to rely on the Nikon strobe for the majority of our shots. I was really hoping to try out the beauty dish on more shots with Sara as she was a really great model to work with.  I was able to get the following shot done before the AB800 battery went down.

I was very lucky to have such a patient model to work with.  Sara was a real trooper, running back to her room countless times to change outfits and braving the passing rain showers to keep on working with me up until sunset. 

This was one of the last shots we did.  I softened the SB-28 with a Gary Fong Lightsphere II in direct mode.  One of the cool things about the Lightsphere is that it warms up the color of the flash, which looks pretty cool when shooting with the sunset in the background.

This was a fun shoot.  I got to practice new techniques I had learned and was able to create some cool shots with a model who was just awesome to work with.  Thank you Sara for all your hard work!

More from 1st Japan shoot

Whew! It took over a month, but I was finally able to go through the images we took in Japan this past December and do the post production work on them. I really need to streamline my RAW workflow in Adobe Lightroom so that I can get these done faster next time.

This was the studio that we rented in Japan. A bit small, but very close to the train station so it was pretty easy to find.

Since this was my first time to this studio, I was not sure what to expect as far as lighting equipment that was available. Due to luggage weight restrictions on the airlines, I was not able to bring along my studio lighting equipment from Hawaii. When I looked at the studio’s website, I saw these two softbox lights which I assumed were strobes. I figured I could get by with two strobes in softboxes.

When I arrived at the studio I found out that these were “hot lights” – continuous light sources, not strobes as I had initially thought (I REALLY need to learn to read more kanji). This was a bit of a challenge for me, as I was used to using “hot lights” for video work, not photography.

Luckily I had brought along my Strobist kit – 2 small lightstands, 2 umbrellas and a pair of Nikon SB24 flashes. I ended up using the hot lights to light the model and matched it with the SB24s with umbrellas to light and hide the wrinkles in the white backdrop.

While the makeup artist and hair stylist were working on Stephanie’s second look for the shoot, I tried to think of something I could do with just my Strobist kit. I knew that I wanted to color the background to help the model’s outfit stand out more. I put an SB-24 with an umbrella on a stand to my right to illuminate the model. I then stuck a Gary Fong Whaletail with a blue gel onto my other SB-24 and stuck it behind the cushions in the corner behind the model to get this:

Overall, it was a great learning experience, and we got some really cool images out of this shoot. To see more images from this shoot, visit www.mizomi.com

"Do it again, but better"

Poor Joanne. When were doing the ninja part of our action figure shoot a few months ago, I had her jumping up and down in front of a greenscreen over and over again in order to get the pose I was looking for. This shot is one of the results.

We were a little pressed for time, because she and her fiancee had an appointment to get to that evening. But she was a real trooper and kept going until we got some great action shots.
You can see more of our shoot at www.mizomi.com.

In case you’re reading this Joanne, thank you again for being so patient with me during that shoot. I could not have done this shot without you.

Creating a photograph – a team effort

This is one of my favorite images of model Joanne. While it may appear to be very simple, it actually took a total of 5 people to create it. It’s a great example of how having a great team can make a big difference in a photo shoot.

Last year, Joanne mentioned to me that she wanted to do a shot with her ao dai, a traditional Vietnamese dress. She referred me to the website of another photographer to show me the style she was interested in. She wanted to have the image to show movement, since the material of the ao dai is so light and airy.

One of the images on the site she referred me to was a shot of the model walking through a field of tall grass. When Joanne was here for a shoot last September, we thought of doing a shot in the sugar cane fields. We ran out of time to do the shoot that time, so we agreed to do it during our next shoot the following year.

I looked all over the island to find a suitable and easily accessible location to do the shoot. when the day of the shoot finally came, I was still not sure where the best location would be.

We setup a base location to do makeup and hair at the college where I work at. To do Joanne’s makeup and hair, we hired 2 of the best: Jessica Waite was our makeup artist and Karli Benedict was our hairstylist.

While they were getting Joanne ready, my friend Jennifer of Unique Art Hawaii was scouting possible locations while driving to our location. When she got to our location, she mentioned she had found 2 possible sites.

We packed up everyone and all our gear into 2 cars and headed out to check out the sites. Location #2 that Jennifer found proved to be the perfect setting for the shoot. We setup a laptop to check our images, got out a reflector for Jennifer to bounce some fill light onto Joanne, and we started shooting..

We tried several different variations. In between takes, Karli and Jessica would touch up Joanne’s makeup, brush hair out of her face, and offer suggestions on different poses and ideas.

The image above came after about 2 hours of shooting, and was one of the last shots we took. This is where everything came together – model’s pose, flawless makeup, beautiful hair, soft lighting from the reflector, and the camera lens. And it showed great motion from the wind.

The entire experience reinforced to me the idea that a successful image comes not just from the photographer, but from the combined efforts of a great team.

Model Shoot – Natalie

This image is from a test shoot I did with Natalie, a model I met through Model Mayhem. She is the first model that I have worked with who lives ON Maui. Up until I met her, the only models I’ve worked with flew in from the mainland.

Natalie is an amazing model to work with. She is punctual, imaginative, and very easy to get along with. She even brought her own set dressing from a local junkyard!

She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and has appeared in many TV series such as CSI & Heroes. You can also see her in the music video “Shores of California” by the Dresden Dolls:

See if you can spot her 🙂

You can see more from our shoot together on her MM profile page and also here on my website.

We have a few more ideas that we’re planning to work on together, and I’m really looking forward to working with her again.

Model Mayhem

I first heard about Model Mayhem from Candy (pictured above), one of the models I met at Rolando’s workshop last year. At the time, I didn’t know too much about it and didn’t visit the site until just recently. Now I wish I knew about it before.

It’s a great place to network with models, other photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists and wardrobe stylists. I’ve learned a lot from viewing the work of other photographers. Some of the work is mind-boggling, and inspires me to continually try to do better.

Through Model Mayhem, I’ve been able to meet a lot of new people, a few of which I’ve been lucky enough to work with.

I have a profile on their site, which you can view here.

A short introduction

Although I’ve done wedding photography for many years, my main focus was on creating wedding videos. You can see some of my wedding video work at www.islandproductiongroup.com.

After attending a model photography workshop held by Rolando Gomez in Hana, Hawaii, I realized how much I really enjoyed the creative process of glamour/beauty photography.

Thanks mainly to the help of one of the models I met at the workshop, I have continued to learn and grow as a photographer by doing glamour/beauty photography. In the months since the workshop, I have learned so much more about lighting, posing, Photoshop, digital workflows etc. than I ever did before. Yet at the same time, I realize how much I still have to learn. What I learn in glamour/beauty photography also helps me be a better wedding photographer/videographer as well.

Please check out the galleries at www.mizomi.com to see the works I’ve helped to create. The images you see are the result of a team effort with very creative (and sometimes wacky) models, dedicated makeup artists, amazing hairstylists and resourceful assistants. I have had so much fun working with these people and have made many new friends along the way.