Christmas Fashion show at Stella Blues Cafe

Had the chance to shoot another fashion show, this time it was the Candy Cane Lane Fashion Event at Stella Blues Cafe in Kihei. This was a benefit for Toys For Tots and featured clothing lines from Karamel Collection and Pakaloha Bikinis.  Our models for this event were Brittney Baker, Aja Marie, Tami Solomon, Julianita Nakagawa, Austin Macdowel, Tiffany Russo, Ruby Barichi, Perri Kaminoff, Kapila May, Valerie Wessel and Hayley Kaysing.

Hair was done by Colours Salon and makeup done by Ry-n Shimabuku and Julianita Nakagawa.

This is what the location looked like that evening.  Dark.  Reeeealllly dark.

The original plan was to shoot with a high iso and just utilize the lighting on the runway.  However, since this location had ZERO in the way of runway lighting, we fell back to using some Strobist techniques.

I recalled from one of the Strobist DVDs that David Hobby lit a basketball court using a couple of Nikon flashes on opposite sides of a gym, and I thought it might work in this environment.  In his example, he balanced his strobes with the ambient light of the gym.  In our particular situation at this location, there was no ambient light to work with, so we used a combination of a higher iso and 3 flashes to light everything – a Canon 580EXII and 2 Nikon SB26s.

Found two light fixtures on opposite sides of the room where we could mount a flash facing the runway.  Two Nikon SB26s were mounted onto Manfrotto Justin Clamps and a Pocket Wizard Plus II Tranceiver was added to each rig.

These Justin clamps are really handy tools to have in your kit bag.  With them, you can stick a flash pretty much anywhere you can think of.

Both flashes were set to 1/8th  power and zoomed out to full wide.  These were then clamped onto the light fixtures on both sides of the room and aimed at the runway.

Right side of the room:

Left side of the room:

This gave us some nice cross lighting to work with which would help bring out the details in the clothing on the models.

To test it out, I walked alongside the runway and checked to make sure that at every spot on the length of the runway that I could still see the face of the two strobes.  This would insure that no matter where the model was on the runway, the light from the two SB26s would fall on them. Also, since the distance from the two side flashes to the models remained relatively constant, the exposures would be roughly the same no matter where on the runway the model went.

The main light was a Canon 580 EXII with a Gary Fong Lightsphere (1/2 cloud, no dome) pointed up mounted on a 5D mkII with a 24-105mm f4L IS lens.

A Pocket Wizard Flex TT1 mounted on the camera’s hotshoe triggered the two remote Nikon flashes.  The 580EXII was mounted on the hotshoe of the TT1.

Shot everything in Manual mode, iso 800 1/60@ f4.  Main flash (the 580 EXII) was dialed down about 1 stop to fill in the shadows from the front.

The 580 EX II was set to ETTL mode, so that as the models got closer to the camera, the flash would adjust according to the distance.

During the show there were times when I fired too many shots at one time and the 580 EX II wasn’t able to recycle fast enough.  Since the two Nikons SB26s were only set to 1/8th power, they fired pretty much every time so that there was still enough light to pull out a decent image later on in Lightroom.

Some samples from the show:

Aja Marie

Tami Solomon

Julianita Nakagawa

Austin MacDowel

Tiffany Russo

Ruby Barichi

Perri Kaminoff

Kapila May

Valerie Wessel

Hayley Kaysing

Another one of the challenges that came up during testing before the show was that the Canon 5D mk II had trouble focusing in the low lighting conditions.  To help alleviate this, an LED video light on a light stand was set up next to the camera position at the end of the runway. The camera’s autofocus was set to AI Servo mode so that it would track the models as they walked toward the camera.  It ended up working about 90% of the time.  The few times that it didn’t was when the camera got confused and tried to focus on the LED light of the video cameraman in the background (you can see him in some of the shots).

This shot of Brittney below is one of my favorites from the show.  It was one of the few times where everything clicked – the lighting, the pose, and the flow of the dress.

Thinking maybe the next time I shoot a fashion show, I’ll try using the Canon 7D which has a better autofocus system.

Eye-Fi Pro + MacBook Nano

I really like shooting tethered to the computer during a photo session because it allows for greater collaboration. Having the images come up on the computer screen during the shoot makes it much easier for everyone – the makeup artist can check for touchups, the model can refine her poses, the stylist can fix any stray hairs, and the photographer can check lighting and focus. It’s also much easier on the eyes than having everyone crowd around the tiny LCD on the back of the camera.

My usual setup for model photo sessions is a 15″ MacBook Pro, a 19″ LCD external monitor, a Canon 5D, and the Canon WFT-E1 transmitter which sends the images from the camera to the computer over WiFi. I like it because there’s no cables, which makes it easier for the photographer to move around to get the shot.

While this is great for shoots in studio, it’s not that great when you’re out in the field, especially at the beach. Sand gets into everything and you’re always having to keep an eye on your gear in case it decides to grow legs and walk away from you.

I had been looking for a lower cost solution to use in the field. It took a while, but I found the solution in two parts – a Mac netbook and a wireless SD card.

Netbooks have become very popular recently, due to their low cost and their ability to do about 90% of what most people use a computer for – browsing the web, checking email, viewing video clips, etc.

Apple still doesn’t make a netbook, so many people have taken to hacking low cost netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9, Lenovo S10, and MSI Wind to run Mac OS X. You can see a list of compatible netbooks here.

I chose to use the Dell Vostro A90, as it was available from Dell for less than $200, and is pretty much the same as the now discontinued Mini 9 in that it is one of the most compatible netbooks to run OS X on.

I found a very easy to follow guide for installing Mac OS X on this netbook. Once I installed 2 GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD, I had it up and running within a day.

It boots up and runs pretty quickly due to the SSD. I have Photoshop & Lightroom installed on it (Yes, the netbook DOES run Photoshop) and I am planning to use it in the field (the screen is only 8 inches so I’m mainly using it just to check the shots as they go into the computer). This will save a lot of wear and tear on my 15″ MacBook Pro.

The next part was the wireless solution. The Canon WFT-E1 is a pretty big unit which attaches to the bottom of the camera via USB or Firewire. It’s very bulky and expensive (about $1000). Canon has since come out with newer versions of this device which incorporate the Wifi transmitter into the extended grip for cameras such as the 5D MkII, the 40D and 50D.

A few years ago a company called Eye-Fi came out with an SD memory card for around $100 that included built in wifi capability. It was a pretty amazing product at the time (WiFi from an SD memory card? Wow!), it was very limited in that you needed an internet connection for it to work. It was mainly intended for consumers to upload images directly to the web from the camera. While you could upload from your camera to your computer, both had to be on the same wireless network, meaning you needed a router for the connection to work. It unfortunately did not support ad-hoc connections directly between the camera and the computer.

Thankfully, a few months ago they introduced the Eye-Fi Pro – a 4GB SDHC WiFi card ($149.99) that DOES support ad-hoc connections. This now does about the same thing as my WFT-E1, but for about $850 less.

It took some time to get it setup properly. You need to use a web browser and connect to their website to do the initial setup for the card. Firefox gave me some problems when I tried to switch on the adhoc connection on the netbook to set it up in the Eye-Fi manager software. But once I got it worked out (hint – use Safari to do the web setup), it was smooth sailing. The Eye-Fi website has a forum which was a big help in getting the problems worked out.

So now with this setup, it looks ready to roll. On the Mac netbook, I go to the menu and select “Create Network” and set up an ad hoc connection. I insert the Wifi Pro card into my Canon Powershot G9, turn it on, and we’re good to go. I click the shutter and after about 12 seconds, the images pop up in Lightroom. The Eye-Fi Pro supports transmitting both JPEG and RAW files, but for now I’m just having it send the JPEGs to the computer for preview purposes only (I transfer the RAWs from the card back at the office)

I showed this to my buddy Chaz from After6Media, and his first reaction was “I gotta get this!” 😉

In preliminary distance testing, I was able to get the camera to transmit from a distance of about 70 feet (couldn’t test out further because that was the length of the room I was in at the time)

I haven’t tried it with my regular cameras yet, as they use CompactFlash media instead of SDHC cards. I do have an SDHC to CompactFlash adapter card that I will use to test in my 5D. I’m also thinking of using it in my 1D MkII which has slots for both CompactFlash and SDHC.

With the Mac netbook, the Eye-Fi Pro, my Canon G9 and a Strobist light kit however, I think I may have found the ultimate mobile mini studio. I’ll be testing this out in the field in a couple weeks and will post the results.

A very busy weekend

This past weekend I did a joint shoot with Chaz from After6Media.com and models Tasha Woodfall and Karin Mie from Honolulu. Makeup was provided by Jessica Waite and Leah Yniguez. It was a two-day shoot, including studio work, sunset at the beach, and shooting at the warehouse. Extremely exhausting, but a lot of fun, and made some new friends in the process.

Karin is a Japanese Brazilian model that I’ve wanted to collaborate with for a while, ever since I met her on Model Mayhem. She was very fun to work with.

One of the first shots I wanted to do with her was a headshot, as I had not seen any headshots on her portfolio at all. Jessica did some excellent work with Karin’s makeup and hair, which made my job much easier.

This headshot was done with a WL1600 in a medium softbox with a 4×6 silver Photoflex reflector for fill. Her hairlight is an SB26 with a grid.

The lighting for this shot is an AB800 in a medium softbox with a grid for her main light and an AB800 in a small strip softbox with a grid behind her for an edge light.

We went to the Cove to try to get a sunset shot. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate, so we had to improvise. This headshot was one of the first shots I took of Tasha at the Cove while we were waiting and hoping for the clouds to pass.

We never did get a good sunset, so we tried a different approach. This is lit with an AB800 and a beauty dish.

More to come.

Model shoot with Mokihana + behind the scenes

Canon 1D MkII 1/250 f8 ISO100 24-70mm L at 25mm

Amazingly, I found out there’s actually people who read this blog?!?! You people have WAY too much time on your hands. 😉

But thank you, I do appreciate the feedback. I’ve been mostly writing this for reference for myself when I need to remember how a particular shot was done. I’ll try to make it interesting for you. No guarantees though.

This past Sunday I had a shoot on Oahu with Mokihana, whom I met through Model Mayhem.
We decided on two looks – a casual outfit and a “Tomb Raider” style look.

Our prop department:
2 Glock 17s (airsoft versions imported from Japan)
2 Beretta M92s (airsoft versions imported from Japan)
*I’m a lot of fun going through customs 😉
Leg holsters
Shoulder holsters
Gloves

Strobist lighting gear:
2 SB 26 strobes
3 Pocket Wizards
2 Bogen lightstands
2 Westcott shoot thru umbrellas
1 Westcott silver umbrella
1 Photoflex Q39 Softbox
1 Shashin Denki Kogyo (SD) Softbox
Ball Bungees
Roscoe gel samples
1 grid – homemade from black straws, Frosted Flakes cereal box and a lotta gaffer’s tape (which came in handy later on during the shoot)

Amazingly, all that lighting gear fits into this Slik tripod case:

Back light with CTO gel:

The two softboxes side by side. Photoflex is on the right.
The larger SD softbox folds like an umbrella. Picked it up in Japan.

Because the SD softbox mounts on the lightstand like an umbrella, the SB26 sits too high if seated in the coldshoe mount. Ball bungies to the rescue!

Mounting the SD softbox:

For the Tomb Raider image at our first location, we wanted to give the impression that she was in a cave. The rock wall nearby(seen in the shot with the two side by side softboxes) served as a backdrop . Had Mokihana position herself about 15-20 feet away from the wall, and setup the camera so that we weren’t shooting directly into the wall.

We took a shot on program which gave us 1/100 at f8 ISO 100.
Set the shutter speed to 1/250, the max sync speed of our Canon 1DmkII, which dropped the ambient light down.
Setup the SD softbox and SB-26 1/2 power with 1/4 CTO gel about 8-10 feet in front of the model.

The Photoflex softbox went behind her, SB-26 1/2 power with a CTO gel.

Results:

Canon 1D MkII 1/250 f8 ISO100 70-200mm L (non-IS) at 95mm

For the casual look, Mokihana had a red outfit, so I wanted to find some greenery to work with. Walking through the parking structure near this wall, I found a narrow strip of foliage with some light coming from overhead.

The sky was pretty overcast, and we probably could have gotten by with a reflector to get some standard portraits, but I wanted to go for a sunset style shot (in photographer-speak, that means “I forgot to pack my reflectors”)

This is with the same lighting as the Tomb Raider style shots, with the SD softbox as the main light, SB26 1/2 power with 1/4 CTO. The only difference was the back light. I first tried it with the Photoflex softbox and SB26 1/2 power with CTO but wasn’t getting the highlight we wanted.

Took off the softbox, and the highlights were good, but now the rear flash was flaring into the camera (the rear flash was set pretty close to the model – just out of the frame to the right). So to remedy that, I put the black straw cereal box grid on that light and we ended up with this:

Canon 1D MkII 1/250 f2.8 ISO400 70-200mm L (non-IS) at 140mm

That’s actually a little more overexposed than I usually like, but both the model and I agreed that we liked this look better.

I’m still going over the other shots that we took that day. More to come later.

If you found any of this interesting at all, let me know by leaving a comment, and I’ll try to remember to do more behind the scenes stuff on my next shoot.

After a slight mishap, I finally received my Strobist DVD set

Yayyy!!!!!

David Hobby, who teaches lighting to photographers via his website Strobist.com, recently released an  8-DVD set of his lighting seminars. Whether you’re an amateur or a professional photographer, you HAVE to get this DVD set if you want to understand how to use small flashes to really improve your images.  There’s nearly 10 HOURS of material here!

I had ordered this DVD set as soon as I heard about it.  Unfortunately, our local post office had a break in and my package was among those that were stolen.  Since it was shipped via Priority Mail, there is no chance of recovery.

I mentioned this in a Flicker discussion group and David Hobby caught wind of it.  The next thing I know, he sends me a replacement copy out his own pocket!  This guy really wants people to learn how to light! 

I received it a few days ago and have been watching it nonstop ever since.  There is so much good information in it and I;m learning so much that my brain is starting to melt.