Model Shoot - Jillian

Last weekend I had the pleasure of working with agency model Jillian on this shoot. The hair and makeup was by Cerise. I have been wanting to try some different lighting techniques and one that I've been very curious about was using a ring light. A ring light offers a very unique look. It casts a very even illumination and the shadows it creates are like an even halo around the subject. There is also the characteristic catch light in the eyes. You see this look a lot in print ad and magazines like Maxim. I purchased an Orbis Ring Flash a few weeks ago and this shoot was my first chance to try it out. It's not a true ring flash in the sense that it doesn't have a flash bulb in it but instead you insert your off camera flashes into it and then trigger it either with an attached cord or wireless trigger. I actually attached my flash to a tripod for these shots and then put the Orbis Ring Flash on over top of it and shot through the center of ring flash. Overall I am very pleased with the results. Sure it's not going to give me the same quality of light that a professional Profoto ring light would but it's portable and costs way less. You'll notice in the photos below the catch lights in her eyes are ring shaped. For the photos against the wall she is standing about six inches away from it and notice the perfectly silhouetted shadow and how it outlines her body.

The next post will be with model Tasha and her shoot that was also done with the ring light. Stay tuned!

A-Maze-Ing Laughter - Vancouver Biennale

At the corner of Davie and Denman Street in downtown Vancouver sits another set of statues that are part of the Vancouver Biennale and this one is entitled "A-MAZE-ING LAUGHTER" by artist Yue Minjun from China. It is comprised of 14 very large bronze statues each of which is over ten feet tall and bares the very recognizable face of the artist in various states of laughter. This art exhibits attracts tons of visitors, each trying to mimic the poses and gestures of Yue's creation while their friends take pictures of them. The first time I saw this exhibit was a few months ago on a dark rainy night and without any lights to illuminate the statues it actually looked pretty scary. Now there is a big spotlight that shines on it during the evening.

To capture the texture and colour of the statues I tried using HDR processing but actually I prefer using a combination of Photoshop and Lightroom to get a similar look. Only the first picture in this series below was actually made using Photomatix. The rest were done through a combination of filters and adjustments and the last two were converted to black and white in Lightroom.

Model Shoot - Tracy

I had the opportunity of working with model Tracy two weeks ago on this shoot. The inspiration from it came from Tracy to make her into a bit of a quirky Clockwork Orange type of character. We enlisted the help of make up artist Andie and hair stylist Ana Luisa to make this transformation take place. Tracy said that she never thought that she would be good at glamour and fashion but I beg to differ. The whole team did an incredible job and we all had lots of fun. Ana Luisa had put on some crazy hair extensions on Tracy and I am a big into backlighting hair or at least using a hair light for separation of the subject from the background. I tried a bare bulb flash behind Tracy but eventually found a pink gel that really made the shot more interesting and really enhances the look for the last two shots.