Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
How did I get these fabulous images of model/actor April Scott? In this wild leather bondage outfit? April and I had set up a date to get together for a shoot in the studio. I wanted to work on some images with the use of color gels to help get a fabulous body shot of April in a very edgy outfit. The outfit we used is made out of leather with studs for a S&M bondage look and as you can see from these images it’s a wild outfit. I set up a black backdrop in the studio and placed one main light on a boom in the front of the April and two half dome softbox's on each side of her, one on the left & one on the right. I placed some orange color gel’s inside of the half dome's (The main image I use blue gel's) it was easy to do as I just taped the gels on the inside of each of the box’s over the heads of the strobes. I made sure that the modeling lights were off so that they would not melt the gel’s by being so close to the lights inside the boxes. I moved these side light’s (half dome’s) around till I had the look I was going for. I did not want the light to be just a back light, I wanted the light to wash over the model. The main front light which was a beauty dish was going to keep the model face nice a bright with out to much of the color gel light bleeding on...
Location Photography, Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
Note: At the trade show (World of concert) they ran out of the posters as the guys there went crazy for them. Kelli was there to sign the poster for White Cap®. The company went on to become known for its fabulous promo poster’s till a women’s rights group went and shut their concept of using promo poster’s. Just another insult to women (Models) who make a living looking lovely. I was commissioned to shoot a new poster for a wholesale construction company White Cap®. I had shot two posters for them before so this was going to be my 3nd poster for them. The idea that the owner of the company wanted me to shoot was not the greatest idea but he was the client and you do need to shoot what you are asked to shoot if you want to get paid. I did have some impute but I could not get them to go with my idea’s all the way. So, at the end of the shoot I asked the model to come back the next day and I would shoot my idea of what I thought would make a great shot for the poster. The model Kelli said she would be only too happy to come back and do a re-shoot with me as she also liked my idea of a poster better than the one we had just shot that day. That’s the sort of respect and trust I have from model’s as a professional photographer. We did not inform the client of the re-shoot. This image is what we came up with...
Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
The Story Behind the Picture this time is about coming up with a cover image and some inside images for an editorial in Australian people magazine featuring Los Angeles model & starlet Lana Kinnear who appeared in the movie Ironman with Robert Downey Jr. After sending the magazine some images of Lana they commissioned me to shoot her for a cover and editorial. For the shoot I wanted to do something that was fun and upbeat so I used this yellow shinny backdrop for the fun shots with Lana in a sexy black swimsuit and I also use a shiny dark blue for some of the editorial inside shots. We shot some other images that had her on a workout bike and also using some light weights. The lighting was going to be reflex in the backdrop so I would have to think were the lights were going to be placed and also at the same time I would need to highlight her to give some separation from the backdrop. We use a side light to edge her and two large front lights (Half domes) to light her up. As you can see the black swimsuit looks great against the yellow and in the shiny dark blue backdrop we use a white swimsuit this way her body was always front and center. Check out my lighting diagram so you can see how it’s all done. Now here is the kicker I shot this in an apartment living room in Los Angeles, I did not need to rent a studio for this shoot which helped keep my budget down....
Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
I get requests from people on Instagram that would like me to shoot with them but, a lot are just looking for free photo shoots. Many people are posting images of themselves for promotion on Instagram but not of real jobs or work! I also post my work on Instagram because it’s a way of being seen by a lot more people than just my website for promotion. The business of social media is such a big deal now days that is why I do it. My story here is about a model Alice Bradley that sent me a message that she wanted to shoot with me if I was interested in her look and as I have not shot a super fit model in a long time I thought it would be cool if I could get some images for my blog and video channel, So I agreed. Alice Bradley has a super fit body and is very into working out and eating all the right foods to stay young and fit with a positive outlook to life. I set up a day when we could shoot and thought about how I would show off her shape with the use of some side lights and one-half dome soft box for my main light and as you can see in the diagram below, I set the front light a bit to one side of her and used a silver reflector as a fill. I had one half dome and a strip light to the back sides (Left and Right) of her for sharpening that would help make her stand...
Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
A fantasy bunny mask look with the very sexy Mishel who has lovely long blonde hair which worked out great for my shots. I wanted to shoot what I thought would be a sort of fantasy look with the black and white stripes. If you had seen another shot I had done with Playboy® Playmate Barbara Moore on a swing you would have seen a similar corset & stockings before. I am big on using props as much as I can get away with. When you spend money on outfits you have to get the best out of them and stockings are easy to keep using if you take care of them. The model was the one that came with the shoes so that’s a new twist and I had the gloves to add to the look. These images were shot on a white backdrop with a ring light to get a look that I could work with, I took the image into Adobe® Photoshop and used some filters on it for the look that you see in the images. I used a Canon 60D with a Tamron lens Zoom 28-75mm F6.3 1/125sce ISO 200 My real focal length was 40mm I find that a lot of the time if I shoot 3/4 images or full length I am at 40mm. That is why I have a 50mm stm lens that I like to use most of the time. On a crop censer it looks about an 85mm which would be on a full frame, but it really is a waste of time thinking about what the focal length...
Playboy Playmate, Studio Photography, The Story Behind the Picture
In these shots of Playboy® Playmate Irina Voronina for Maxim online I set up a white backdrop with some silver cards to add some dimension and interest to the shot. The white back drop needed to be white so I had two lights facing the backdrop they would be behind the cards so I would not have any light bouncing back onto the model. You have to keep the lights bright but not to over exposed or you will have some flair that will come back onto the model. I would say the best way is to have them about 1-1/2 stops of light brighter than your front lights. Now with the cards on each side it made for a nice look of depth in the shots. Just have your model stand between them and then light her up with the use of some front light. You can use a ring light or soft box. I would not use round lights or modifiers as they will show up as a hot spot on the cards. So tall softbox would be the hot ticket or as I said I used a ring light. A ring light would that not make a hot spot because its in line with the model and she is stopping the light from showing up as I hot reflection. Now the nice thing about the cards is that they will reflect back light to light up the model from behind so you will not see a shadow, the white backdrop also helps with this as well. Working with a Playboy® Playmate Like Irina will help get...
