Dancing With Light

Tonight was pretty fun,I shot some pictures at a fashion show that show cased works from up and coming fashion design students.

Walking through Color


It was a difficult show to shoot since the lighting was very dark and the lenses I had were pretty slow. For the lighting they were using par cans with colored gels mounted to the ceiling and a spot light for back light as the models walked down the runway. However, the par cans were mostly only hitting in the middle of the runway making for a very small shooting window.The main photographer for the show had some very nice profoto strobes , but those only fired at the end of the runway when she took a picture of the models finishing pose.

Standing in the Darkness


The lighting did make for a few very interesting and creative photos however, and I had a very fun time trying to come up with creative shots in the lighting that was available.

Serendipity

Signed,
-)_-.

Cross Processing

Process


I went to the film store a few weeks back looking for some fun film to play with. I ended up buying some 35mm vivid saturation Slide film which film takes a positive image instead of a negative image. I then decided to develop the pictures using "cross process". Slide film uses a different development process then normal color negative film, instead of developing the slide film with its process, I had it developed using a "cross process" in the normal color negative development process.



Moviola

This was the first time I had developed cross process and I noticed some very interesting and unique effects. By looking through the photos it is easy to see that cross processing throws the image in the green direction and picks up greens really well.I was aware of this green before shooting however I was surprised to see that it also raises the contrast of the image, bringing a strong distance between the whites and blacks.

Sliding


Another really interesting, and not very desirable, effect I found was bleeding in the deep blacks.In the dark shadows and areas in the image where there is deep blacks the image has a purple bleed, however, this is not consistent through all the pictures. It seems to be only on images where a shadow is moving, or there was a slight blur. This something I'll have to pay more attention too in the future.


Purple Bleed

Next film roll I'm shooting is expired!

Signed,
-)_-.

Shooting In The Basement

Originally I was going to take my model friend and go shoot outside at an outdoor concert amphitheater yesterday, however, upon checking the weather a few days prior I found that we would be in the midst of a winter storm where we could get up to 2 feet of snow that day. Slightly frustrated with the fact we would see so much snow in the middle of April, I decided to come up with another plan.

Staying inside

We ended up shooting at a friends house with just a couple lights in his basement. All and all it made for an interesting shoot! We came up with some unique make up ideas and themes by just looking through what we had available and where in the basement we had room enough to shoot.

Tear

It really is amazing how many different feels you can get in a basement! I talked with the model a lot and bounced around ideas to keep pushing for different feels, which she was able to pull of beautifully! We had a small crew built up of friends and we kept to a very casual shooting schedule which made for a very comfortable shooting environment open to creative ideas. While it may not of worked for some bigger more strict themed shoots, it made for a great way to kill some time on a snow day, get some more practice, and take some great photos!

Smile

Signed,
-)_-.

Take The Moment

There have been many times in my life where I have seen something I wanted to take a picture of and didn't. I either didn't have my camera with me, or I thought, "eh it is probably not interesting enough". I have since found a lot of these moments to be wasted opportunities.

On one hand, if I had taken the picture I thought to but didn't, I may just end up with a really great picture. On the other hand, if the picture wasn't a good picture, I would be able to look and understand why; leaving with gained knowledge.


Over Colorado


In the world of digital photography there is rarely a wasted shot. You have the space on the card, if something caught your eye then take the picture. If you don't like the picture try to figure out why and how you could perhaps make it better.

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
Albert Einstien

Signed,
-)_-.

Just Something About It

Forgotten

I got some Black and White 35mm film developed today. I borrowed a friends old Pentax manual camera a few weeks back to shoot the roll. Just finally got around to developing it and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Watching the Snow Flakes

You can debate the film and digital difference all you want, but there is something about film that is special. Its a pure chemical reaction of light physically hitting silver alkaloids, instead of light hitting a chip. It gives a certain softness and a unique feel; something I enjoy very much.

Sat in Time

Hopefully I'll be able to shoot some more film soon.

Signed,
-)_-.

Without Stands

I tend to find it very irritating to light scenes on film sets with light stands. They can take up valuable room on smaller sets, create road blocks, find their way into shots that they aren't suppose to be in, and are be a bear to move back and forth. I try to do the majority of my lighting on set with clamps, pigeon plates, and practicles(lights that can be seen in the shot itself).

Maffer the Cabinet

The biggest advantage to lighting this way is there is very little changing after the initial master set up is complete. It can take more time to set up, but in the end it saves time because you don't have to worry about moving a stand out of the shot,then try to set it up somewhere else with the same lighting continuity.

On the set of "The Brig" I was Gaffing for a scene in a club. It required many lights of many different colors. Many of the blocking points needed to have their own feel and this required very specific placement of the lights. I noticed on the tech scout that the ceiling had truss mounted above the majority of the dance floor. This made setting up the lighting very easy because I could simply maffer clamp all the lights onto the truss then run power to the strips and circuits that were for the house lighting grid. After my lights were in place I was then able to pick a few of the house circuit lights that I liked and use them as well.

Make Your Order

It would have been very difficult to do the sets ups without using claps to set up the lights. We had many large master shots, and with the lighting schemes it would have been difficult to avoid mixing the colors. With my set up I could avoid these problems and then if I needed some extra fill for close ups it was easy for me to bring in a LED On a stand close for the shot and tear down for the next one.

The Close Up

Signed,
-)_-.