Assignment – Beauty Salon (dec.2009)
One day I get a call from a friend asking me if I was available for a 3h shooting at a beauty salon. I said yes, even though I had no idea of the conditions I was walking in on.
We set up a meeting to find out more about the project and meet the model, but the main thing for me was "what type of light will there be available?". Once there I noticed the tight space I had to work in and the fluorescent tubes overhead (there was enough window light to get some nice shots for some sort of beauty contest but it was not the case here)
- I had to take 1-2 good pictures of every service the salon had to offer.
- To do that I had to rearrange the furniture a bit. (I hope Monica, the owner, wasn`t too upset about that. They offer almost every imaginable service and it`s not their fault the gear takes so much space).
- I had to refrain from using wides or ultra-wides. I managed to get most of the shots using a 50mm lens @ f/1.4-2.8.
- The tricky part was to get the green light of the fluorescent lamps to be white again. That you can do in two ways:
- you either get some really large sheets of green gel and cover all the lights in that particular space, or:
- you gel your lights (in this case 3 x Nikon SB800) with half-cut green gels and switch you camera`s WB to fluorescent.
- The lighting solution for this was 1x SB-800 in a large umbrella on a stand as the main light, and 2x SB-800 left and right nuking the walls and ceiling @ half-power (creating some sort of a product photography tent from the inside). These were fired remotely with one SB-900 on the camera. I wish I had 2 more lights for some accents but for this one, it`s good enough.
The picked 25-30 pictures will go on the salon`s future (face-lifted) website. (the one active right now is @ this address)
Iulia was wonderful to work with, and although it was early in the morning for both of us we managed to be in sync for the whole session. We were out of there in just under 3 hours.
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Zack Arias – Transform
Acum vreo saptamana, uitandu-ma pe imaginile castigatoare de la DCMAG Photographer Of The Year, mi-am dat seama cat de mediocru sunt din punct de vedere fotografic. La momentul respectiv voiam sa ma las de sportul asta, pentru ca sigur n-o sa ajung ca ei, prea repede, in viata asta. In mare parte "de vina" este arhitectura care-mi mananca mai tot timpul, si astfel nu-mi mai ramane suficient pentru a exersa chesti noi. Caci de documentat ma tot documentez. Citesc o gramada de articole legate de iluminare, am vizualizat foarte multe videotutoriale legate de postprocesarea imaginilor and so on and so forth!
Dar daca n-ai timp sa exersezi clicaitu`, n-ai facut nimic. Nu poti sa inveti sa suprinzi momentele cele mai importante, doar stand cu capul in carti. N`o sa iti dezvolti niciodata stilul personal doar privindu-i pe ceilalti. Trag linie si adun: n-am timp de exercitiu, mai bine nu mai alerg dupa 2 iepuri deodata. Iau unul si bun de urechi, "and I`ll see how deep the rabbit hole goes".
Si deja imi faceam un calcul cam cat pot sa recuperez din banii pe care i-am bagat in scule pana acum. Nu trec 30-40min si sunt sunat pentru a mi se propune un job foto. Il accept. Era ceva usor de facut, iar pretentiile nu erau prea mari. Am zis ca imi vand aparatura dupa job-ul asta. Pe la vreo 7 seara primesc mail de la o firma cum ca ar vrea sa fotografiez niste produse (nu dau detalii pentru ca e vorba de prototipuri si sunt sub NDA). Al 2-lea job ... nimic special. Been there, done that! Doar ca am inceput de luni si dureaza vreo 2 saptamani. Nu-i nimic ... mi-am zis! Vand totul dup`aia.
Ieri, miercuri, privesc cu atentie Guest Blog-ul de pe Scott Kelby Blog. Mi s-a parut informatia portrivita, la momentul potrivit. Mai departe va las sa urmariti tutorialul, spunandu-va ca nu-mi mai vand sculele foto.
Enjoy.
Zack Arias - Transform
Photography Tutorials: 2. Your Rights as a Photographer
Niste informatii, pe scurt, care sa va ghideze cand vine vorba de "are sau nu voie, gardianu` lu` Peste Prajit, sa faca gat la mine!?". Plus una-doua freebees ...
Photography Tutorials: 1. Creating Star Trails Photos Using Stacking Software
via DPS
(click the picture and follow the jump)
