Second Attempt on GoT Poster Look

Made a second attempt on the poster look. This time with just one light and the blue is added in post-processing. A friend shared with me a tutorial someone had done and my guess on the blue was right. So the setup for this is just one speedlite in a softbox, pointed top down and positioned just a bit off center towards camera right.

Thanks for viewing. 

Trying to get that Game of Thrones Season 3 poster look...

Update: Made a second attempt where the blue was added in post-processing: http://www.cameralance.com/2013/05/second-attempt-on-got-poster-look.html

Like a lot of people, I'm another fan of the TV series and as well as the books! I just like how the author develops each characters, from weak to strong or from up high status and sink down low bottom. And also surprisingly unexpected twists... Not gonna put any spoilers here so you guys have to find out what happens. Hats off to the author George R.R. Martin for awesome writing.

So a couple of weeks ago before the release of the third season TV series, Melbourne CBD was filled with their posters, like literally everywhere. I couldn't help to wonder how did the photographer did it. Wondering about it is not gonna get me anywhere so I had to experiment it. This is just a lighting experiment I thought about in theory, not what the guy actually did.

Analysing the poster

Personally I think the whole story is about the uniqueness of the each characters. The tight crop on the actors and actresses faces emphasizes it. The eye-catchy cold and warm colour tone on each side of the face represents the book series - A Song of Ice and Fire. At first glance, it could be split lighting but the lighting technique is half light half shadow. We can see details on the other side of the face, its not completely dark. The shadow under the nose and as well as the catch light in the eyes suggest light from above, top right of camera. I'm thinking could be two light sources - one to light the whole face while the other for the colour.

What I did

I have only a softbox and a borrowed umbrella at my disposal so in terms of making the harsh narrow lighting quality, I'm quite limited. Just have to make do with what I have. I also used Canon EF 100mm f/2.8(non-L version) macro lens to get the super closed tight crop look. One of the biggest reason why I bought this lens instead of the 85mm 1.8

Here's my lighting setup

The circle is obviously my subject. Sofbox on camera right, feathering the light away from the subject. Umbrella is right in front of subject, above camera, tilted down.

One of the ways to get blue in camera is matter of playing around with white balance and colour gels, a trick I learnt from Joe McNally quite a few years ago. Most of the things I know about location shoots with lightings I learnt from him so if you're interested, checkout his books. I recommend Hotshoe Diaries. Nowadays I have seen a lot of wedding photographers do this especially those couple portraits at the beach after the sunset so it has became a common trick. The trick is (1) put a warm/orange colour gel on your flash/light source (2) set white balance to a really cold/low setting like Tungsten. What happens is that the warm light from flash will become normal temperature colour while everything else becomes deep blue thanks to the white balance.

And so I place orange colour gels on my speedlite in the softbox and set white balance to 2500K. Here's the result

And of course I wanted to have photo of myself as well  =D

Yeap, big difference comparing to the actual poster. Now that I look at the poster again and study it carefully, it could be just one light source with a harsh light modifier like a grid spot for an example and placed up high above of subject while the blue is added later in photoshop...


Oh well, at least I tried rather than keep on wondering. You are welcome to give it a try as well. And if you do, here's where I downloaded the font type.

Thanks for reading!

Glamour with Anne

Yup, this is from the same shoot as the boudoir but personally I feel that there's a different between boudoir and glamour. I keep seeing others like to put them together however I just wanna separate the category. To simply explain this, boudoir is "I'm feeling sexy" while glamour is "Hey checkout my sexy body"  Then again that's just my personal opinion.

The fabulous make-up was done by Babydolls Make Up Artistry. All images are taken with only available light.

The available light is just too good to be true. Next to where the model was standing is a huge window with late afternoon light coming in. The light was then reflected from the floor and back at the model which looked like those classical low-angle stage warm-glow light.

Just take a look at the catch-lights in her eyes.

Thanks for viewing.

My First Boudoir Shoot

Had a small collaboration with Anne whom I worked with about a year ago(woah time flies!) back in February when I was doing Melbourne Graffiti projects and as well as this fabulous make-up artist, Vanee from Babydolls Make up Artistry whom was a pleasure to work with.

Many people have done boudoir but not many has execute it successfully. The aim of boudoir is a sensual one but many has made it look as if the subject is associated with pornography. With that said, I tried to execute it properly. Been in photography for 4 years but like they say, there is a first for time for everything.

The location was amazingly beautiful as well. Being a person who uses strobes extensively for portraits, I was surprised that not a single flash was fired during the shoot. It was all done entirely with window light.

Below is my personal favourite

Thanks for viewing.

Light from Behind.

A friend of mine organized a People Photography Workshop yesterday where the guest speaker was Jenny Wu from Ying Photography. Second part of the event involves some outdoor model shooting which I helped out a bit here and there by guiding the participants. Throughout the shoot, I found this small tunnel nearby with awesome late afternoon light coming in. I just have to give it a try and here are the results.

And here's a snapshot of the said tunnel. 

Need to get back to my research assignments. Busy period of the semester with lots of things to do. Final exams finishes by the end of November. So I guess you'll be hearing from me by then.

Thanks for reading as always =)

Headshots

Ever since I watched Peter Hurley's DVD on heatshots, I'm beginning to have a habit of doing headshot for some of my recent portrait sessions. Its not what I would normally do but the images give a totally different vibe compared to my other portraits.

You are guys are probably gonna see more headshots in this blog from now on =)

A little hint of warm edge light.

Sometimes all you need is just a little hint of warm edge light to bring the image to the next level. 

ISO 200, f/4, 1/80. 5D mk2 with 70-200 f/4 IS. Softbox on camera right while umbrella aiming directly at wall behind with orange colour gel attached on camera left. 

Cheers. 

Joan and Will at Chinatown.

Had a couple shoot at as busy as ever Chinatown last weekend. Meet Joan and Will

They were quite a loving couple which made it fairly easy for me to photograph them. I didn't had to give them much directions and the romance all happened by itself.

Originally I had the idea of photographing them with the night scene of Chinatown so we hanged out at this nearby building to kill some time. But we ended up taking more pictures.

After that we moved to the intended location I originally planned. gave them some instructions, set my camera and everything else unfolds by itself.

Taxi. 

Some intimate moments

Personal favourite image of the whole set =)

Thanks for reading.

An Afternoon with Maya

Recently I had an opportunity to photograph an adorable girl called Maya, who is the daughter of Anne and Jacob , one of my models from my Melbourne Graffiti Series. Here's the blog post about it ;)

I never really had an actual shoot with a child before throughout my experience in photography. Most of the time I always took candids of kids during events or weddings. They are wonderful subjects to photograph as their actions are pure and innocent. Photographing Maya at first was a challenge for me at first because she was pretty shy with strangers.

Hiding behind mommy's legs. 

Anne was really patient with me as well and we slowly tried to get Maya more and more comfortable with me with the camera. These things can't be forced onto kids and it takes time. However it is always the case where the photographer needs to pull things out within 1-2 hours.

Accidental camera blur but I like the mood here, kinda like what you get from a film camera. 

It was late afternoon at a park near Shrine of Remembrance where we get long shadows and warm light. The so-called "golden hour".

She loves her butterfly wings.

After an hour or so into the shoot, Maya slowly got more positive with me being around her. So I started to shoot closer. And got Anne involved in the shoot as well.

However I pulled out and shoot from far again.

Below are my two favourites from the whole session -

Thanks for reading =)

Self Portraits and How I Did it

I was bored last night so did some self-portraits in my room. It was also the fact that I bought a 54" Joe Mcnally Ezybox and haven't extensively tested it. Its collapsible so I can bring it anywhere but the main reason why I bought it is because it has white surface inside instead of silver which you can find in most softboxes. Hence this box produces extra soft/diffused light compare to regular ones.

Frankly speaking it was pretty difficult to manually focus all by myself. All I had was my lightstand as a pre-focus subject and apparently the stand's "Depth of Field" is different with my face. Plus I was on a long focal length which made the DoF narrower. I know there is a calculator on the net but I was lazy to do the math so in the end I set camera to f/16. Instead of just showing you guys pictures of my face, I'm going to include a diagram along with it to show you how it was done. Keep in mind that I suck at drawings, I think this applies to most photographers. Before we begin, we need to understand the super long and sound sooo complicated theory of Inverse-square law. To put it in studio lighting terms, its about flash to subject distance, flash to background distance or could be flash-subject-background distance all three together at the same time. It's really hard for me to put everything into words so I'll try to explain it as we go along. 

This is a pretty standard set up. Light on camera left, about 45 degree from my(subject's) point of view. 

This is where the Inverse-square law comes into play. The light is closer to me than background even though the distance between me and background is only 1-2 meters. I used a really low power output on my flash in hopes that the light doesn't light up the wall behind me. But if you look closely on the right side of the photo, you can see a little red from the wall. Now compare the "brightness" of my face with the wall and think about the distance of flash, me and the wall. That's a general idea of inverse square law. Also, notice the softbox's angle in the diagram, I don't aim it directly at me but used the lights from the edge to light my face. The reason being is that light from the center of the box is stronger or "hot" compared to the edge of the box. Moreover I wanted the background to be dark. 

*As expected, white inner surface of the box makes the light super diffused =D  

I increased the height of the box and slightly turned to the wall a little to get a bit colour. You can tell by my shadow on lower right of the frame and also the catch lights in my eyes. I added a bit of vignette in post-processing on top right to make the red circular. 

In this set up, I was one step to the front(closer to the box) so my face is slightly brighter than previous photos. You can also tell that among the areas of my face got lit, the ear is the brightest and the light fall off nicely on the rest of the face. And yeah, this was testing phase, still trying to get my focusing(its not sharp), before I changed shirt and wet my hair =P 

So I moved the box to almost at my side and turn it more towards the camera. The wall is completely black because no light is hitting on to the wall. I also had my lens hood attached so that I don't get flares. 

The Dark Knight much? 

Simple straight forward backlight trick. The difference is I increased the height of the box so that the light hit more of my curly hair and doesn't hit my shoulder.

A similar set up as the first image. I pump up flash power to make it more punchy/contrast. Add a little warmth in white balance during post-processing. As I mentioned about light coming from center of a softbox being "hot" compare to the edge, you can tell that by looking at my fingers. While my face is exposed nicely, some part of my fingers are nearly overexposed.

The angle of light source and the distance between flash, subject and background can affect your image greatly. A little tilting, some turning, moving a few steps a part can do a lot. Try do some experiment and see for yourself. By the way, I've touched only the surface of Inverse-square Law. There is a thing about by moving your subject further or closer to light source, you are increasing or reducing the light power hitting on to your subject. Sounds logical but there is a calculation in it. You are welcome to look-it up to see for yourself. 


Thanks for reading.

Organized Model Shoots

Awhile ago I tagged along to a friend's organized model shoots. Been awhile since I last joined these kind of events. Its quite beneficial when you are starting in photography, you get to see how others give instructions to models for posing or framing angle and such. Moreover its a good social opportunity. All images are are simple portraits with available light.

As usual, I always like to incorporate the environment in my portraits.

I made use of a small tungsten spotlights at the venue and shifted my camera White Balance to a very cold temperature, all that is left was asking the subject to tilt her chin up. As simple as that.

The weather that day was rainy. Rainy means the sky is full of clouds, overcast, which results in soft diffused sunlight. I learnt a simple yet useful trick from a German photographer Bert Stephani called "Shelter Light" awhile back. Basically is by placing your subject under an overhead roof or shelter or anything that blocks light, the subject's face will be light by frontal available light rather than usual top lighting. Just take a look at the image below and you'll get what I mean.

Notice the shadow under her chin, super soft right? No light modifier or any sort was used. Soft Diffused Sunlight + Shelter Light =) 


That's all from me for now, cheers.