How i spent a thursday morning studio shoot

[raytoei]

today i took leave to spend 3 hours snapping Belle, a local model.

i spent a bit of time over the weekend looking for a non traditional asian look, I felt that
many of the Kawai/Mei-Mei look was a bit too common. I wanted a more aggressive yet sexy look.

in terms of equipment, i lugged along the following:

* m4-p with 50 lux and 90 elmarit
* a borrowed Hasselblad with 80 and 150mm lens
* my fuji gw690ii medium format
* rolleiflex 3.5 t TLR medium format

for film, i brought formapan 400 in 120 format and kodak plus-x 100 in 135 format. For ISO, i decided to
standardize on ISO 200 to make things easier.

in the old days, polaroid film would be used to test the exposure etc before the actual shoot. for this,
i decided to use my trusty and grossly underused canon 40d with an old prime 50/1.8f lens.

The place I booked was a studio advertised in the local CS advert. It was a bit small, which suited 50mm
just fine. For 90mm lens (and 150mm in medium format), I had difficulty doing full body shots.

Before the actual shooting, the model, the studio helper/owner and myself spent some time going through the
pictures i wanted to take, in this case, several helmut newton type of pictures. HM did very little studio shots,
most of his pictures are more location with available light or on-camera flash photography. Nevertheless, we
identified several which we hoped to do.

(The model and myself discussed on the type of props to bring along. I brought a trenchcoat, a burka
(from my Jan trip in kabul), some gloves and sunglasses)

Because we were on a shoe-string budget, I did not want to pay for a make-up artist. The model spent
about 30-45 mins just on make up.

The shoot went on quite well. The two shots below are from the dslr to check on exposure, I shot 10 x 120
and 5 x 35mm (24 exposures) during the 2.5 hours of shooting. In between, we did some available light shoot
by the bathroom window and outside sofa.

Burberry. The Art of Trench.

** Essay to be continued **

 

[raytoei]

This was the first time I was hiring a model and quite excited and yet nervous.
What to shoot ? What gear to bring ? What is the theme ? What is the process ?
What lighting ? High-key, mid-key or low-key ? Do I need to provide food and drinks ?

I am a studio newbie, having only embarked in photography only in late 2009. The secret
to newbie studio shooting is having a good studio helper.... which in this case was the studio
proprietor. He suggested several lighting scenarios which basically split the session into 2.
I decided the process was going to be each camera roll would be a different pose or prop.
And exhausting one round of camera rolls, we would take a break and think about the next session.
In all, we did around 3 rounds of 120-format refresh among the 3 cameras. And about 5 rolls in
total of the M4-P.

** to be continued after I start developing and scan the first roll of 15 **

 

[wongsan]

Very interesting Felix...
Waiting for the story to unfold...

 

[bayusuputra]

Nice! more essay and photos please!!! i love seeing(or reading?) photo-essay!

 

[paapoopa]

very nice. looking forward to see more pictures and hear more stories.

 

[pegasus21]

Very nice contrast and details. Waiting to hear more too.

 

[raytoei]

Well, this is a rangefinder forum, so let me start by talking about the rangefinder used in this shoot.

Roll #1 of 15. Kodak Plus-X pushed to ISO 200.
Developed in XTOL 1+1 for 5mins at 30C

The above shot was made on the M4-P and Summilux 50/f1.4. I call this the
pre-pre-aspherical version as it is version 2. It has a E43 filter but the downside
of this lens is the minimum focusing distance of 1m.

I know that many RF folks don't really like the M4-2 or M4-P preferring the M6. Actually, the
best classic M in my opinion is the M4. But for the more modern M, I prefer the M4-p because
it does not have a meter and does not use batteries. I prefer the "P"rofessional to the "2"
It's really a personal choice, as I sold my M4, M2, M3 as it does not have a hot shoe.

(I hear the gasp of purists who only shoot by available light ),

but no hot shoe means very leh-cheh method of using flash, or in this case,
the IR-Sync which triggers the softbox. So the M4-P here works with
the IR-Sync automatically.

The shutter speed for flash in Leica is 1/50. As for the aperture, this was done by
using a sekonic light meter against a grid softbox, at f11, but I liked the f8 better.

At F11 or even F8, there is a huge depth of field, so focusing does not have to
be accurate for the images to be "in-focus". However, I was somewhat nervous
(that the model had posed and I wasn't ready) and couldn't fumble through the
hyperfocal distance. I gave up and resorted to manually focusing and firing.
Luckily, all the images in this roll are in focus.

For DSLR users, they have it easy with auto-focus

For this first roll, I noticed the negatives a bit over-developed, so for my next roll, I
will develop at 4.45mins rather than 5 mins.

raytoei
(*** to be continued... actually not much to continue ***)

 

[artspraken]

raytoei sir,


In my opinion, you got abit of Karl Lagerfeld in you.

 

[chiif]

raytoei sir,


In my opinion, you got abit of Karl Lagerfeld in you.

I think so too...

 

[gommy]

Thanks for sharing.....
waiting to see and hear more...

 

[raytoei]

thanks for the comments.

Roll #2, Kodak Plus-X, Summilux 50/1.4f

I wished I had labeled the rolls in sequence, yet I am developing
rolls in random. With Roll#3, I noticed that there seem to be base
fog on the bottom right of the screen, yet it can't be because all it hits
at the same spot in all the frames. Leading me to think that it is the
interplay of light and out of focus spot.

Half-way through the shoot, we decided to take a break while I reloaded
the cameras. I sort of realized why the Hasselblad system was brilliant
in introducing loadable backs rather than fixed backs. It took an average of
3-5mins to unload each 120 and reload a fresh 120 into the GW690,
Hassy 500c/m, Rolleiflex 3.5T as well into the M4-P.

I suddenly had a thought about shooting available light in the
stairway outside the studio where there was 2 small sofas. The
light was coming down from the top stairwell window and the
white walls became a giant diffuser. I told Belle the model to
pose at the sofa with a cigar.

I metered my sekonic L-408 against the face, which registered
1/30 and f2 at iso 200. And I slowly finished one roll of Plus-x on
this confined but very nice setting.

In a way, this felt more right at home as available light shooting is
what I do most of the time. I shoot about 5 - 7 rolls of film every
week, I try to bring to bring my rf to work everyday, to shoot anything
and everything.

My current film hero once said that that the first 10,000 shots are the
photographer's worst. I estimate that I am currently at 400+ rolls in
the past 15 months, roughly around 9600 exposures. I still have a
long way to go and I hope to use statistics to even the odds

I am going to end the monologue here but I am going to share Roll #3 here,
this was taken with the Elmarit 90/f2.8 lens.

Not exactly an easy lens to use but I like the effect and this picture.

Note, I sense a tinge of over-contrast so I am going to cut back on my agitation for Roll#4 & 5.

Will probably add in some observations later.

Thanks for the encouragement and keep the comments coming.

raytoei

 

[raytoei]

Okay.

So far, I only developed 5 out of 15.

but this is it:

My next post will be on what I have learnt and how to prepare for my next shoot in June (a restaurant shoot).

raytoei

 

[raytoei]

Top 10 observations:
================

* Flare sucks. In photo 4 and many of the photo in the bathroom, the light patch was caused by flare.
Now, this necessitates the need for a hood, and better quality uv filter.

* 90mm (150mm in MF) was pretty useless for full body shots due to the size of the studio.
This means that in future, I have to plan or have spare bodies for different focal length.

* I finally understood the saying that the photographer must bring out the best of the model:
Not all models have perfect bodies, we have to find out (by asking or looking at portfolio) what those
imperfection are. (can you guess what challenges this model had ?)

* Props is an important part of the photoshoot, it make sense to have sample images to discuss with
the model beforehand.

* Hair and Makeup transforms the model. Discuss this before the shoot. I was lucky that this model had
a Vidal Sasson shoot the week before, hence the much stylized hair was a bonus.

* 35mm is actually quite decent for a studio shoot. I analyzed the negatives and there are
enough details in 135 format to be usable for enlargements. Previously I only considered mf
as good enough for studio shooting / enlargement.

* Manual focusing with a SLR is more difficult in low light situation than a RF.
With the M4-P and Fuji GW690II it was much easier to focus than the Hasselblad 500 c/m
with the original focusing screen or even the usually bright Rolleiflex 3.5T. I need to use scale
focusing more with the smaller apertures.

* Having an experienced model helped, especially since this was my first paid studio shoot.
She knew how to make the best of the situation and props.

* I was looking for a particular look and I had to direct the model several times
to position herself in a certain way. In hindsight, I could have been more prescriptive,
and follow a set of images to follow rather than be spontaneous.

* Have fun and keep it exciting. I brought a nice CD, a bunch of props.
The Model went shopping the day before to get her own props as well.
In the end, the 3 hour paid shoot went on to 3 and half hours. The last half-hour
was thrown in (by the model and the studio) since we were enjoying ourselves.

* An 11th observation is that it is a fine balance between privacy and help.
On the one hand, having the model relaxed without the prying eyes ensured that
we could work without being too self-conscious. On the other hand, having a
helper near-by, in this case the studio partner upstairs,
ensured that there is no misunderstanding of sexual harassment.

cheers!

raytoei
( i am planning my next shoot. Budget willing, in a fine restaurant setting,
with a fine art model, lighting is going to be a real challenge. Any ideas ? )

 

[AJ23]

Wah... Felix, I like the texture and feel of your shots.

You made me want to shoot B&W in MF. :bsmilie:

Waiting for your Rolli and Fuji shots. :lovegrin:

MORE MORE MORE!

 

[raytoei]

Observation #12.

Plus-X pushed to ISO 200 in 35mm format in XTOL. may be similar or better than Fomapan pulled to ISO 200 + 120 format in a grainly developer

50% cropped and then resized, Fuji GW690II developed in grainy rodinal in a grainy film fomapan400.

 

[hookonclassic]

See that you are enjoying the moment...hehe...

Wanted to do this on a nice location with the perfect model and with the perfect light setting...:bsmilie:

Interesting...thanks for sharing...:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[raytoei]

Hookonclassic,

i agree. however, i am not confident that i can pull it off with a perfect model and perfect location etc. So in the meantime, i am practicing and practicsing.

For example:

i really want to do this shot( http://www.ocaiw.com/images/galleria_maestri/154/2389big.jpg ) in a local fine dining restaurant.

think about the process of doing it:

* permission
* lighting
* model
* film speed etc.

HM was known to use available light and made the models stay still for up to seconds.

raytoei

 

[Royale With Cheese]

Great stuff Ray!

Thanks for sharing! Very informative indeed!

This:
http://www.ocaiw.com/images/galleria_maestri/154/2389big.jpg
Is really damn power if you can do it as well!

 

[raytoei]

Absolutely last Photo to end this thread. Thanks for Reading

raytoei

 

[NazgulKing]

Very interesting insights. Thanks