Jean-Baptiste Guiton Shoots Make-Up

We get lots of portrait shoot videos around here, but not so much with the high-end product shots. And this one is a real treat, as it shows the full process for creating the cosmetics ad for T. LeClerc shown at left.

It is a composite shot, with each portion being shot on a 35mm-format Canon DSLR. Even if the ad runs as a huge poster, that "pieced-together" process gives you insane overall resolution.

Hit the jump for a fast-paced three minutes showing what it takes to reel in those dollars (and Euros) from women who want to look beautiful.
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Paris-based Jean-Baptiste Guiton (pictured below) spent ten years in Chicago before moving back to his native France. His company, Studio 29, will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in January.

I loved this. And honestly, I do not know why more shooters are not doing videos like this to augment their marketing to future clients.

What, is there not enough room in the budget for YouTube?

Just as much as the technical stuff, I enjoyed watching the whole crew on this. John-Baptiste (seen at left) and the others clearly enjoy what they do. And that counts for a lot.

If ur not having fun, ur doin it wrong.

You can see more of Jean-Baptiste's work at www.guiton.net, including more makeup still life work for T. LeClerc. And speaking of T. LeClerc, they are running a big version of this shot here.

(Thanks for posting this, J-B!)

London Calling

If you are a UK'er and see an idiot walking around in shorts this week, please stop me and say hello. Or for a less random approach, I'll be at The Flash Centre in London on Monday the 8th. Please stop by!

If you are attending one of the London lighting seminars this weekend, please check in here for the latest info as the date approaches.

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Nikon D3X Leak Puppy Catches Own Tail

UPDATE: Nikon Rumors has published the entire article, with jpegs big enough to read the text.
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Long plagued with continual leaks, today Nikon decided to scoop all of the leakers by (accidentally) leaking their own announcement themselves. That is to say, a Euro version of Nikon Pro magazine (seen above) apparently went out early, en masse, before they could launch the "official announcement."

This being a lighting blog, our preference is to send you elsewhere for the whole D3X coverage orgy thing. I mean, sure, I want one and all. But sheesh, I am still digesting my turkey today.

(Thanks to Tom for the heads-up.)

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T-Day Speedlinks

If you are a turkey, today is a good day get out of town. Horrible, unspeakable things are happening to your kind on Thanksgiving Day here in the US.

I shot this guy in the woods of Northern Virginia, while doing a story on turkey hunters. Came by me at about 40MPH. Being a sports photographer really helps in a situation like that.

Most people in the US don't hunt them -- they just go down to the grocery store for theirs. My mouth is starting to water just thinking about later today.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. And after you are done feeding your face, don't forget about the big plate of speedlinks for dessert, after the jump...
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• Pixsylated has been on a tear lately, with this high-speed sync tute, and an in-depth field test of the RadioPopper RP-1's.

• If you have a teenage daughter, you probably know about Twilight, the juggernaut book series and new teen flick. Wanna guess who shot the movie posters? (We interviewed him a ways back, here.)

• How much work does it take to be a success in microstock? Way more than you probably think.

• As a result of user feedback, MPEX's Strobist Kits have been updated. Out: Batteries and chargers (which you can get just about anywhere.) In: White shoot-thru's and kit cases.

• Guinness Book of World Records, white courtesy phone please: Peter Emmett tests out the entire Rosco sample pack. Words fail me.

• From Malaysia, a new modular speedlight modifier kit.

• Not lighting, but the best reminder in a long time to always buckle up: A Nikon D3 sequence of a speedboat drag racing 200 MPH crash sequence, courtesy Mark Rebilas. (Scroll down for the good stuff.)

Colin Firth: CYA PDQ

UK Photographer Greg Funnell shot actor Colin Firth for Time Out London, and knew he would only get a few minutes. Thus the "PDQ."

He wanted a lighting scheme that was safe over a range of subject orientation. Thus, the "CYA."

Hit the jump for a video, links and an alternate way to think about the light that can allow you to have your CYA-PDQ cake and eat it, too.




Greg was working in a hotel basement (ahh, the glamorous life of a photographer) and lighting with a pair of Elinchrom D-Light 2s in soft boxes. His solution was to run the boxes at 45-degree angles from each side of the subject. The idea was to get light that wraps and worked for either direction Firth might have been looking.

At this point, I should note that I am typing very quietly because the mere mention of Colin Firth in my household sends my wife into a dizzying tailspin of knee-buckling ecstasy. Something about a "pond scene" from Pride and Prejudice.

Me, I just don't see it. But my strategy during a Colin Firth Movie is always to focus on preserving that momentum, while being very careful not to do or say anything that might actually invite comparison between me and Mr. Wonderful.

I digress.

There is certainly nothing wrong with lighting Mr. Firth on the 45's. But if you are working with two soft boxes you can keep your safety while adding some directionality to the light.

The key is to recognize that the part of the photo that makes it sing is also your danger zone if you are trying to play it safe. That part would be the shadow area, obviously. So the idea is to balance the shadows so that they are there, but also legible if something interesting happens inside them.


You Knew This was Coming...

This is where off-axis key vs. on-axis fill can let you have it both ways. Let's work this one using Greg's exact gear used for the shoot: Two medium soft boxes and monobloc flashes.

Start out with one of your two soft boxes in the vertical orientation. Place it 45 degrees, give or take, to one side, and elevate it a little for good shape and form on the face. This, of course would happen before Mr. Why-Can't-You-Be-More -Like-Him arrives. You would test on the assistant or anyone else who happened to be standing around.

Remember to use whatever means necessary to get your stand-in to the right height, too. This is something you already know because you (a) Googled it, (b) asked an assistant, etc. Also find out of your subject will be wearing glasses, as that dictates lighting style to some degree.



Your fill light will come from directly behind the photographer's head, with the box in the horizontal orientation. This light is not so much going to shape the face as to fill and wrap the light. I would elevate it just a little, because your shoulders are gonna knock some of the bottom out, anyway. Maybe place the bottom horizontal edge of the box even with your shoulders.

Given that the D-Lite 2's have a built-in slave eye in the rear, I would radio (or PC cord) sync the fill unit behind me and slave the key light.

For ratios, start out testing the light with only the fill light firing. Adjust the light and/or aperture until your test subject has a good exposure. Now, back off the fill light (either by cranking the aperture down or dialing down the power of the light) until your subject is underexposed but still holds legible detail. This is the darkest your shadows will get in the final photo. And there will be no shadows you cannot see into, because your fill is coming from on axis.

Now, the balance is between safety and tonal depth. There is no set rule, other than how much of a weenie you happen to be on any given day.

Ten years ago, I would have set the ratio pretty tight. Stop-and-a-half, maybe. Because at that point I was all about the fear of failure. But now, I'd let it drop past two stops -- heading toward three, actually. Chuck Norris might take it down even further.

After you have completed this little exercise in self-examination, bring in your key light and dial it up so the subject looks great at your working aperture. For the shutter speed, you'll want to keep that up at max sync speed to nuke the ambient. Maybe warm up that key a tad with a 1/8 CTO.

Oh, wait, he is British -- better make it a 1/4 CTO.

As for direction of the key, you might want to work your angle so the subject's shadow falls far enough away on the background so you get some light on the background in the area directly behind the shadow side of your subject. You can vary this by either changing the key light location or moving the background further away from the subject.

There are side effects to consider. Changing the key location will alter the quality of light on the subject. Moving the background will alter the tonality of the background. Use the choice that works best for you. A combination of the two moves might work even better.

So now, when Mr. OhmyGodHeIsRightHereInFrontOfMe shows up, you know exactly how your ratios are going to look, no meter needed, and you are ready to roll from Frame One. Plus, you'll get shape and details no matter which way he looks.

And if you need an assistant, Missus Strobist is available -- at absolutely no charge whatsoever.


(Thanks to Greg for making and posting the video of the shoot!)


RELATED:

:: Greg Funnell: Website ::
:: Greg Funnell Blog Post (Includes Time Out Tearsheet) ::
:: Video: That Pride and Prejudice Pond Scene ::

Nikon CLS Video: We'd Tell You, But We'd Have to Kill You

Good news and bad news on the new Nikon CLS video.

Good news is that they are now in stock. The bad news is that Nikon Mall is only listing it on the US site, and they are not shipping it out of the country.

What, are they worried that the Taliban will get ahold of this stuff or something? Seriously, Nikon, this is nuts. Tear down that wall.

You have a worldwide distribution network, for Pete's sake. You could even move the video online and sell it that way.

Why make non-US Nikon shooters have to pay an arm and a leg for shipping? Or worse yet, smuggle it out while traveling to the US and pray they don't get chosen by our lovely TSA for a cavity search?

Honestly, I am at a loss. It is on Amazon now, at least, and MPEX has it, among others. Probably just a matter of seeing who can get it to you for just an arm, rather than an arm-and-a-leg.

C'mon, Nikon. You just ran the ball 99 yards. Don't fumble it in the red zone. If I were Canon, I would do a small-flash video like this and put it up online for free, right here.

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Orbis: First Look / Ray Flash Comparison

UPDATE: Orbis Ring Flash Adapters are now hitting retail shelves in the US and elsewhere.
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Just received one of the first Orbis ring flash adapters to make into this part of the world. Since I will not have time to shoot with it for a couple of weeks I am putting up a quick unboxing vid (and Ray Flash comparison) video for those of you thinking about taking the plunge.

(If you are watching this via RSS or Email feed, you may have to click through on the title of this post to watch the vids.)

My schedule is such that I will not get to really work with it until after Thanksgiving, which has me feeling like the kid in A Christmas Story pining after the Red Rider BB gun. Argh.

Oh well. After the jump, an additional (Orbis-produced) video.




From the "Episode 001" title on the Orbis video, it looks as if they are going to be uploading more stuff (tutorials?) in the future, too. Glad to see it.

More info at Orbisflash.com.

Thanks for the Nomination!

Muchas gracias to whoever nominated Strobist for a 2008 Weblog award in the Photo category. (Apparently, they didn't have a DIY black-straw snoot category.)

The gesture is much appreciated. If you want to second (or third) the nomination, you can do so by clicking the little green "+" button on this comment right here.

This is a call for nominations. If we make it to the finals, voting for that will begin on December 8th. And to everyone who added their vote to the nomination, a big thank you.

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Cheap Bouncy Fun

A couple of weeks ago, when we ran the post on the DIY bounce reflector thingie, I got several "Do Not Publish" comments that basically said:

"Are you brain dead? Do you realize you are pointing people to instructions to DIY a product made by one of your advertisers?"

To that, I say:

"Geez, ma, why do you always leave DNP comments on my blog? Can't you just phone me like all of the other bloggers' moms do?"

Kidding -- I love Mother Strobist to bits, which is why I always take advantage of any excuse to run her photo on the blog. (Click it for a corner headshot tute.) And I certainly hope you did not get the wrong idea from that headline.

But while I'll grant you that the brain-dead thing may be debatable, there are actually some gear manufacturers who genuinely want to teach people to light -- whether they buy the gear or not.

Don't believe me? Check out this video from Lighting Academy, after the jump.
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I know lots of questions are popping into your mind right now. Questions like:


• Why would a lighting gear manufacturer publish DIY tips using Home Depot stuff?

• Forget the lighting tips, where can I get that fly outfit?

• And, how come German mannequins got nipples and ours don't?


Actually, turns out that the low-budget themed Lighting Academy is run by the very same folks who were being DIY-hacked by the blogger in the post mentioned above. It is the pet project of Peter Geller, the head honcho at California Sunbounce.

And while CSB's pro gear may not be for the faint of wallet, what he really wants is to teach the world how to shape light. Lighting Academy may have an ad for CSB on it, but it is also chock full of videos (with English versions coming on line soon) to show you just how simple it is to shape light with cheap, DIY gear.

I do not have to tell you how cool I think that is, and how happy I am to be associated with CSB as a result of that compass point. They have produced a ton of videos (link below) on how to light using the CSB line. But even if you can't afford the good stuff right now, you at least can afford the good light.

My only question: Why doesn't every company do this? Seriously, if you are a lighting gear company, how can you not be doing this?

It costs very little. And CSB is not giving away the store, either. Quite the contrary, they are minting photographers who want to better shape their light -- even if they currently are dirt broke.

And if there is any justice in the world, some of that good karma will come back later when the DIY-type photographers want to pony up for the good stuff later.

You can watch more cheap, bouncy fun at Lighting Academy. And you can see CSB's ever-expanding library of lighting videos here.

First Look: Annie Leibovitz At Work

UPDATE: Annie Leibovitz passed through Seattle on her book tour, much to the delight of a few Strobist readers...
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First previewed here last August, Annie Leibovitz: At Work is finally wrapped in those little brown Amazon fold-boxes and hitting doorsteps everywhere.

I have just spent the afternoon with my copy, which I pre-ordered when it first became available. It is a departure from the previous picture books she has published, the main difference being much more back story to go along with the photos.


What to Expect

Originally, I expected to get a more nuts-and-bolts, gear-and-technique type book. But instead the she spends the time on her experiences surrounding approximately two dozen different sittings and projects.

Instead you are taken along with her on her shoots, almost as if she is sitting down after each one and talking with you about it over a cup of coffee. Much space is given to her approach, what she is thinking, problems to be solved, photographer-subject interaction and the like.

From the comments I get in the On Assignment posts, it is clear that many people put a premium on this type of information. From my perspective I have sometimes found that hard to understand. (Just shut up and tell us how to light it, Flash Boy...)

But having read through Leibovitz's book, I find her openness and honesty about the process to be far more valuable to me than the lighting stuff. The cover may show her inside of a typically Leibovitz lighting setup, but the book is not about lighting. It is more to get you inside her head.

If you are a fan of her work, you will find it very enjoyable -- and come away with a much better understanding of her motivations and how she works. If you are sick of her, this book will only make you more so.

Count me among the former.

The book comprises her entire career to date. She revisits the early days at Rolling Stone, the American Express ad campaign, Vanity Fair, etc. She spends time on those multi-panel "big pictures" that did for VF, too.




For those of you who are not near a Borders or some other big book store, I did a quick thumb through of the book simply to give an idea of the photos-to-text ratio. While not a picture book per se, it is very much a book about photography. And by that, I mean a look at everything that goes into Leibovitz's photography.

You'll remember the YouTube video (since pulled) of her session with The Queen. Having seen footage from that shoot, it is very interesting to hear her talk about it, too. She devotes ten pages to that shoot, and includes each of the photos approved released from it.

I was surprised to find that not one, but two of the Queen photos are composites. Also, I found it oddly gratifying to read how the whole thing seemed to be coming apart at the seams in Leibovitz's mind. Of course, she was still able to make four gorgeous historical portraits despite her internal panic.

That tells me much more than the shoots with her Hollywood pals who will do damn near anything for her. I expect that this is a book I will read a few times at different levels, trying to glean what information I can that will help me with my own portraiture.

She does spend a chapter on gear: Cameras, lighting, fans, music, etc. But that is not the focus if the book.

Which is fine. The lighting stuff is physics. A trained monkey can do that, my friend Jed Kirschbaum is fond of saying. (I would note that Jed shoots mostly available light, tho.)

What I am interested is learning more about the difference between the way I think and the way someone like Annie Leibovitz thinks. And for that, At Work foots the bill.

If you have gotten a copy already, sound off in the comments. More voices, the better. Didja like it? Didja not? Why? Why not?

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Annie Leibovitz: At Work is available at Amazon.com and, soon, at bookstores everywhere.

On Assignment: WiMAX

I am a geek.

For the first 30 years of my life, that was seen as a liability. But lately, it has been a lot more fun.

And as a geek, when I got a recent assignment from USA Today to shoot the first-ever rollout of WiMAX on a city-wide scale, I was stoked.

If you are not familiar with WiMAX, think Wi-Fi, stretching for several miles from each access point. Think 5 megabits downstream and 2 upstream in a car traveling 70 MPH on the interstate in the middle of nowhere -- WiMAX rocks. But as sexy as the tech is, my assignment was to shoot a photo of guys testing out the system.

(I don't care. I am still interested.)

And on top of the potentially boring picture part, the worry was that they might be showing up just for our benefit. That is always a concern on this kind of a newspaper shoot.

"Use your judgement," the editor said. Which is fine up to the point to where you try to figure out what you will turn in if it turns out that the whole scene is a setup.

Needless to say I wanted to light, but I did not want the gear to create a big fuss and influence the scene. So I went with a single SB-800 on a stand. Speedlights give me the ability to light quickly, portably, and without the excess gear that can influence a situation.


Flash on a Stick

The assignment was to shoot technicians testing the WiMAX gear in Ellicott City, MD, then head up to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for a rooftop installation which would afford us a full view of the city the WiMAX was designed to cover. So I knew where my lead photo would be -- on that high-rise rooftop. My plan was to shoot the techs first for the jump page (assuming they were really working) and then move on to the second site for a cool, lit-portrait lead.

"Plan A" bit the dust as soon as I arrived at the installation testing site. Turns out the next site had the antennae enclosed in a shed on top of the building. No view for me. Now the technician/testers were gonna be lead. The good news was that they were actually working, and not just for my benefit. (That was a relief.) So I stuck the SB-800 on a stand while I wondered what the heck I was gonna do for a jump page photo.

Bare speedlight on a stand is usually the first thing I do when I get to an assignment. I am almost certainly gonna use at least one, and it allows me to appear to be doing something while in fact I am wondering what the heck I am going to shoot.

True to form, the tech was working in the strong shadow created by the morning sun. Ten years ago, this would have pissed me off as I resigned to use on-camera fill flash. But today I see this as a blessing -- it gives me nice diffuse light a few stops off of my main ambient exposure in which to build some directional light.

Looking at the photo up top, with sun coming in from back camera right, the obvious key light position is gonna be from front camera left. This crosslights the tech who is wearing a branded XOHM shirt -- as I am sure he does every day even when newspaper photogs are not there shooting him. (Hey, at least he is doing real work. I'm not complaining...)

But that key light is gonna leave me with dark, harsh shadows both on my technician and in the area where he is working. So I stuck another SB on my camera to reach up in there and provide some fill. Now we have a no-fuss, three light setup: Sun back/right; key front/left and fill from on-axis.



In a situation like this, shooting in manual is probably gonna make more sense than TTL. Reason is, that highlight on the panel at left is gonna change as you change your shooting angle. And it could very well influence your TTL response. I used both TTL and manual in this shoot, but ended up in manual just for that reason.

For a trigger, I fired my fill light on-camera and slaved the SB-800. Dear Lord, I love those perfect little flashes.

Last week, we talked about how to do this in TTL mode. It is very easy in manual, too. Crank the ISO down low. Shutter at 250th of a sec. Choose an aperture that gives you a nice, rich exposure. Bring your key light in against the ambient on manual power until it lights your subject well.

Generally, in a situation and working distance like this a 1/4-power manual shot is gonna get you very close. If it is not dead-on, it is in the ballpark for an easy, quick adjustment.

The key-to-subject distance is fixed, so nothing changes as long as your ambient is constant. If the sun goes behind the clouds, open up your shutter to adjust your ambient and then keep shooting. It's so easy, even a photographer could do it.

The one variable you'll need to keep an eye on is the on-axis fill if you are working in manual flash. I dial in the power level until the fill looks good in the screen on the camera back. Then I adjust it, based on whether or not I move in or out from the subject. Remember, this flash exposure is going to change as your camera-to-subject distance changes.

But you can use your movement as a quick flash adjustment, too. If I need a tad more fill light in manual I may just move in a foot or two and zoom out to compensate. Presto, your manual fill flash is brighter. You get the idea.

I knew a wrestling shooter who used to fine tune his focus that way before the days of autofocus. He would just sway to and fro as he shot, looking like he was lost in some sort of religious chant. Worked, too. Or maybe he was praying for sharp photos. I certainly have done that on occasion.

Back to the light, the on-axis fill defines the contrast range of the photo. Ambient sets the environment, key light properly exposes the subject and on-axis fill dials in the shadow contrast. He wasn't doing anything sexy (unless pumping stream after stream of throbbing test data through a network turns you on) but I was able to get quite a few different looks very quickly with this lighting setup.


On to Plan B

So, now that the skyline is a bust and the jump photo has just bubbled up to the lead, I need a new jump photo. A few questions later, we find out that other engineers are testing WiMAX bandwidth with mobile laptops nearby.

That is not the kind of photo that would normally excite me. But compared to not having a jump photo, it is absolutely fantastic. A half hour later we caught up with them, sitting in their car in crappy overhead light.


Once again, what I used to consider as a liability is now an opportunity. My guy is sitting in a car in backish/overhead light, working on a laptop in a car. (Yeah, I know -- they can't all be firefighters tossing babies out of burning buildings.) But, like I said, compared to having no jump photo I'll certainly take it.

Again, bare flash on a stand makes easy work of a guy in a car. I just walk it around to the front of the car and aim it through the front windshield by sighting the angle from the flash. I aimed it to hit his face from a profile-to-slightly-backlight position. I set the flash on 1/4 power (I hang out there a lot) and walked around to check the intensity and direction of the light.

Direction was good, but the light level was a little off. A quick adjustment of the flash's power level and I was in business. Trigger on this setup was a Pocketwizard. (Since I was not using on-axis fill, I had no light to trigger the key via optical slave.)

Are these sexy, glamorous photos? No. They are simple, block-and-tackle, hit-for-average shots that define what you settle for on the low end of the quality scale.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: I consider these photos just as important to light effectively as is the bigger stuff. All the more so, really, when you consider that what you do with these types of jobs define the "floor" on range of what you produce.


CYA With a Detail

One last thing. Like Bob Hamilton, my DOP at The Sun, used to tell me: Always look for a detail photo.

If you get into a practice of grabbing at least one relevant detail on every assignment, you frequently will save a page designer's butt. And occasionally you'll save your own. And if your light-on-a-stick is already set up, adding dimension to the detail shot is a very easy thing to do.

For this close-up shot of the XOHM WiMAX card, I already had back/overhead key from the sun. So sticking my flash down close to the ground in front and uplighting the card was the best way to cross light it to give it a little more pop. Nothing earth-shattering, but it gives a secondary highlight and makes it look better than a one-light-source shot.

Did I mention how much I love those 5-section, compact light stands? This is one reason why: You can crank them down to the height of a tiny background stand for a quick uplight when you need it.

Again, nothing sexy. But being in the habit of lighting the details (and shooting them, for that matter) is a good work ethic and will pay you dividends down the road.
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NEXT: On Assignment: Manil Suri