In the 40′s and 50′s, many studio shoots were still done using the same types of lighting used for movies – high powered continuous lights, often referred to as “hot lights”.  As the name implies, these put off a lot of heat, so they often had minimal filtering – often just a metal grid.  You couldn’t use softboxes as they’d be set on fire!

This lighting can be very high-contrast, with tricky shadows. In the image below, I added some fill to open up the shadows on the model’s face.  It’s something of a faux pas to have overlapping shadows like the ones in the lighting test below, so I turned it into more of a geometric pattern.

Top:

Photography + styling: Thomas Park
Model: Jess Arden
Hair: Jessee Skittrall
Makeup: Calvy Tran
Assistant: Robert Fisher

Bottom:

Model, makeup: Brettlin

This article walks through the setup for the look above, step by step.

You might be surprised to learn how little gear went into producing the look.  One thing that often bothered me about lighting looks that were broken down in photo magazines was just how much gear was required for the shoot – multiple 2,400 watt-second packs, enormously expensive parabolic frenel softboxes, trucks and trucks full of grip equipment.

I wanted to write an article that would be approachable by just about any photographer.  The above is lit by nothing more than two Metz handle flashes.

I’d love to hear your feedback on the article!  You can comment on it if you’ve an account on dpreview.com.

This image was shot close to sunset.  In order to overcome the strong backlight, I was shooting with a gold reflector and a woefully overwhelmed speedlight.

One thing I will say – even in the middle of summer, beaches on the coast of the Pacific Northwest can be quite cold.  I was not the model’s favourite person in the world after making her stand barefoot on the cold, wet sand for this shoot.

Model: Alison

I’m very pleased with how this shot came out.  I thought some of you would also be interested to learn that the background of this image is actually white seamless paper.  A well-placed shadow is a powerful thing.

I presented two workshop sessions:

EXPLORE, a photographic workshop aimed towards teaching students core concepts in composition and photography (camera modes, exposure compen- sation, white balance, creative uses of focal lengths)

And PLAY, a studio lighting workshop.

Some people are surprised by how applicable lighting concepts are from one context to another.  If you know how to light a good portrait, you can light a good figure shot.  One of the main things to be aware of when working with figure models is the effect of the exposure and color temp on the model’s skin.

Both images here demonstrate the possibilities of cropping and posing to create interesting geometry and deliberate negative space.

My humble gratitude goes out to the Festival for inviting me to teach as part of the festival programme, and to the workshop students who attended.

Models: Karren S.

(Many thanks to my neighbour Tito for the piano!)

Model: Ashley Brown
Designer / styling: Bri Seeley
Makeup: Maggie Wendt
Hair: Monique Wilson
Assistant: Robert Fisher

It’s actually much nicer than it sounds.  The building was built during the period of federal design that favoured Art Deco styling with lots of brick and marble.

Although I’ll be sad to lose some of the wonderful spaces I had access to in my prior studio, I’m looking forward to having a new creative home.

For those of you coming down, the address is 815 Seattle Blvd S (recently renamed from Airport Way S – you may see signs that say either).  It’s just south of Uwajimaya.  The cross streets are 5th + 6th Ave S, more or less between Qwest Field and the BMW dealership.

I ended up printing the image above on canvas at about 4 feet long.  One viewer commented that at first glance, he thought he was looking at a Utah slot canyon, an impression that I found absolutely delightful.

Perhaps it’s the fact that Pacific Northwest winters can be quite dark and wet.  Perhaps it’s the fact that I have notoriously bad timing and it would be much more comfortable to shoot wet looks in the summer.  I’m not sure.  Whatever the reason, I’ve had water on my mind and I hope my models can forgive me for picking the dead of winter as the season to be misting them with water…

It’s rather difficult to achieve a skintone that looks wetter than water and also allows water to bead up on the surface of the skin.  Many thanks to may talented makeup artists for their tips and ideas!

Model: Lyssa Chartrand

Makeup: Thomas Park

I shot these images with a Canon 100mm 2.8L macro lens, perhaps the sharpest SLR lens I currently own.

I kept having a bit of a battle with my makeup artists during this time period – they kept wanting to use false eyelashes, which I kept insisting would look very obviously false in the final image.  The model here is just wearing mascara.  Images that are shot this close and with such high resolving power have very little room for forgiveness.

In both of these images, I tried to pay very close attention to the geometry formed by the lines of the face.

Model: Seline Chauntel

Makeup: Calvy Tran

Recently, I borrowed a very special type of macro lens from a friend.  This lens shoots nothing but macro – it will not focus at all if your subject matter is more than 4 inches (10 cm) away.  This greatly restricts the types of things you can shoot – anything bigger than your thumbtip is out of the question.

The subject matter that I found to be most compelling were eyes and lips.  Lips are a little easier, in that there is more latitude for what you have in focus.  With eyes, the iris generally has to be sharp, or the image is lost (there are some exceptions).  This can be difficult when you’re holding a long lens so close to a model’s eye that it’s almost brushing her lashes.

What makes a good macro portrait?

• The viewer should be able to distinguish what they’re looking at
• There should be enough variety of texture and color to make the image interesting (this is why eyes work well and belly buttons do not)
• If the image is blurry, it should look intentionally blurry
• The geometry of the image should draw the viewer’s eye across the image

Having a totally out-of-focus image can work for you.  The image above was shot with available light in a fairly dark location, so it had a long shutter speed on the exposure (1/13 second).  Between the movement of the model and the camera, this made for a very soft, unfocused image.

In this situation, the image takes on an almost painterly quality, with very little sharp detail in the image at all.

One advantage of using natural light is the ease of visualising the final shot.  The image below was shot with a strobe in a strip box (thin softbox).  This created a significant catchlight in the model’s eye that is not present in the naturally-lit image.  It was not possible to use a larger light source without fully occluding the model’s eye.

It’s worth noting that this is one type of photography where it is essential to focus manually.  Do not rely on autofocus!  At extreme levels of macro focusing such as these, it is often easiest to set the focus and fine-tune by moving closer to or further from the subject.

Models: Marissa Quimby, Jayne Delane

Makeup: Miguel Vigil @ Foxy Cut Salon