Meetup Fun

Yesterday we met up with 10 other photographers and 3 models for an off camera lighting meetup.

My wife Lorrie and I had a great time. The day started off with a short lecture and I snapped a few shots of the setup which Christine, our leader, was showing us.

After a short lecture we moved quickly into shooting. We split groups into Nikon, Canon, and Canon. How does Nikon stay in business with all these Canon shooters out there? ;-)

[On to the models...]

In the 90's there was a fear that the advent of the internet would turn our society in to a bunch of geeks, never wanting to interact with each other. Nothing could be farther from the truth... Take our first model for the day Lindsay. Besides being cute as a button, she plays World of Warcraft, and is a self proclaimed geek. This spawned the idea of creating something edgy and tough. Not the common portrait of the dainty female but a warlock which would just as soon smash your head in as get roses on the first date!


Unfortunately, we really did not have the time to take this idea through to completion. First the wardrobe was not too tough. Lindsay did have a change of clothes but by the time we were getting the light where we wanted it we ran out of time with her. I took the liberty of editing these in post a bit to get more of the look I was looking for. They are not totally there but I think you get the idea.



Our next model was Laura. We moved outside and found the Muni station shelter made a good prop to pose against. I thought it would be nice to have some Light coming from up top to simulate a light fixture which had long since been broken and painted over... The portable softbox I had and a boom provided a nice "voice activated light stand". (I wonder if I have to pay some royalties to Strobist for that term?) I think these shots are nice but Chris had the right idea by using his telephoto to control the background better. I thought about doing that but I did not really see the potential until seeing his post here. Next time... :-D

My favorite shot of Laura was:



However, I absolutely hate the stop sign in the background. If I was inclined to spend more time on it I would fix it with Photoshop but I left it here to show what makes photography hard. It is all the little details which make the difference between a good photo and a great photo... I make a lot of good photos and the ocasonal great photo. Some day I will make all great photos! :-D

Anyway, I liked some of the others as well. Like this one.


One other "Monday morning quarterback" moment... We should have put a 1/4 or 1/2 CTO on the flash to get it to balance warmer than the cool, cloudy, stormy day we were using as a backdrop. That is another one of those, good vs great photo opportunities.

Finally we moved back inside for our last model Michael. Michael is an avid bike racer. When he first mentioned posing in his "skin suit" thoughts of a boudiour shot came to mind... But then he explained it was his biking outfit. I for one was a bit relieved. :-D

By this time Lorrie, Chris, and I were really starting to mesh. We quickly arrived at a pose and the lighting was coming easier. We had a bit of trouble in lighting the background to get the separation we wanted. At first we also wanted to do a rim light which would give us some highlights on the bike. We all really liked this idea but we were getting some harsh highlights on his side. Here is an example with the side/back light.



I really like how the bare flash in this shot gives hard contrasty light to the bike. Unfortunatly Michael's head was blending into the background too much for us. We wanted to light the background but not too much. A spot grid came to the rescue on the background which really provided separation for his head from the background. I am not sure how I feel about the halo effect but I think it works. I think Michael said it best when he mentioned this pose felt like he was a "king sitting on his throne". I like that. It works... This is my final shot.



This is the only set up which I took the time to shoot the set up... Just in case you are wondering...



Pretty simple 2 light stuff... I wish I had thought to go back with our side/rim light. I would have liked to seen what the bike being just "touched" with a hard bare flash would have done to give the bike some light. It may have been too much and distracted but I would have like to have tried it. Instead we thought it would be nice to try something different. Michael was looking for something tough and domernering. Something which said, "I'm a mean green cycling machine..." We all thought shooting up at him bearing down on the camera would be a good idea. Unfortunately the background was a bit short to really shoot straight up. We still made a decent attempt and I think this shot has that feeling to it.



About this time Christine came back in and was telling us to stop shooting as it was 4:30. I think the hall closed at 5 and so we had to get things cleaned up. About 5 minutes later I thought that it would have been cool to get Michael on the bike out on street... Oh well, next time... :-D

Over all Lorrie and I had a great time. Chris was an excellent partner in our group and all three models were wonderful to work with. I am really glad we went.

Thanks, Christine, Lindsay, Laura, Michael, Chris, and of course to my lovely Wife, Lorrie...

All the photos are here...

And the official meetup photos here...

Till next time,
Light Cipher