Maria

[MartinOC]

August 30, 2009 at 3:44 am

I somehow got persuaded to take a short class in studio photography, not exactly my usual thing, but I am eager to be at least conversant in as many areas of photography as I can.

The class is enjoyable, it seems that taking the shot is 2% of the work, with all the set up, checking light readings etc.
We put a beauty dish front right at about 45deg, and a “hair light”? with a grid behind left at a more acute angle.
My first day we were trying to replicate the style of a recent Prada ad.
Any feedback on where the shots might be weak I would appreciate.
I think her hair is a bit lost.

Cheers,
Martin

These are scanned negs, they didn’t seem to need much processing except black point correction.
Fujichrome Astia 100

Martin

[miki g]

August 30, 2009 at 8:11 am

Hi Martin. I’d agree that her hair is a bit lost and I also think there is too much shadow near her eye. But they are two fabulous shots.

[Martin]

August 30, 2009 at 9:01 am

Think these are super, would love to get into a studio with my Mamiya

The hair does look a little lost, maybe that’s because of the background, don’t know if there is some lighting setup that could brighten/reflect light onto the hair a bit to make it more noticeable…

Skin looks realistic which is very refreshing. Love the warmth in these shots. The colour you have gotten from that film is just super

Good stuff, great looking model as well

M

[MartinOC]

August 30, 2009 at 11:32 am

Thanks Guys,

She probably does need a trim of the fringe Miki, around the eyes is a bit shadowy. Or perhaps the light should has been set a bit lower.

There was an English model too and her hair caught the light much better. I would have liked to shoot against a white background first, I guess it would be easier.

About the film side of things Martin,so far I’ve shot Astia vs Portra 160 vs Ektar 100. In the second class I shot mostly Astia, but also one set of Astia vs Provia 100 vs Velvia 100.
The teacher has me do it just as an exercise but Astia is easily winning out, (well I could easily guess how bad Velvia would be).
He did say that Astia was optimised for (Japanese) skin, the detail is really great too.
The other guys were all shooting digital, but out of nostalgia the teacher tailors things a bit for me.

Thanks,

Martin

[Allinthemind]

August 31, 2009 at 11:01 am

Lighting on the first works well, as you say, would have been better with some edging on her hair. The second the main light is a little low (IMO) look at the shadow from her nose, I think it would have been better with the shadow going down the cheek/upper lip crease. In both the expression on the model’s face is that of a bored model, I think they need some “va va voom” as fashion shots.

All best

Si

[MartinOC]

August 31, 2009 at 2:58 pm

Thanks for the feedback Si,
Interesting stuff about the lights, I’ll keep it in mind.

She smiled her way through most of the shots except those posted, she was a very happy person.
But I guess she does look a bit stony faced here, I must watch for it.

Cheers,

Martin

[jessthespringer]

September 1, 2009 at 9:49 am

Good work Martin,

I think it’s all pretty much been said already, but I’ll just add that I like them a lot, great colour. Is that slide film?

Sinead

[MartinOC]

September 1, 2009 at 11:09 am

Thanks Sinead,
t’was good work but by a number of people working together.
It could be fun for a bunch of PI’ers to rent a studio for 4 hours, hire a model and makeup person and work it out together, that basically what was going on here.

It was slide indeed, Fujichrome Astia http://www.fujifilm.com/products/professional_films/color_reversalfilms/astia_100f/index.html

Cheers,

Martin