Skip to main content

Galactic Silver

On March 20th I did a session with Kazzy. I drew my inspiration for this session from the color silver, Barbarella promotional photos, as well as still images from Rakiyah – Whoa music video, and 1950’s and 1960’s B-SyFy movies.

For this session I used:

Photography Equipment

Props/Miscellaneous

Cannon 80D

Trigger

2 strobes

2 c-stands

1 Backdrop stands

Silver vinal backdrop

White backdrop

Backdrop clamps

Sandbags

1-square soft box

7-foot umbrella with sock

Grids

Magenta & Blue Gels

2-speedlights

18-inch-tall wooden cube

24-inch-tall wooden cube

18-inch tall styrofoam triangle

Holographic plastic table cloths

Bubble Gun

Light-up glasses

Guitar (provide by model)

Tape

 

 

To get the right mood for this shoot I first hung a white backdrop which covered the floor, then hung a silver backdrop over that.  I knew as soon as I hung the silver up, the whole set would become very reflective and the lighting would need to be very controlled. I choose to use one square soft box with a grids and a large 7-foot umbrella for fill. To add dimension to the image I also placed gelled speed lights at the top of each backdrop stands angled towards the background but still providing a kiss of color to the model.  From there I added the set pieces which were cubes covered in holographic table plastic cloths, to add to the syfy/futuristic feel. 

Now for the actual photo session. For this session I used an ISO 100 with an aperture of F8, with a shutter speed of 1/250s for 82-percent of the images.  I went to ISO 400 with an aperture of F5 and a shutter speed of 1/100 for a very specific images where I was trying to capture the glow from the light up glasses.  My focal length ranged from 18mm to 135mm with 28mm being the most common focal length.

One of my favorite images from the session is with the bubble gun because you can see the bubbles, and I just like the overall vibe of the image. (I painted the bubble gun silver, the day before the shoot, so it would blend in.) The reason you can see the bubbles is because they are lit from the side, by the speed lights at the top of the backdrop stand poles. I also like this image because you can see the mix of magenta and blue in the image creating the nice double shadows on the floor. When I post processed this image, I added a bit of light to the models face, and added a vignette. I did pull the image into Photoshop to use a neural filter and the liquify tool to smooth out some lumps in the skirt.  


I like this next image just because it is simple and has that bit of futures vibe. Again, you can see the dual shadows due to the gelled speed lights. In this case the main light is coming from the strobe to my left with the strobe to the right providing fill. I did modify this image in during post. I did basic edits in Lightroom, then added a bit of light to the face and a light vignette. I find the vignette helps pull out the colors at the edge of the background. I then processed the image in Photoshop using the neural filter and the liquify tool.  I used the liquify tool to smooth out the back and stomach areas slightly, to reduce bulges created by the tightness of the top and the skirt.  I want to note the model is perfectly well proportioned and pretty, but sometimes cloths do weird things and create rolls when they shouldn’t no matter what size the model is.


This last shot took work to get. To capture the glow from the glasses I had drop all my settings and just go with kisses of light from the strobes and speedlights. To get the shot I first tested setting without the flashes firing until the glasses showed up, I then brought in one speedlight and one strobe at very low powers. My final settings were ISO of 400 with an aperture of F5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/100s. You can see the blue gelled speed light is providing a lot of the light for the image while the strobe is providing just enough light to ensure the models face isn’t blue and completely in shadow.  The pink from the glasses is a nice contrast to the blue. During post processing I did basic adjustments really working on the final exposure and contrast for the image. I also added a bit more light to the model’s face and finished with a light vignette.


I’m happy with how the session turned out, but I think I can improve it in some areas namely the aiming of the gelled speed lights. It was a fun little session and I plan doing it again in the future.  You can see the full set from this session here: Silver

This session also made the cover of Over Magazine. 

 

Credits:

Model: Kazzy (Instagram: @emohippiechick)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2025

This year felt a little off for me; I think it was because I was in a mental recovery mode.  I finished my graduate program in June and immediately went on a week-long vacation to Palm Springs.  I do not recommend Palm Springs in June; way too hot.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but the graduate program mentally and physically exhausted me, which I think showed in some of my creative work.  But being able to work with great people like Natalie Hanrion , Coralinx Cosplay , and Anastasia B kept me motivated.  While I didn’t attend as many Cosplay Photo Shoot events as in the past, the ones I did attend were helpful in keeping the creativity flowing.  I also took some time this year to reflect on a few things and will be making some changes for 2025. In 2024, I shot 6241 frames, which is a 30-percent decrease from last year.  I edited 3187 frames, which is a 40-percent decrease from 2023.  I think this year, I started focusing on being very min...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Optical Spot

The weekend of November 16 th , I got a little ambitious and did four sessions to test out the Lindsey Adler Optical Spot .     I originally rented the optical spot from LensRentals , but that session had to be rescheduled; however, I didn’t want the rental to go to waste, thus a TFP weekend. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 2 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 1 Optical Spot 2 strip boxes 1 bell reflector grids 2 C-stands 2 light stands Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Fashion Grey Seamless Gobos Gels Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Star filter Red Curtains Posing stool     The set up While I did four shoots in one weekend, the lighting setup was basically the same for all four sessions; what changed was the gels and the gobos.  I started with a fashion grey seam...
Post a Comment
Read more

Whispering Waters

On July 19th, I drove up to Poughkeepsie, NY to attend the Whispers of Waterhouse photo event held by Everlore Events . This was an all-day event, which included a light lunch, vendors, arts, and crafts areas, and three different styled shooting locations.  I was one of the roaming photographers for this event, which means you work with models who are not currently working with a featured photographer (who have schedules), and can wander between all three shooting locations at your convenience.  For this event I used: Canon R6 1 Speed light Trigger Umbrella Gels 24 - 105mm lens Camera Settings: This was an outside shoot that had sets in heavy forested areas, out on a pond, and sunny meadows; thus, I was adjusting the settings to the lighting conditions.  I used ISO 100 and 400.  My goal was to keep my aperture around f/4 to achieve a nice background blur; however, depending on the conditions, I had to stop down to f/9 and f/11 to manage the light...
Post a Comment
Read more