Rubber Duckies!

On August 12^th, I did a second rubber duckie session in a kiddie pool with the lovely Lena Volkova.

For this session, I used:

Photography Equipment	Props/Miscellaneous
Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix strobes 2 c-stands 2 Backdrop stands 2 black backdrops Sandbags 2 rectangular soft boxes Circular Polarizer	169 rubber ducks Blue tulle Kiddie pool Water Bubble gun Ladder Workout mats

The set up

I am very safety conscious when doing kiddie pool shoots because water and electricity are involved due to the types of strobes I use.  I do my best to minimize the number of cables and stands, plus ensure everything is appropriately sandbagged. 

For this shoot, I started by laying out the workout mats and then placed the pool on top of them; this helps protect the bottom of the pool and gives the model something soft to stand, kneel, and lay on during the shoot.  Once the pool is in place, I cover it with a large black backdrop and fill it with about 6-inches to 12-inches of water.  After filling the pool, I put up a second backdrop to block the sun.  I then added the ducks and tulle to the water. Next came the light setup.

I used two rectangular soft boxes placed on either side of the pool, pointed down at just slightly more than a 45-degree angle towards the water.  When placing the soft boxes, I ensured the long side of the soft box was in line with the long side of the pool.  The key here was to ensure I was not getting any reflection of the soft boxes themselves in the water.  (See the setup picture below.)

SetUp

Camera Settings

For this session, I used ISO 100 with an aperture of F8 and F9, and a shutter speed of 1/200s.  My focal length ranged from 24mm to 105mm, with most images being taken at 50mm.  

The Photos

I spent the majority of this session shooting down from the top of a ladder.  My goal was to capture the length of the model surrounded by rubber ducks.  Unfortunately, the ducks were rather uncooperative and liked to settle at the pool's far end.  My deck, where the pool was set up, has a slight tilt, which causes things to gather at the far end of the pool.   There was a lot of duck wrangling; next time, I will use more ducks.

Since I was basically shooting in a studio setting, there was not a lot of variation in lighting across the images, as I wanted to keep things happy and bright.  Thus, the editing is the same across the whole set.  I first adjusted the white balance using both a grey card and the white on the model’s swimsuit.  I then slightly modified the exposure to brighten things up and bring out the tulle in the water.  I then increase clarity and reduce saturation slightly.  I then applied a standard medium contrast tone curve.  I adjusted the HSL/Color panel to tone down the yellow and remove some orange undertones.  From there, I slightly sharpened the image and reduced any noise in the image.  I’m very impressed with the Canon R6 because the images come out super clean and don’t need any noise reduction.  I just do it to smooth the image.  I also removed any chromatic aberrations and did my lens corrections.  In some images, I added just a tad more light to the model’s face and brought out the tulle with localized exposure adjustments.  I then finished the images with a medium-weight vignette.  So now, let’s look at a few images.

Let’s start with this fun little image that includes bubbles.  Honestly, as I went through the set, I should have used the bubble gun more or added bubbles to the pool.  Well, that is an improvement for next time.  I was standing on the ladder shooting down while my husband/assistant pointed the bubble gun up and over the pool so the bubbles would drift past the model.  I think the bubbles give the image another layer and go nicely with the fake bubbles in the headpiece.

 

I like this second image because of the model’s gaze into the camera.  This image also gives me a bit of a traditional pin-up vibe from the classic pin-up eras of the 1940s and 1950s.   The only thing I don’t like about this image is the reflection of one of the soft boxes in the image; I forgot to adjust my circular polarizer to remove it.

I like this image because it is cute and a bit sassy.  The little smirk on the model’s face is perfect.  We did a few with a duck balanced on the model’s back foot, but the duck was slightly uncooperative. 

 

My favorite image from the whole shoot is a nice long image showing off the model’s curves.  The model posed perfectly, the ducks not so much.  The thing that I would change about this would be to ensure the ducks surrounded the model more and weren’t bunched up at the end of the pool.  I also would have added some tulle around the pool’s edges, so the image wasn’t going into a black void at the edges.  But I love how the light is falling across the image.  While the soft boxes are slightly reflected in the image, I think it is not a distraction and blends nicely with the overall image.

 

This was a fun little shoot.  Every time I do a shoot, I find something I want to change or improve, which lets me do the shoot again in the future while keeping it fresh.  If I were to do this shoot again, I would add more ducks; you always need more ducks.  I would also consider adding soap suds and more bubbles.  I would also consider draping tulle around the pool’s edges, so the image doesn’t transition to a black void, and there are additional anchor points keeping your eye in the picture.   Overall, I’m delighted with the set.  A few images will be published in LeDesir Magazine in late September.   You can see the whole set here: Rubber Duckies! 

Credits:

Model: Lena Volkova (Instagram: @Lokelicious)

Set Design & Headpiece: Heather of Munchkin Photos (Instagram: @munckin_photos_by_heather)