The set up for the shoot called “Suffer”

Posted by kevin focht on Nov 29, 2011 in Behind the Scenes, News and Notes | 0 comments

I recently shot a small ad campaign for a local designer while I was teaching at After Dark Tucson.

Shooting in front of a group at a seminar entailed a few problems.

The Specifications:

One was shooting with a bunch of people watching and trying to teach at the same time. Time was a consideration too. Each shooting “pod” was an hour and half long, so I had to make sure I could shoot 6 shots in 3 hours. This meant that all the locations had to be close to the hotel that After Dark was in, as the model had to change 3 times in an hour and a half.

I also wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone too. I don’t do a lot of flash outdoors, so I thought this would be a good way to stretch my skill set. We all get comfortable, and stay within what we like. I wanted to push through the comfort.

Then there was the issue on how to actually light it. I wanted to use my studio strobes, but I thought it would be more interesting for the attendees to see it done with equipment they use. I decided that speed lights would be the way to go here. This in itself had issues, as they aren’t as powerful as studio strobes.

So here was the basic lighting set up.

I used an SB900 flash as my main light, and two SB800 flashes as my kicker lights with the sun in every shot. I also used my SU400 to control the power output of each flash from the camera.

Now for the most important part…..I used Radio Poppers to fire each flash wirelessly! Without my Radio Poppers, this shoot could not have happened. Both Nikon and Canon’s control systems work with infrared and it is line of site. It also doesn’t work so well in bright sun. If the model would have been between me an the flash, the flash would not have fired. With the Radio Poppers, I didn’t have on misfire!

Using speed lights also slowed my shooting pace down a lot. I tend to shoot pretty fast, but I had to slow down so I didn’t over heat the flashes and so that they were at full output when I shot.

The whole shoot was shot in manual, as I needed to be able to control the output of each flash independently. I tested this before the shoot and found that ITTL just wouldn’t cut it. It kept trying to make a “normal” image, and I wanted surreal.

The Concept:

When we had the model trying on the clothes, we has another issue. There was really nothing to tie the story together. We had coats, dresses, and skirts. There just wasn’t a theme. So I started to brain storm with my studio manager Essie. I was saying that it needed something to bring all the shots together, and then she came up with the brilliant idea of a stuffed animal.

Then my head started to spin. Why in the world would this woman in these amazing clothes have a stuffed animal with her? Well, fashion is fun and funny in that anything goes. So I went off on one of my tangents.

So here is the back story to the shoot.

We went to a mental institution and found this amazing model. The only way she would feel comfortable shooting was if she had her stuffed animal with her to make her feel safe. It had to be with her all the time, so it was in every shot. At the end, we had a death scene and we simulated it by having her stuffed animal ripped up.

By telling the model this story, she had something to go on besides just modeling. Nicole, our model did an amazing job, as did the hair and make up artists.

I also want to thank Dave at After Dark for pushing me. If you have never been to an After Dark event, you need to go. It’s just unreal how much information you can get in 3 days and nights.

 

Kevin

 

Here are the rest of the shots.