Apparel Shoot - Location 5 - The Mirrored Mural

On our search for locations in our apparel shoot, we found this neat mural after 20 mintues of wandering around one of the most boring buildings ever. I really wish that there were mirrors all over, but regrettably there were still some holes. It was awesome to get some break dancing shots, and just some overall glam and apparel shots as well.

What's up next? A quick campaign portrait shoot for local school elections.

Apparel Shoot - Location 4 - The Beach

Usually colour temperature is a photographer's worst nightmare. Fluorescent lights, sodium vapour, tungsten, all have varying light shades and hues. Balancing the lights is the only way to get a uniform balance of colours in pictures. However, there are times when the contrast in light sources can add balance and depth to an image.

On the scouting run for the shoot, seeing the warm, orange-hued lights in the middle of the courtyard on the snow was a great contrast for me. All I needed to do was try to find someone crazy enough to go out into the snow, in the middle of the night, out into the courtyard. I didn't really think I'd find anyone and that I'd just drop the location.

To my surprise, I found two willing models.

1 block heater, 1 38" inflatable palm tree, 1 nerf gun, 2 t-shirts and 10 breaks to warm up later, the beach shoot was done.

The last set is coming up next - mirrored mural.

Apparel Shoot - Part 3 - Braindead in the Study Room with the Revolver

I'll admit I used to be nostalgic as a kid for the board game of Clue. The mystery-solving books were also a joy to read.

The study room concept was something I had in mind as soon as I saw the t-shirt. I brought along the cap guns that I had originally intended for the spy shoot on my list of personal projects. There were other photographs from the room, but I think that the group dynamics of the final, best one is really what makes the picture for me:

There were huge challenges involved with this shoot, some of which I'll put in the conclusive video once I get around to collecting all the video files.

This shot was actually taken outside of the study room, with the models inside, with me shooting through glass. Using off-camera lighting techniques helped me get the impression that I was actually inside the room as well. The smoke came from both cap guns firing off all eight rounds in about 2 seconds (which led to a slight ringing I imagine). The smoke was allowed to billow a little bit, and this was a pretty close frame to the final result. I added a little bit of detail, especially needed in the smoke, which wasn't as dense as I would have liked it right out of the camera.

A quick note on post-production: it's really tedious. Once one can master photoshop and other respective editing suites and processes; picture taking can almost become effortless. With enough time and expertise, anything can be possible, even with the blandest of pictures. There are countless books, workshops and blogs that focus entirely on photoshop tricks and techniques. My mantra is to do as much of the neat effects using innovative lighting and camera techniques, this not only saves me time in processing, but helps the client right away see what a final product may look like off the back of the camera. I think there's too much darkroom-like trickery, especially in the more artistic works that's less photography and more design.

Part 4; the beach, probably the most anticipated section next posting!