Hats ‘n Dreads
Some shoots take a lot of planning and trust me this was one of those shoots.
The idea started several months ago and finally on February 2nd it was time for the session.
We created several mood boords only to find ourselves going our own way as usual.
For this session we worked together with the girls from Hats ‘n Dreads (Femke and Roos), you can visit their website at http://www.hatsndreads.com ,my favorite MUA (Makeup Artist) Linda from www.beautyfx.nl, and our model Mellisa
I was assisted by Wendy Appelman and my intern Maryonne Vlasblom.
During this photoshoot we had a camera running that was broadcasted live over the internet, we sometimes do this with sessions and to be honest we love it. It’s so much fun to see people fighting sleep to stay with us in the studio. This time the public ranged from the US, Europe, Bangkok to Australia and some of them saw the sun coming up (and had to go to work), I think some people had a hard day at work staying awake. During the live broadcasts we also run a chatroom in which people can ask questions and in that way interact with the team during the photoshoot. Recently we switched to new software and I have to say everything worked a lot better this time. In the previous software for example it was not possible to swap screens so I had to show for example the images coming in a large window and the set in a small window, with the new software we can swap screens on the fly which is a huge improvement I think.
But back to the session.
We started out really simple with some almost burlesque shots, here you can see my favorite shot:
After this more darker setup (in the video you can also see the other image), we changed the studio to a white background. The background was evenly lit with two Elinchrom wide dishes (small reflectors which I love to use for lighting the backgrounds), Melissa was lit by the Elinchrom Square reflector with grid and to make the shadows slightly deeper a black flag was used next to her. Here is my selection of images.
The 3rd setup was done with the Elinchrom 1.90mtr Octa indirect.
The main advantage of this lightsource is the incredible even lightquality you get with the diffuser in place, for this shot however I removed the diffuser. The 1.90 will still give you more than enough range to light a whole scene with just one light source but it makes the light much crispier which I absolutely love for these kind of images. For the jump shot I was inspired by Richard Avedon who was a master with this kind of shots. There is also a little story about the shot I choose. Some people will claim it’s not the perfect jump shot, and they are 100% right, one of the legs is not showing the foot which normally in my book would be deleted, however we shot several and this shot just kept coming back getting my attention, and sometimes you have to realize that although a shot is maybe technically not perfect when it keeps getting your attention it’s probably the shot you have to choose 😀
As lightsource I opted for the Elinchrom RX1200 which is normally to slow for freezing action but in this case I wanted a slightly out of focus (moved) subject and the 1200 just gave me enough blur to achieve that effect (normally we will shoot jumps with a ranger RX speed and two A heads to get maximum freezing action).
For the final setup I used a lightsetup everyone seems to love, so I often use this to end the shoots.
In this lightsetup one stripligt with grid is used to create a nice high contrast look by moving myself around the model, in this shot I settled for a little less contrast than I normally do.
Here is the video of the photoshoot
For this topic I will experiment with something new, please let me know if you like this.
A lot of people ask me where to get the gear or what I used during the shoot, so in this blog post I will link to the gear I used. Please use the supplied links to order.
We choose the coorperation with B&H because they ship worldwide and have the widest selection and I think best pricing/service.
Gear used in this shoot :
For Dutch people you can order this straight from us or www.fotoflits.nl
Very nice – as usual 🙂
I think it is a good idea providing links to the gear used. But why stop with the light modifiers. Lets have all the gear.
Also, as a photographer you are creating value to the client by helping them selling their products. Maybe your client would appreciate that each image is linked to their website for the “hats” or products etc. that was used in the shoot. Helping the client selling is what it is all about. This idea is probably better for a main website gallery than for a photography oriented blog.
PS. Do the cameras in you glass cabinet work?
PPS. You might have watched too many Star Wars movies (video credits)
Hi
Thanks for the input Kim,glad you liked the post.
All the cameras work indeed, it’s our family archive to be honest, all cameras were used by me or my family in the past.
Yeah I love that title effect 😉
Hi frank i like your idea to about linking to the equipment it makes it good to put a good visual to the modifier used.
interestingly i actually used this piece of equipment for the first time yesterday down at the beach beneath a jetty. it came in my elinchrom ranger pack i got but had not used it before. I really liked it
Elinchrom Wide Angle Reflector, 9-1/2″, 135 Degrees, for Elinchrom Flash Heads
I enjoyed the post! I also was able to watch some of this live over the internet. Thanks, Frank!