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Music-hall promotional (C&C)
C&C always welcome!
So, thread here yesterday asking for ideas for a promo shoot that came out of nowhere. No problem doing it, but I don't get that much experience with this kind of thing so really had to think on my feet! Thankfully, Bryce gave me some wonderful lighting food for thought, and Strobist had also just posted a few threads which gave me some technical ideas, so armed with my 3x flashes and not much else, off we went.
First major snag: couldn't remember how to change the groups on my flash. I've finally acquired a 3rd unit (a 580ex) and wanted to use it as my key A group, and the other two as B (triggered by the STE2, although I see radio triggers in my future now I finally have two units that can run manual....). THANK GOODNESS for internet on my phone, since I managed to look it up (it's the zoom button, in case anybody else ever forgets and/or needs to know).
2nd major snag: although I am SURE that I packed it (and even double-checked for it) I couldn't find my 2nd umbrella bracket. PHOOEY! So, in the end, I wound up only using two flashes after all. Major duh moment. I had the 3rd flash velcro-strapped to a stand and ready to use kleenex-diffused if necessary, but in the end I just abandoned it.
This was in a pretty brightly lit (overhead lights + multiple windows) church hall, but the little stage/curtain at one end was ideal for the mood we wanted. It's taken me ages to wrap my head round killing the ambient, but I feel like I finally NAILED it in this shoot. I opted to use my Photek softliter boomed up pretty high + my small, 16" Cheetah SB moved wherever I need it either as fill, or just a special to ensure all faces were lit. To get rid of all that ambient I was shooting at ss of 320 and up, and often stopping down to f8 (gasp! Me, stopped down below f4?!!?)
1.
The boys had brought instruments and some hats, which instantly helped set the mood:
2
3. The program they're putting together comprises music-hall and vaudeville, and I really wanted something a bit quirkier for them than just A.N.Other photo; I decided to try my hand at a Norman Rockwell-esque look (this is not my preferred style for most things, but I really thought it suited the mood and was just vintage enough to be evocative)
4. The program will be quite humourous, so I decided to work them a little and get them to be a little bit silly. This shot is actually my very favorite of the shoot; I did three versions, and they can choose which they like if they use it:
4a. Again, extreme processing to be a bit vintage/postcard look:
4b. Sepia
4c. As-is, with no effects
5. For all their willingness to be silly, these boys can PLAY, and they spontaneously decided to move to the piano and start jamming. It was AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, the piano's position along the wall - plus windows - made framing and exposing a good shot tough:
6. After a minute, I reversed the shot, moved a few things, and managed to get a few which had them all acceptably lit. Not perfect, but I think it works ok. I sure wish there'd been time to flag or snoot the light on the pianist (I had to do a lot in post to tone him and the instrument down) and even more that there'd been a vantage point where I could have avoided the trombone slide and banjo neck intersecting, as well as blending into heads.... But, sometimes you just have to go with what you've got - this was definitely one of those sometimes!! (Photek CR on the far side of the pianist, small SB feathered onto pianist from CL).
Most importantly, they're thrilled. They had a very tight deadline for this, and are absolutely pleased with what we got. :whew
So, thread here yesterday asking for ideas for a promo shoot that came out of nowhere. No problem doing it, but I don't get that much experience with this kind of thing so really had to think on my feet! Thankfully, Bryce gave me some wonderful lighting food for thought, and Strobist had also just posted a few threads which gave me some technical ideas, so armed with my 3x flashes and not much else, off we went.
First major snag: couldn't remember how to change the groups on my flash. I've finally acquired a 3rd unit (a 580ex) and wanted to use it as my key A group, and the other two as B (triggered by the STE2, although I see radio triggers in my future now I finally have two units that can run manual....). THANK GOODNESS for internet on my phone, since I managed to look it up (it's the zoom button, in case anybody else ever forgets and/or needs to know).
2nd major snag: although I am SURE that I packed it (and even double-checked for it) I couldn't find my 2nd umbrella bracket. PHOOEY! So, in the end, I wound up only using two flashes after all. Major duh moment. I had the 3rd flash velcro-strapped to a stand and ready to use kleenex-diffused if necessary, but in the end I just abandoned it.
This was in a pretty brightly lit (overhead lights + multiple windows) church hall, but the little stage/curtain at one end was ideal for the mood we wanted. It's taken me ages to wrap my head round killing the ambient, but I feel like I finally NAILED it in this shoot. I opted to use my Photek softliter boomed up pretty high + my small, 16" Cheetah SB moved wherever I need it either as fill, or just a special to ensure all faces were lit. To get rid of all that ambient I was shooting at ss of 320 and up, and often stopping down to f8 (gasp! Me, stopped down below f4?!!?)
1.
The boys had brought instruments and some hats, which instantly helped set the mood:
2
3. The program they're putting together comprises music-hall and vaudeville, and I really wanted something a bit quirkier for them than just A.N.Other photo; I decided to try my hand at a Norman Rockwell-esque look (this is not my preferred style for most things, but I really thought it suited the mood and was just vintage enough to be evocative)
4. The program will be quite humourous, so I decided to work them a little and get them to be a little bit silly. This shot is actually my very favorite of the shoot; I did three versions, and they can choose which they like if they use it:
4a. Again, extreme processing to be a bit vintage/postcard look:
4b. Sepia
4c. As-is, with no effects
5. For all their willingness to be silly, these boys can PLAY, and they spontaneously decided to move to the piano and start jamming. It was AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, the piano's position along the wall - plus windows - made framing and exposing a good shot tough:
6. After a minute, I reversed the shot, moved a few things, and managed to get a few which had them all acceptably lit. Not perfect, but I think it works ok. I sure wish there'd been time to flag or snoot the light on the pianist (I had to do a lot in post to tone him and the instrument down) and even more that there'd been a vantage point where I could have avoided the trombone slide and banjo neck intersecting, as well as blending into heads.... But, sometimes you just have to go with what you've got - this was definitely one of those sometimes!! (Photek CR on the far side of the pianist, small SB feathered onto pianist from CL).
Most importantly, they're thrilled. They had a very tight deadline for this, and are absolutely pleased with what we got. :whew
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I do however love #3 and #4.
I am sure they are thrilled, and this will lead to more work!
Sam
GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
Sam, you're right - they're red. It was HOT!!! By the time we finished we were all drenched and looked like lobsters (no AC and the big fan may have moved it around, but didn't do much for yesterday's extreme humidity!). I took as much red away as I could in LR; I probably need to look over those again in Photoshop and desat the reds a bit more
BroPhoto, for some reason 4 didn't take to that process quite as well as I'd expected - believe it or not, 4a is the same settings, but I think because it was lit a little differently it wasn't quite as bright to start out. I can tinker with it.
Thanks for the kind words!
Bravo!
I like six a bunch too.
Comments and constructive criticism always welcome.
www.mikejulianaphotography.com
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Bryce, thanks again for the useful brainstorming the night before. Also, because you're our "vintage expert", I wondered what you'd think of the processing! Glad you like. Both the guys and their promoter have been very pleased with them, so it's worked out well overall, despite having felt thrown together! Guess some of that photo knowledge is starting to stick...
GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams
This is the one they all liked, so I did a bit more with it. I didn't want to go quite as far with the Norman Rockwell processing on it for a number of reasons, but I did take it into PS to brighten, desat some of the reds, and tweak it a bit, then ran it back through LR, repeating the same process I used for the effect initially (essentially, it's max fill+mas recovery+lots of clarity; season to taste ... ). ALso, I think the dark rather than white vignette changes the "feel" of it too; I preferred the dark vignette "spotlight" feeling with the darker image. YMMV!!
GaryB
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” - Ansel Adams