BilCyn Ninja

Bilsen

With the World tour project wrapped and printed it was time to start 2014 a bit early.

The first BilCyn shoot of 2014 was the brainchild of Cyndi and Anylza (except, HEY DIVA, the tights were MY idea - LOL).

Anyone want to fight these two??



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Tinstafl

Very nice

Bryce Wilson

You have come a long way with studio lighting! I would say these are lit perfectly! Most excellent!

I do wish however that they weren't taken in front of that busy background. Just too damn much competition with the subjects.

Bilsen

Thanks Tin.

Thanks also Bryce. This one was actually a bit difficult because it was my first time lighting two models indoors so I appreciate the comment. Of course we're going to disagree on the background. No surprise there but, to me, it's one of them darn integral parts of the story. Like Japan.

Foques

light is fantastic.
But, I really do not dig the makeup and posing.
uh. temperature in #6 is a bit purple, I think.

Bilsen

Thanks Foques.

You're right about 6. Honestly, I wasn't sure of why the color shifts were occurring since I used a custom WB off a gray card for each set. All I can think of is different power settings on the strobes. HMMMMM -- Another photographic mystery.

As for the poses and makeup, they are both straight from a typical BilCyn ton of research going into the shoot.
We had the poses on my iPad and worked right from them. I think what may bother you is that they seem a bit static and that's the fault of the guy in charge since I was directing them.

aj986s

They are indeed an interesting series. FWIW, the make-up and poses have a bit of an "anime" feel to them, which is very Japanese. Lately there's also been a lot of published photos using the "edgy" high-contrast processing; this seems to initially come across as similar until you realize how much the make-up is playing into it.

Nicely done.

divamum

posting from.phone - mote later if I get a chance) poses etc fine. struggling with all the colour and brightness as "ninja"....

jonh68

Taken at face value, these are great. Great lighting,makeup especially for two models and poses are good . However.....

As Diva pointed out, I think this series misses the mark if it is Ninja themed. To brightly colored, and too brightly lit. Ninja is about stealth and shadows. I think this background, lighting and color would have been better for your Geisha series. Too much color and background distracts for a Ninja series.

Foques

Bilsen wrote: »

Thanks Foques.

You're right about 6. Honestly, I wasn't sure of why the color shifts were occurring since I used a custom WB off a gray card for each set. All I can think of is different power settings on the strobes. HMMMMM -- Another photographic mystery.

As for the poses and makeup, they are both straight from a typical BilCyn ton of research going into the shoot.
We had the poses on my iPad and worked right from them. I think what may bother you is that they seem a bit static and that's the fault of the guy in charge since I was directing them.

you know, to be honest, it is, probably, just me. When I shoot characters with the items accentuating their affiliation, I try to go into as realistic representation as I possibly can.

Thinking more about it, the poses bother me so much because I am familiar with handling the large variety of swords, and have experience in both Japanese and European sword fighting styles.

If they were wearing a bit longer kimonos, they would go much farther for me as geishas rather than stealthy fighters.

oh, and by the way, I think the word to describe them (if you want to stick with ninja) is Kunoichi, since they're ladies.

Bilsen

Thanks all.

AJ, honestly, I probably should have gone Anime. Anylza was thinking that also and I think we ended up going half of each. In fact, I actually did an anime treatment on two just for fun:




Foques, I don't know enough to question you about the sword positions. as I said, these came right off my iPad research, including the cross hand grip on the long sword. As far as the Kimono, we did thet formal stuff in the Japan set of the World Tour http://bilsen.zenfolio.com/cyndijapan

I understand the comments about the ninja requiring more mystery for the concept. Not a bad thought at all. Then again, I don't get out much.

Thanks again to everyone.