Conveyor-2

Nikolai

Today was the second and the last day of the two-day "corporate portraits" session.

Yesterday I left 90% of my equipment on stage ready to go hoping to save the time and maybe set the light better. Duh, sure. This morning I got a message that the facility we were shooting yesterday is needed for classes by 11am - which, of course, was the scheduled shoot starting time... :bash



I dashed to the university, and barely had time to get the gear out of the hall 5 minutes before the class. Then, naturally I had to reset *everything* in a different place... By the time I was finished with the basics it was already 12 and we were one hour late.:-( :dunno

Anyway, the rest of the shoot went OK. Here are some samples.

Anna The Pianist:



Elizabeth The Media Professor:



Jan The Pianist



John The Art Historian:



Kate The Guitarist:



Liviu The Composer:



Matt The Jazz Director:



Mike The Violinist
(FYI: this piece of plywood he's hugging and which he refused to part with was made by Stradivari and is currently worth about - pinky by the mouth - eight *million* dollars :huh ):



And finally, by popular request, couple more setup shots:

New location:



When the university lady first saw these ~300lbs of equipment, she sighed: "That's why my own pictures looked crappy, I knew I've been missing something": :rofl



Enjoy!

evoryware

Wow Nik! Awesome!
I like the way they came out and really like the third shot of Jan, The Jazz Director, and Mike the Security Guard! Nice setup. The Composer looks composed, but I see some dust spots on his neck under his ear. John has something on the V neck of his shirt and I don't know why the little stray hair on Kate is distracting me.

Thanks!

mr peas

Nicely done Niko! I especially like your use of wide apertures on the close-ups (especially on Jan the pianist), actually I like all of the close-ups! Should show more of those! Really nice lighting. In my opinion you can play with some S-curves to bring out some more color and contrast, but thats just how I may like it, your clients however may already like it the way it is, so don't listen to me!

Great set, thanks again for sharing. If I find something else to nitpick, have no worries, I will pick at it like a monkey looking for fleas.

Agnieszka

Beautiful photos! WOW.

Greensquared

Very nice, Nik! I especially like Anna & Liviu. Thanks so much for the set-up shot too. Great to see how the look was achieved.

Nikolai

evoryware wrote:

Wow Nik! Awesome!
I like the way they came out and really like the third shot of Jan, The Jazz Director, and Mike the Security Guard! Nice setup. The Composer looks composed, but I see some dust spots on his neck under his ear. John has something on the V neck of his shirt and I don't know why the little stray hair on Kate is distracting me.

Thanks!

Thanks!
I tried to make sure the clothing was dust-free, but it's hard to see on back concert attire. ANd undortunately it glows under the flash.

Anyway, they will cherry-pick one-per-person shot and I will make sure those are "picture-perfect" before turning them in.

Nikolai

mr peas wrote:

Nicely done Niko! I especially like your use of wide apertures on the close-ups (especially on Jan the pianist), actually I like all of the close-ups! Should show more of those! Really nice lighting. In my opinion you can play with some S-curves to bring out some more color and contrast, but thats just how I may like it, your clients however may already like it the way it is, so don't listen to me!

Great set, thanks again for sharing. If I find something else to nitpick, have no worries, I will pick at it like a monkey looking for fleas.

Thank you!
In fact, I have more closeups (and I can easily create WAY more with the Crop tool ;-), I simply wanted to present some variety here.

Nikolai

Agnieszka wrote:

Beautiful photos! WOW.

Thank you, Agnieszka!

Nikolai

Greensquared wrote:

Very nice, Nik! I especially like Anna & Liviu. Thanks so much for the set-up shot too. Great to see how the look was achieved.

Thanks Emily!
I'm glad you and the rest of the gang like my setup. This was in fact the very first time I ever used it . Just purchased the fabric last Saturday (fun trip to LA Fashion District), and my kind-hearted wifie made some needed alterations on Monday, so it was ready for Tuesday shot.
As you can see, I only used two lights and a reflector. I was planning to use more, but the darn scheduling issues left me with zero time to try anything else, so I had to use the very basic lighting. Luckily, it came fairly close to what I had in mind and what promised to my client, so I'm happy with it and looking forward to try it on more advanced situations.
Cheers!

Scott_Quier

Very well done - AGAIN! And having to move the entire rig like that - it would have been nice if they had called you a little earlier in the day so you could have some time to cope with the schedule change.

Again - nice job (and, as always, I learned something from your work - thanks).

Yuri Pautov

Bravo, Nikolai!
I'm proud I know you, really great work!
Spasibo, Yuri

Nikolai

Scott_Quier wrote:

Very well done - AGAIN! And having to move the entire rig like that - it would have been nice if they had called you a little earlier in the day so you could have some time to cope with the schedule change.

Again - nice job (and, as always, I learned something from your work - thanks).

Thanks, Scott!
It's wasn't entirely their fault. I guess university life is always a bit hectic, things change quickly, you simply have to deal with it.
OTOH per our agreement I charge by time, so it kinda sweetend the pill:-)

Nikolai

Yuri Pautov wrote:

Bravo, Nikolai!
I'm proud I know you, really great work!
Spasibo, Yuri

Yuri,
thank you, I read your entire MA and some other of your posts before the shoot to make sure I cover my basics:-)

1pocket

Wow! Every one has something a little special in the framing or point of view. And the lighting is terrific; looks like you varied the hair light (at least), and maybe more, so there are some nice different light qualities among these.

I've got a group shoot Sunday; I hope mine come out a fraction as well!

shatch

Again...these are great. Did the violinist let you touch the $8M piece? Or was he afraid of what slobber would do to the finish?

Nikolai

shatch wrote:

Again...these are great. Did the violinist let you touch the $8M piece? Or was he afraid of what slobber would do to the finish?

Thanks:-)
Once he mentioned the name I didn't even dare to ask...

Qarik

I think the snoot makes these shots very distinctive. good captures

Nikolai

Qarik wrote:

I think the snoot makes these shots very distinctive. good captures

Thanks!