Here are a few shots of one of my favorite people ever, Monica Renee…and some stuff I learned from the shoot. :)
First, be prepared for the unexpected. Pros are able to get the job done with what they have and what they know…and are able to roll with the punches.
And, speedlights work in a pinch. :)
Here is the podcast…
[audio: adapt.mp3]
Or you can download the episode here.
And here are the pictures. :)
While perving on fellow photographer Todd Mizomi’s blog, I found a link to this incredible tutorial by Atlanta photographer Zack Arias on one of the basic staples of commercial photography: the art of shooting on white seamless. Everything from gear to lighting and camera settings are covered in the tutorial…
Good stuff.
You never know what you are gonna get when Elisabeth and I shoot together. It’s like fireworks. :)
She is someone I REALLY look forward to shooting with…and can’t get enough of…but our shoots last like 5 minutes because we get the shot so quickly.
Well, 5 minutes is a little bit of an exaggeration. But it’s amazing how well we work together. She is amazing.
Our shoots are also pretty impromptu…so we met up night last November for a quick fashion shoot…and got some amazing shots. As always, I came with all of my gear in tow…and only used ONE piece of lighting gear: my newly acquired ring flash.
At the time, I hadn’t had the opportunity to use it, so I was pretty excited to test it out; not only as a ring flash, but also as another off-camera strobe. I was impressed with it’s versatility as well as the effects it could create. It instantly opened up a whole new realm of thinking, lighting, and scene creating.
I’ve had the the Alien Bees Ringflash for the longest time and haven’t really played with it that much. Maybe I’ll need to start working with it more often. Did you use yours with a modifier or just bare?
It really is a great light…as a main light or even a kicker light…
I mostly use it with the reflector that comes with it…however, I tried using it bare the other day because I saw another photographer using it that way and it worked pretty good. Not fully sure of the differences there…I’ll have to try a few more tests.
I’ve been wanting to get the moon unit..but I’m not fully convinced from the web site examples. Waiting to hear and see samples from some other photographers. :)
I’ve been doing a lot more casual and lifestyle shots lately…which contradicts the theory that I don’t shoot girls with clothes on. :)
Honestly, I enjoy lifestyle stuff. It’s a different mindset…not only for me, but for the model as well. It’s not like you go out there and do the whole “Pose. Click.” thing. It’s not about being sexy. It’s about being…a human being. Living life and having your picture taken at the same time.
Last week, I met up with two of my favorite ladies, Emily and Natalie, for a quick casual session. These shots were actually more “posy” and less lifestyle…but some of the concepts are still the same. For one, I used no lighting at all…with the exception of an off-camera hotshoe flash for a little bit of fill in some instances. But for the most part, I opened up the aperture to crush the background and let some of the background light soak in.
Also, these girls are BEAUTIFUL. The pictures took themselves. During one instance, I actually had Emily tell me a story…which ended up with her erupting in laughter halfway through. I’ll have to share those shots in another post. :)
But here are just a few shots from our sesh…
If you know me, you know that sunset is the best part of my day. The tranquility, the colors, the mood, the tone…everything about the day – stress, problems, worries, deadlines, drama – seem to melt away like the sun melts into the ocean.
In today’s show, I talk about some tips and tricks for getting that perfect sunset shot with a swimsuit model. I’ve shot many-a-lady in front of the gorgeous sky…and I have to admit they are my favorite kinds of shots.
One of the photographers I mention in the podcast is Christopher Hartman. A genius when it comes to achieving a perfect light balance on his gorgeous models. Check out some of his shots here.
And here’s the show…
[audio:sunset.mp3]
Or you can download the episode here.
And here are some pretty sunset shots I’ve taken…
Great podcast as always, Aaron. Really admire your sunset shots!
Just curious, which AB do you usually use for sunset work? 800 or 1600?
A tip you might want want to add is sandbags for your lightstands. Here on Maui, the beaches get very windy near sunset, so adding weights to the lightstand is a necessity, especially if you’re using a softbox.
I’ve been wanting to use my AB/Softbox setup at the beach more often, but keep running into issues with the Vagabond dying (usually in the middle of the shoot). Been looking into the Honda EU1000 generator to replace the Vagabond – have you tried those out or does your Vagabond workout pretty well for you?
Thanks so much Todd…your comments and insight are always appreciated!!
To date, I have been mostly using an 800…I just recently acquired a ring flash as well as a 1600…so I’ve been testing those out recently to see if there is a big difference. And honestly, there hasn’t been since I’ve really been able to get away with the 800 all this time. I think the real test will be in brighter daylight situations.
As far as sandbags…DEFINITELY a great idea! I usually use the vagabond to weigh my stand down…and I use the AB wide-foot stands…they are more stable.
Curious; how long have you had your Vagabond? Usually, if you have had it for more than a year or so, the battery tends to not recharge fully, thus not lasting as long. You might want to try replacing the battery portion, which is actually pretty easy to do. I haven’t had my battery die on a shoot…yet. :) And I’m actually able to use the Vagabond for a couple shoots before I have to recharge it. I don’t usually pop the lights higher than half to 3/4…and when I do push it to full power, it isn’t for very long.
I’ve had my Vagabond a few years now, but have rarely used it – maybe on 5 or 6 shoots total because it usually only lasts about 150 pops with an AB800 @ 1/2 power. (I’ve heard it’s supposed to last a LOT longer)
I’ve put up with it so far because I don’t do nearly the amount of shooting you do – no magazines or swimwear manufacturers have been hiring me to shoot for them yet. Maybe you can do a future podcast on how to get those kinds of contacts ;-)
I’ve worked with Alien Bees customer service several times and had the inverter replaced twice, but it’s still flakey (It works when it feels like it).
My friend had the same problem with his Vagabond, so he switched to the Honda Generator. I’ve been thinking about going that route as well someday.
Good stuff Aaron – For the Vagabond, I haven’t had mine very long but it is recommended that it stay plugged in whenever it isn’t in use – that is supposed to help it last longer…
Quick question; what is the largest softbox you use?
I was curious about that too. In some of your videos I think I’ve seen you use what looks like an Octodome? Also, your ringflash, have you been using it with or without the moon unit? I bought one, but haven’t really played around with it yet.
My Vagabond has been plugged into the wall ever since I got it, and I’m still not getting anywhere near what everyone else seems to get out of it. Wierd. ;-)
The largest softbox I use is a 7 ft Octodome. :)
Yeah, I have been thinking about grabbing the 56″ moon unit…which one do you have? I have been using my ringflash on location as a main light due to the flexibility of using it as an off-camera strobe or an on-camera ringlight. Let me know how you like the moon unit. :)
Now that I have the time, I finally went through some old stuff and put together the behind the scenes video from my shoot with Mallory Clark this past summer.
It’s a little shakey…but she’s so hot, I think you can overlook that. :)
Photo shoot with Mallory from Aaron Riveroll on Vimeo.
Funny…
The folks over at Strobist.com had a couple of very cool blog posts on lighting (I mean, aside from their usual posts on lighting. lol)
But seems they took the idea out of my head. :)
For months, I’ve been meaning to talk about lighting options in the podcast…seems the question that most people ask me is what type of lighting I use and what type of lights are the best.
There is no right or wrong answer to this. Every type of studio light out there has it’s pros and cons…and there are reasons why some are better than others.
You have to decide.
But it’s good to know what’s out there and what each one does.
Check out the articles…and stay tuned for some podcasts in the future that will probably repeat some of this information. :)
Yeah Alien Bees! I read about 40 of the comments on that article and everyone LOVES them – looks like I made the right choice…
There are infinite numbers of ways to use the sun…
On this particular day of shooting, I tried 3 of those ways.
Here are some pretty pictures of Brianne…
Natural light, back-lit…
Natural light, front-lit, with reflector
And here are some with artificial light as my key light and a reflector as an accent edge light….
Some of the geniuses I talked about in the podcast…
And here is the show…
[audio:sun-ep008.mp3]
Or you can download the episode here.
My hot friend, Monica Renee, and her kick ass dude, Jason are a couple of THEE coolest people I’ve ever met. So, when they asked me to come up and do a shoot with J’s 69 Chevelle, how could I say no? I mean seriously…hot girl…sweet ride…automatically makes for some sweet photos. :)
So I headed up to Temecula for the shoot. Funny story…we had the cops called on us.
Now, it wouldn’t be an Aaron Riveroll photo shoot adventure if the cops didn’t show up…so we can definitely tuck this shoot under that category. But the cop (who was a lady) was a little confused as to why she was called since, after all, no laws were being broken. She gave us her blessing to continue our shoot…so we did.
“It’s not against the law to take pictures in your front yard in a bikini…” the cop informed us.
Tell us something we don’t know. :)
Monica even helped out by sharing,”My clothes have been on the whole time!”
The cop just sort of looked at us, not amused. :)
Anyway, it was fun…and we got some great car washing shots…but if you will notice, Monica got a tad bit wetter than the car did…actually, I don’t think we got even one drop on the car…
J’s uncle, Tim, was kind enough to let us shoot at his place…and he has the house and backyard decorated pretty sweetly…complete western theme, with tractors and a faux outhouse which he built himself. So we had to do some sexy western shots…
Anywho…for the nerds…did some standard glam lighting in these shots…
For instance, the ones of the car, I used the typical two-light deal…threw a third light with a blue gel under the car…used the 6 ft octa as the key light.
The western shots were pretty simple too…high key light angled down and then a light on the door of the outhouse, un-gridded.
Now, a lot of you know I’m a booty guy. I also am a brunette guy. However, sometimes brunettes are difficult to shoot in front of a dark backgrounds because their hair blends into the background. You need to have some separation otherwise it just looks funny. If you have the means and the gear, by all means use a hair light. Duh. But if you are a minimalist, or limited by your gear or circumstances, a tip is to rock your light up a little higher and angle it down. You still get coverage on the front of your subject…but you also get coverage on your model’s head, thus giving you a little separation between her hair and the dark background.
Enough said. Enjoy the shots…and hope everyone had a rockin’ and safe Halloween. :)
While a popular technique for wedding and event photographers who shoot indoors using hot shoe flashes or speedlights, I gave this rather basic technique a try with bigger studio strobes.
Here’s a shot of Nikol bouncing the light off the ceiling of her home studio…
I also used the bounce flash technique with this shot of another Niki…
[audio:bounce-ep005.mp3]
Or download the episode here
Links:
Great podcast and amazing shots as always, Aaron.
I try to always bring backups to a shoot – extra bodies, cards, batteries, flashes etc. – you just never know what you’ll run into on a shoot.
And I share your pain on the Alien Bees. Most of the time they rock, but there’s always that once in a while where they seem to have a mind of their own.
When you went to your speedlights, did you have any modifiers on them or did you work them as is? Whenever I use my 580s, I tend to shoot them with the Fong Lightsphere or the Lastolite Ezybox.
Thanks Todd!! Really means a lot!
When I work with speedlights, I usually use them with my Fong Lightsphere I find that it gives me a softer effect.
You can do amazing stuff with speedlights…but I don’t have to tell you that. :)
http://mizomi.blogspot.com/2010/06/enhancing-light.html