MIA but I am back with the lovely Dannielle!

I have been putting a lot of time into getting the studio up and running, so my own work has taken a step back… but I am starting to shoot personal work again!  Here are a couple from my last two shoots with the lovely Dannielle – model, friend and all round fun person! Of course all of these have been captured using Broncolor equipment and edited in Capture One Pro, Photoshop running NIK plugins!
Enjoy

A few more from the Salex Shoot!

As I work my way through the full image set from the shoot, I keep finding new favourites.  My team for the shoot were fantastic, we had a huge day so why not share a few more!

Fun with Lee and Chris!

More tests with the Bron pack but this time I was using it in conjunction with a Lee 0.6 ND filter on my Canon 5DII to darken the background.  I had the right location and enlisted the help of Chris a male model. A couple of firsts for me – I have never done a shoot with a male model and using an ND filter was also new.  We managed 20 minutes before a heavy storm passed through and forced us to sheltered areas.

The first two images were captured around 2.00pm using the following combination.

ISO 100, Shutter 1/160, Aperature f13, ND 0.6 (2 stop filter),  Scoro with one head and a P70 open face reflector attached ( Beauty dish with grid and small adjustments on light output for second image).

The rest of the images were shot at a different location, some natural light and some with an off camera Canon 580EX II and a Gary Fong attachment.

Definitely more tests to do with the pack in combination with the ND filter – and hopefully no rain!

Enjoy!

I’m excited and Sarah is the reason!

Just done my first shoot with the lovely Sarah.  She is fairly new to modeling but has a desire to learn about fashion styles, is keen and very mature!  She is also a little bit quiet, interesting for someone who wants to model but I know we are going to change that!

For the first shoot we just had some fun, no expectations!  I am really excited to see where we can take her work – studio shoot next!  I also had help with hair from Tara (hair stylist), another young creative who I think can go places.  Enjoy a few pics from the shoot – no expectation!

Gary m

Back on the jeans look!

How far do you destroy a pair of jeans for a photo shoot. I haven’t decided yet but at least I have got back to my ‘Girls in Guys’ project. This is Danielle, the latest to put on the guys underwear for one of my shoots. We took this a little further by adding an old pair of guys jeans, after I had taken to them with a pair of scissors.

This was shot in a Dance Studio, however since I last hired the space they have had all the walls graffiti painted (it is a Hip Hop Dance Studio), so I had to use my own backdrops – luckily the old polished floors were perfect as they were!  This was also the first time I had tried the Broncolor Scoro Pack and Pulso G heads.  They are definitely different to my Bowens lights.

Dannielle is loving the pics – this is quite different to anything she has done so far! Enjoy some of my minimalist style work!

This is cool – NIK entertains me again!

Yes I know, I have blogged about this before, but I love playing with NIK software. Perhaps I am lazy, but it just makes it easy to look for different effects when editing images! While doing the edits on some images for a model, I decided to explore NIK a bit more and found this – Soft Sepia! Obviously it doesn’t work on all images and that is the trick – you still have to make the right choice for the images that you are using! And of course it also comes down to what the viewer likes… or doesn’t like!

Basic B&W conversion with corners darkened!

Same image with te Soft Sepia layer treatment!

Falcon F6E – it just appeared!

So – I am looking for commercial space to set up my studio and I find this guy (we will call him Steve!) trying to take some happy snaps of his car.  I observe for a few minutes and notice puzzled looks as he tries to shoot the car at 10.30 in full sun.  I say hi and ask how his pics a coming along!  Now here is a surprise – Steve is having trouble shooting in AUTO!  So I make a couple of suggestion to adjust his exposure and leave him – but first I grab a handful of quick snaps myself.  Back at HQ I attack them with NIK just for fun!  It’s what is called a sleeper, very quick but not shouting out “look at me!”  My kind of car!

If you are wondering what the subtle differences in this car are to the standard model, check out the official Ford Australia / FPV site  Ford Performance Vehicles – differences I noticed, a larger intercooler in front, different wheels and a very neat conversion to a twin exhaust rear bumper arrangement from one of the V8 FPV vehicles.

 

More please NIK!

I find myself constantly exploring NIK software to see what effects I can generate and where it can be used to good effect!. Urban structure always works well – this before and after shows a fairly extreme transformation! Thoughts?
Final transformation

Original file untouched from camera – resize for web only.

To edit or not?

I like the approach of shooting for the finished image in camera as much as possible. In the studio, I work with this in mind however the location shoot brings with it elements that cannot always be controlled. At times then, editing is necessary! And then there is simply the notion sometimes I can edit the look of an image because I can! Perhaps I want to create an old school look, or I want a B&W finish, the options are endless today and at our fingertips. I don’t really see myself as an artist but that doesn’t mean I can’t play – does it! So here is Emily with an edit that is different to the original. This is a combination of some NIK software effects, some created ghosting and a texture layer from a stock image that I have. Do I like it – I am not sure?

A shoot with Shay!

Here is a special edit set from my shoot with Shay – very talented and ultra reliable model!  Mainly B&W with a couple of colour edits thrown in to break up the mix!