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Tim Flach lights “Equus,” his award-winning tribute to horses August 25, 2010 — Leave a comment

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copyright, Tim Flach This award-winning image from Tim’s tribute to horses, Equus, was made with 2 lights and the sun.

Camera: Hasselblad H1 with 100mm lens and Hassy CF-39 digital back, resting on a tripod 12 feet from the horse. Shot at 1/60, f.5.6, ISO 200.

Lighting: The key light is a medium softbox at f8 with a grid and no baffle, positioned high, slightly behind and six feet to camera left of the horse. This keeps the light specular and focused on the horse’s face and neck. Another gridded, medium softbox at f2.8 is set four feet to camera right, filling the image so it doesn’t lose any texture. The sun outside the window at f.4 neutrally lights the desert. The cumulative effect directs our eye right to the horse’s.

Comments: Tim hired a real-life horse whisper who was advertised as even better than Robert Redford in the movie. Most of the day he did, in fact, use words to keep the chestnut calm on set. But for this particular expression, he decided a red-hot, branding iron would be more motivating.

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equus, fine art, flach, horse, lighting, photographer, photography, portrait, tips

Greenfield-Sanders lights porn-star Jenna Jameson with some class August 24, 2010 — 1 Comment

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copyright, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders This elegant photo of Jenna Jameson from the book XXX: 30 Porn Star Portraits was created with 1 bi-tube light and a collapsable reflector.

Camera: Deardorf 8Ă—10 with 450mm Nikkor lens and Kodak Portra NC 160 film, obviously set on a tripod 10 feet from the model. Shot at 1/60,

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f32, ISO 160.

Lighting: Timothy has made a career out of simple, single light source portraiture. The key light is a giant Elinchrom Octabank at f32 (powered by two Profoto 2400 packs and one bi-tube) five feet to the right of camera. For a little fill, an assistant holds a reflector just below Jenna’s waist, angled toward her face. Since it is not lit, the white background has gone grey.

Comments: Freshly mustachioed and chewing on a cigar, Timothy summoned his inner Terry Richardson and shot Jenna over the course of a sixer of Bud tall boys. There was no shortage of assistants, interns, volunteers and generic helpers for this shoot.

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8x10, greenfield-sanders, jameson, jenna, lighting, photographer, photography, porn, portrait, star, tips

Steven Meisel’s decadent lighting for Italian Vogue August 23, 2010 — Leave a comment

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copyright, Steven Meisel Part of a bigger fashion story, this visually decadent shot for Italian Vogue was made with 2 lights. converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

Camera: Hasselblad H2 with 80mm lens and Phase One P45 digital back, set on tripod secured to a cherry picker 12 feet above the model. Shot at 1/125, f8, ISO 100.

Lighting: The key light is an Elinchrom Octabank at f8 boomed six feet above the model and slightly behind her. The fill light is a medium strip light at f5.6 positioned horizontally six feet to camera right. The overall effect is relatively flat, but glamorous. The draped fabric looks as good as the model.

Comments: Steven and the crew played six card cribbage while a frustrated tattoo artist painted the model’s body with a brush instead of an electric needle. The set was closed on all sides and guarded by Doberman Pinschers.

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fashion, lighting, Meisel, photographer, photography, portrait, tips, vogue

Achim Lippoth’s punchy photo lighting for a French Fry ad August 20, 2010 — 4 Comments

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copyright, Achim Lippoth This cute, but punchy, shot of a little darling getting the age-old squeeze from Grandma is from an ad campaign for Findus Fraich’ Frites. This image was created with 4 lights.

Camera: Hasselblad H1 with 150mm lens and Leaf Aptus 75 digital back, set on a tripod 8 feet back. Shot at 1/125, f8, ISO 50.

Lighting: The key light is a small softbox at f8 (with outer baffle removed) above and five feet to the right of camera. A second, small softbox at f8 (with outer baffle removed), high out of frame camera left and slightly behind the girl provides the highlights on her hair and cheek. The highlights on the top of her head are created with a small softbox at f11 boomed above and slightly behind her. The directional light on the back wall is shaped with a final, small softbox at f5.6 (feathered so the light fades off to camera right).

Comments: After the 42nd take, the girl karate chopped the elderly model in the stomach and stomped off set screaming “Sie zahlen nicht genug für mich diese alte Dame.” The final image, here, was take 41.

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advertising, campaign, lighting, lippoth, photographer, photography, portrait, tips

Scott McDermott lights Clint Eastwood like he’s pencil-sketched August 19, 2010 — 9 Comments

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copyright, Scott McDermott This hyper-sharp, seemingly pencil-sketched portrait of Clint Eastwood for the recent Mandela Day campaign was created with 4 lights.

Camera: Nikon D3x with 135mm lens, handheld 6 feet back from Clint. Shot at 1/125, f11, ISO 100.

Lighting (Clint): Crisp, punchy lighting like this can only be achieved with bare bulbs and no diffusion. The key light is a grid reflector at f11 with a 40 degree grid, boomed 3 feet above camera and 4 feet from Clint’s head. Overall fill is achieved with an on-camera ring flash at f4 1/2.

Two small strip lights at f16 are 5 feet behind him, positioned camera left and right. Two v-flats have been set to focus the light on his head and block any potential lens flare. The strips lend strong highlights to his hair and shoulders.

Lighting (Hand): The lighting for Clint’s hand is nearly identical except that the two strip lights have been replaced with two normal reflectors and aimed at the white background. The key light has been lowered below the hand and pointed slightly upward.

Comments: When Clint arrived at the studio, he asked Scott what he was looking for. Scott said he wanted a combination of Dirty Harry, Bronco Billy and Josey Wales, but without the shooting him in the face part.

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advertising, clint, day, eastwood, lighting, mandela, mcdermott, photographer, photography, portrait, tips

Brian Finke flies coach and lights the hell out of flight attendants August 18, 2010 — 2 Comments

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copyright, Brian Finke Brian traveled the world and embedded himself with different groups of airline employees for his photo book Flight Attendants. This image of a training exercise (I’m guessing) was shot with 3 speedlights and 2 overhead, reading lights.

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II with 35mm f.1.4 lens, set on a tripod 8 feet from model. Shot at 1/60, f5.6, ISO 400.

Lighting: Knowing that Brian shot much of this series while on real flights, I think he used smaller speedlights instead of packs and heads. The key light is coming from a speedlight at f5.6 held high by an assistant out of frame and to camera right of the flight attendant (it catches the back of her head as well as the smoke-filled cabin). Another speedlight at f2.8 is held by an assistant high and just to the right of the camera. This helps light the smoke near the top of the frame. The last speedlight is on-camera at f2.8 and slightly fills the model and the area under the overhead compartments. The two reading lights are airline issue.

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Comments: Lunch during the shoot was served in Saran Wrapped plates and drinks were poured into plastic cups. If you asked nicely, you were allowed to keep the whole can of soda. Cocktails and wine were an additional $6. Brian also tried to avoid any turbulence with the model by making a moratorium on mile high club jokes.

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attendant, fine art, finke, flight, lighting, photographer, photography, portrait, tips

Erwin Olaf’s dirty lighting for Diesel’s “Dirty Denim” ad campaign August 17, 2010 — 2 Comments

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copyright, Erwin Olaf An oldie but a goodie, this shot for the Diesel Jeans “Dirty Denim” ad campaign features a pair of naughty octogenarians. And was created with 2 lights (not including the 4 light bulbs in the wall sconces).

Camera: Hasselblad 503CW with 80mm lens and Kodak EPP 100 transparency film, set on tripod 10 feet back. Shot at 1/60, f8, ISO 100.

Lighting: Erwin uses a very simple but effective lighting setup to direct our focus to grandma’s hijinks (while managing to make the jeans look pretty good too). One small softbox at f5.6 1/2 is boomed above and slightly in front of grandma’s head (and angled towards her) from the right.

Another softbox at f5.6 is boomed above and in between the couple (and aimed toward grandpa) from the left. Just the slight bit more light on her helps to lead our eye to grandma first. The wall sconces were shot as a separate frame with a long exposure (2 seconds) and then composited into the final image.

Comments: The couple spent most of the morning arguing over whether to listen to Benny Goodman or Glen Miller on the turntable Erwin had rented especially for the occasion. By the time they finally started shooting, Grandpa was worn out and took an impromptu nap, which happened to work out okay. The glasses were intentionally filled with real, rye whiskey instead of cola.

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advertising, campaign, denim, diesel, dirty, lighting, olaf, photographer, photography, portrait, sexy, tips

Gregory Crewdson masterfully lights a woman planting flowers in her kitchen August 16, 2010 — 3 Comments

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copyright, Gregory Crewdson This haunting image of a woman planting flowers in her kitchen is one of Crewdson’s cinematic, personal projects shot in studio. I’m guessing he used precisely 11 lights to create this effect.

Camera: Sinar 8×10 view camera with Rodenstock 360mm lens and Kodak Portra NC 160 film, on a tripod 10 feet back from model. Shot at 1 second, f32, ISO 160.

Lighting: Most of Crewdson’s images have a moody, otherworldly feel to them and this shot is no exception. There is not so much a key light as various light sources hitting our model and leaving her in different degrees of shadow. Two 200 watt, tungsten fresnels (shot through a silk) are eight feet camera left. Two other 200 watt, tungsten fresnels are in the same spot camera right. They all serve as front fill on our model. A 650 watt, tungsten fresnel (shot through a silk) is out of frame camera left and slightly behind the model, shaping the highlights on her face. A 1K fresnel (shot through a silk) is behind the kitchen door in the rear left of the shot. Two, 1K fresnels (shot through a silk) are behind the kitchen window in the rear right. Two more 1K fresnels (shot through a silk) are behind the front, right kitchen window. A Rosco Delta 6000 fog machine creates the light streaks. A 100 watt lightbulb hangs in the chandelier to give a touch of reality.

Comments: Though this was an expensive shoot, Crewdson was able to save on florist costs by planting flower bulbs and seeds when the crew began building the set and lighting, then waiting for them to grow. The model initially had a short bob and weighed 10 pounds more, but that was accounted for during casting. converted by Web2PDFConvert.com

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Nadav Kander lights Spike Jonze for GQ and throws in some nifty illustration August 13, 2010 — 3 Comments

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copyright, Nadav Kander A contemplative Spike Jonze for GQ was created with, I’m guessing, 5 heads. The cool berry/flower/weed design was done in post. But you knew that.

Camera: Hasselblad H4 with 120mm macro lens and 50MP Hassy digital back, hand-held, 8 feet back. Shot at 1/125, f8, ISO 100.

Lighting: The key light is a white beauty dish at f8 boomed high behind the camera and pointed down. Two normal reflectors, both at f5.6, are shot through white, translucent umbrellas 5 feet camera left and right for the fill light. To light the background, one normal reflector at f5.6 was bounced into the white side of a v-flat on both the left and right sides of frame. This allows the background to fall off from true white and match, more closely, Spike’s skin tone.

Comments: To get this visual reaction from Mr. Jonze, Nadav asked him to try to think of ten other famous Spikes while everyone on set just stared in silence and waited for the answer.

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celebrity, GQ, kander, lighting, magazine, photographer, photography, portrait, spike jones, tips

David LaChapelle lights Lady Gaga like nobody’s business August 12, 2010 — 3 Comments

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Lady Gaga covered in bubbles shot for the cover of Rolling Stone. Very pink, very LaChapelle and created with 7 light sources.

Camera: Mamiya AFD3 with 80mm lens and Phase One P65+ digital back, hand-held, ten feet back. Shot at 1/60, f8, ISO 100.

Lighting: The somewhat flat, frontal light is created with a large soft box at f8 five feet directly above camera and angled down. A medium strip bank at f5.6 resting on the the floor in front of the camera and angled up provides the fill. Two, bare Kino bulbs are staggered to the Lady’s immediate left and another two to her right. A magnum reflector with diffusion at f16.5 is positioned low in the doorway pointing toward her back (this creates the glowing hair and bubbles and adds some nice, softening lens flare).

Comments: Unsure whether Lady Gaga would enjoy or loathe listening to her own music while shooting, La Chapelle made the smart decision to hire a bagpiper from bagpiper.com. He played all the traditional favorites. The floating bubbles were hand-blown by two non-smoking assistants.

After the shoot, Lady Gaga left the studio wearing the bubble outfit (she wanted to show her book club) where she was, ironically, photographed by a pack of paparazzo.

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Armed with only a wacom tablet, less-than-mediocre drawing skills and an acute sense of smell, professional photographer Ted Sabarese guesses how individual images were lit by other photographers and then sketches corresponding lighting diagrams. He also offers, sometimes humorous, behind-the-scenes insight. It's what you always wanted to know but didn't know who to ask.

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