stenz posted a photo:

Playing around in downtime on location.

stenz posted a photo:

stenz posted a photo:

I haven't touched my camera in months.
Need to remember what it is that I do in Photoshop.

stenz posted a photo:

A (blurry) test with a new anamorphic lens (adapter).

(it compresses a wide image onto a normal sensor, as a result it is hard to learn to focus on it without a lens on the viewfinder that uncompresses the other way - and in this case, the autofocus really doesn't work - so you basically just work at a an aperture that gives you more depth of field... which here was not the case)

stenz posted a photo:

It is snowing out, but otherwise fairly quiet after resolving an issue on one of the Exchange servers.

My drawings all sort of look the same - scribbled and cartoonish. Squint a lot and they look better. Or stand really far away. Maybe a mile or two and picture something great.

stenz posted a photo:

I need to mail this sketchbook in pretty soon.

All of the sketches look basically the same at this point.

stenz posted a photo:

Busy lately, first chance back at digging my way out of the backlog.

Always the fight between getting sleep or processing photos.

stenz posted a photo:

Strobist:
The usual, AB800 w/ beauty dish near the head of the model

stenz posted a photo:

Strobist:
AB800 w/beauty dish camera left, leaning in towards model's head

stenz posted a photo:

Strobist:
AB800 totally bare, camera right and high

stenz posted a photo:

This is a crop of one that had more to the left, but this gets more of the portrait look/feel, but still retains most of the mood.

Strobist:
AB800 with red/blue gels camera right, pointed at bg (you can see it in her button and the cast on her left arm - image right)
AB800 with beauty dish, blue and purple gels on the bottom part, nothing on the top (you can probably see as the specular on the phone or part of the button).

(The beauty dish was on a "voice activated stand" b/c I was too lazy to setup the boom, so just had someone on set help and lean the light in closer for me - this is actually much better/easier if you can get the help - but in turn, not as quiet when you smack them around vs doing the same to the boom arm.)

stenz posted a photo:

Shot a few of these with two references in mind:
1) Dial M For Murder
2) Blue Velvet

For concept, mood, colors, and lighting.

Working on another in Photoshop now that I think is probably "more favorite" overall, but I like the tension in this one (look vs gradient).

I think I still need to get the bg lighter and would have preferred drapes.


Strobist:
AB800 (no grid) with red and blue gels on the bg, camera right (you can see it in the button on her chest/shoulder)
AB800 with beauty dish and blue and purple gels clipped to the lower half of that, camera right (you can see them in the phone by her mouth)

stenz posted a photo:

Someone will be sure to point out that the light by her head is blown out. That's how the internet works.

Natural light from a window on the left, and a reflector on the lower right.
(Windows on either side in the back, and one immediately on the right, but not adding much. Christmas lights creating the bokeh, and an overhead causing the blowout that I didn't even notice while shooting.)

stenz posted a photo:

Strobist:
AB800 with beauty dish directly above model

stenz posted a photo:

My wife saw this and said it felt "Pre-Raphaelite" and I thought it felt (the light, not the attire) more Netherlands (and specifically van Eyck).

We clearly are party animals.

Straight from card/lightroom defaults.

stenz posted a photo:

Strobist:
AB800 with red and blue gels against black background, camera right (they were setup for another shot, but then I had her step back into them so that they were hitting her as well as the bg)

AB800 with beauty dish camera right (there were blue and purple gels on the lower part of it, nothing on the upper)

stenz posted a photo:

Every time I come back from a studio shoot with models, I upload images into Lightroom, and then go through and rate them (stars).

I can then go through and sort by rating and pick which ones to adjust further, and then export and process in Photoshop - that's the workflow.

As I run across amusing (to me) light tests, prior to any adjustments, I upload them here.

Here's the first light test from my new D700.

I'm not entirely sure the model's name - this is straight off the card, with whatever Lightroom defaults to.

**Edit**
Model's name is Katy.

stenz posted a photo:

Model: Jordan Daniele
MUA/Hair: Katherine Reel

Strobist:
(as always, easiest to tell by the catchlights, and in this case, shadows too)
AB800 with blue gel and grid, image top (hand held by the MUA)
AB800 with red gel, image right
AB800 w/ beauty dish, camera right

The colors are all from the gels, not PS (although exaggerated a bit - I didn't bring the bag that had the cloth this was supposed to be shot on, so was not the original light layout/plan I had wanted to do).

stenz posted a photo:

Model: Arielle
MUA: Liz Washer

Strobist:
AB800 w/ beauty dish camera left
AB800 gridded with gels, right (back)

Technically we sprayed some diffusion spray by the rear light, but it was my first time using it - so it was basically useless in the small amount - so doubt it is really accounted for in this shot.

stenz posted a photo:

Strobist:
AB800 w/ beauty dish camera right