Modernboys Moderngirls @ Wrongbar
June 27, 2008 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment
I shot MBMG last night at Wrongbar, which happens to be a terrible place to shoot a concert if you’re ever gonna try it. Black walls that don’t reflect light, they’re 100% flat so there’s nothing to drop a flash on, and the stage touches the wall on one side. Cool location, though, and just because it’s a bit of a PITA to shoot in doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Here are some selected shots, more can be seen in the Flickr set.
Pride Gala Toronto 2008
June 25, 2008 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment
Red carpets can be pretty boring, and Pride 08’s was no exception. Aside from a couple of snaps of Sandra Bernhard and Dalton McGuinty, it was not only “meh”, but the small gaggle of photogs were mostly going to get the same shots of Sandra. Not my bread and butter, so I didn’t mind doing “my thing” to the shots afterward, not worrying about sullying the editorial nature of the originals.
Inside the gala was no different, for the most part. What was fun was Tyler Burke’s company’s performance. That was cool. I’ve let him know that I’d love to shoot his performers with a fuller kit and wireless strobes. Could be gnarly. Here are a couple of shots, no flash used.
Evil in the Fridge
June 22, 2008 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment
When my wife goes out of town I often find myself bored out of my mind. Sleeping in only as long as my cats allow me the luxury, I watched the clock strike noon thinking “What should I shoot?”
Considering how empty my fridge is there was more than enough room to stick a red gelled and diffused SB600 inside. An empty fridge means lots of white surface for the flash to reflect off of. If the fridge was full(er) than I probably wouldn’t have gotten such clean reds coming out of it. Helps push the look of something big and evil being inside of it, instead of having a bunch of shadows cast by the food inside of it. I think I had the flash set to half power.
Behind me but out of frame was a no-name flash left ungelled on a window sill pointed directly at my back. I had it stopped down a step and a half with neutral density filters. Even though there’s no colour gels on it, the light ends up being blue because I had my white balance set to tungsten. This allows not only the flash to appear blue in the shot, but also everything outside the visible window as well. Speeding up the shutter will then cut the light out from outside while not affecting the flash at all, ideally giving the illusion of it being all cold and unwelcoming out there.
The last flash was a 1/1 tungsten gelled no-name flash in an umbrella on camera right or left (depending on the shot. I switched their places in each). I really didn’t want its effects to be readily apparent as this was supposed to be a night-ish shot. Some minor post in Adobe Camera RAW and
its lasting effect is that my hand is visible in the blackness while still being really dark.
is visible, however, in a spatula. Easily shopped out, but I figured I’d leave it in there this time to serve as a reminder for myself next time.
Pride 2008 Launch Party
June 21, 2008 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment
Check out the rest of the set from the Pride 2008 Launch Party at Woody’s. All the shots feature similar processing and obviously aren’t meant for editorial purposes. Bouncing flash on most.
Incidentally, this party was not nearly as fun as last year’s. I think having Donnarama, Miss Conception and Daytona Bitch on the same stage at the same time was a tough act to follow.
Paula and Mark Cross’s Wedding
June 21, 2008 | Filed Under photo | Leave a Comment
I got the call on a Monday for a wedding job on a Wednesday, and had the couple’s files prepped by the Friday. The wedding went very quickly and we only had a half hour to shoot at the house, about a 10 minute ceremony followed by 20 minutes of mingling at the chapel, and then spent the rest of the time shooting at the restaurant, Sopra.
I employed some wireless strobe shooting at the house and later at Sopra. Finished with 317 shots (After deletions) plus another hundred or so in black and white and alternate processed images.
Shots like these at the house were done with an SB600 and a shoot-thru umbrella…
You might notice that the first shot has been processed a little strangely. It’s not an HDR image, though the way I process the shot certainly makes it look similar to a Photomatix file. Something notably missing from the image are the halos that are ever-present in HDR processed shots, which I’m not a fan of. The way I process the shots keeps haloing to a minimum.
I mostly shot with available light at the chapel, not because I was anti-flash or anything, but because the ceremony only lasted 5 minutes when we were all told (happy couple included) that it would last about 20 minutes. I didn’t have time to set up a wireless gelled flash or anything! Mostly shot with a 50mm F1.8 with no flash and an 18-55mm at F3.5 with an SB600 bouncing off the white walls.
Lastly, here are a few shots from the restaurant. In the main area I had two flashes in two corners (not a total cross-light setup as the flashes weren’t pointing towards eachother). The room was walled in extremely dark colors so it was either set up the flashes wirelessly or use a straight-on flash on the camera as bouncing the light would’ve been nigh impossible. In the dining room I had one flash at the far end of the table firing towards the couple, and another right behind Paula, the bride, to make her light up. Walls were mirrored.
