Anthropologie Time.

I love the style of the Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters catalogs.
It's graceful, simple and well, dreamy. It mixes vintage settings and tones with modern living situations. It's a look that many retail stores like and customers can relate to.
I also affectionately call it "shooting like a girl" with some envy for photographers who have mastered it (darn you Chloe Scheffe!) . The photos above are the result of me having a stab at it. The first set was shot in an old apartment in Chicago (hey Angela!). I used only window light, a large white sheet as a reflector to camera left, about 5 feet from the model and a camera almost literally grabbed from a friend who happened to be there. The second set up was almost equally minimalistic: the model (hey Tiffany!) got hair and make up done in my studio and we walked out to a small city garden in Seattle. I used a simple ring flash modifier attached to my hotshoe flash (see this post) and exposed the flash at about half a stop below ambient. Then I used Lightroom to add the "Holga/Vintage/Polaroid/Artsy" look to it.

Both sets featured several Anthropology clothes and accessories (and my dad's thirty year old scarf). What's not to like? This images would form the core of a relatively low budget ad campaign perfect for a fashion store or an up and coming apparel designer. I like.

New Web Site!

I have a new spiffy web site!:

www.fabiogovernato.com

Commercial Photography and Video with a Canon DSLR

Kashless.org asked me to create a commercial for their first ad campaign. It was a very interesting project that involved shooting simple images of objects to be posted on their site (see last post), print them, shoot a video and add a voiceover and soundtrack (make sure your sound is on!). A lot of people got involved and we had a decent budget to do a good job.





The fun part came from using a DSLR camera to shoot both images and video. I used an old Sony to get the "casual" Polaroid look to the images and the used the new Canon Rebel (500D or T1i in the US) to shoot a short video at 30fps. We used natural light and cut the video using Final Cut Express. A couple of trick I learned: remember to lock the exposure and use a fixed white balance (not AWB!) to keep the movie as homogeneous as possible.

That Polaroid Look

So the client asked for a set of images to use in a video. The images had to have the distinctive "Polaroid look" to evoke a mood that is casual but elegant, artsy but spontaneous, practical but environmentally conscious. "Umm, well OK" I said. How does this translate in photographic terms? Polaroid images are famous for being blurry, having blown highlights, strong vignetting and a somewhat shallow depth of field. Yellowish high tones, blueish shadows and low color saturation are also part of that look.

Rather than grabbing a Polaroid camera and some old film
I decided to shoot with an (old) digital camera. I will have more control on the results the images won't need to be scanned and I will be able to make higher resolution prints. Using a point and shoot instead of my trusted DSLR will make the images look a little more casual. Like, a dude who got a lucky shot. But how do I change the color scheme and tones to get the desired "Polaroid" look. Enters Lightroom and its famous presets. The LR community has developed a number of them that are freely available and easy to install. So I got a few, tweaked them to my liking (usually reducing contrast, adding more vignetting and changing the color balance. And here are some of the results. Not bad.

I say Tomato, you say Product Photography.

I am a big fan of the Strobist blog. It's one of my favorite sources of info on equipment, techniques and up and coming commercial photographers. OK enough gushing. The neat thing is the assignments. They are usually commercially themed, clearly explained, you submit your image to Flickr and there you go. You end up staring at a few hundred awesome images from photographers all over the world, including a lot of pros. You might even win a prize.

This time the theme was "Food". So I submitted an image of a pile of tomatoes. The set up was easy: main backlight (softboxed ABs) and 2 focused accent lights, one on the knife blade (bounced on a small card) and the other on the spices in the background. Water drops and a temperature shift give it a warm slightly vintage "shiny" look. I took a few shots with my 24-70 Canon (f4, 50mm, ISO100) AND with my brand new Lensbaby 2.0. I liked the LensBaby, but I 'd suggest to shoot product tethered with it as the soft spot is small even at f8-10. The bokeh is fun and quite suggestive of motion. (it's the image on the left and I know tomatoes do not move). I am looking into getting the Lensbaby 3, which has a focus lock. One could step up getting a Canon Tilt Shift, I have also seen good reviews about arax.com...

Have a Leibovitz Day: Lighting with a Softlighter II

I have become a big fan of the Softlighter II. It's an umbrella with a diffuser sheet at the front that takes both strobes and shoe mount flashes. It can even be used as a shoot through umbrella. I have the SL-5000. (it's the medium sized) It takes a few minutes to assemble and gives about 11 sq feet of light surface. With a Canon 580ex II and the silver reflector inside I get a guide number of about 40 ( f4 at 10 feet at 100 ISO).

I mostly use it outdoor, mounted on a boom or a light stand, both as a fill or as a main light. It seems quite durable, and a bargain for the price (less than $100). I am not the only one to like it, as apparently Annie Leibovitz is a fan. (or at least she uses something VERY similar here and here). The smaller softlighter is perfect for indoor shots. I like the different looks I can achieve with it.

Lower image: This punchy shot was taken on a sunny afternoon on a silver painted roof. Sun is coming from top left and the Softlighter is one foot to the left of the model (Hey Hiroko!), on a boom being held by an assistant (hey Dave). Shot at ISO 100 1/125th, 32mm f11. The Canon flash was firing at 3/4 power.


Top Image: This set up, which drew inspiration from some of Annie Liebovitz work, was taken at sunset, the Softlighter is at camera left held high above the two models at about 10 feet. (Robin, ModelMayhem #380658 and Gene). ISO 100, 1/160th 24mm f4.0. The image palette and contrast have been modified a bit with PS. Flash at half power.

Cleaning Up.

The web is choke full of suggestions on how to clean up photo equipment (easier than fix the problems mentioned in the previous post alas), so last week end I finally got myself a small bottle of Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol 70% ... And voila' I cleaned my camera body, my Pocket Wizards, my computer screen and pretty much anything I had within reach ...it works! Not bad for $1.89 (which will last me forever). I was assisting on a shoot yesterday and noticed that they were using some fancy cleaning clothes that used the same main ingredient.
Make sure to use a soft cloth and try on a small, forgotten corner of your equipment first, you know... just in case.