02/24/2023
A pretty atypical shoot for me, but always fun (and sound) to shoot in settings irregular to my status quo.
PHOTO TALK:
Steedz Enduro Mountain Bike Team picked up a new eyewear sponsor for the coming season, and they wanted to highlight that. However, it's proper winter outside, so an indoor space made more sense given the context of the brand (sunshine, dirt, patio beers, etc.). It's been a long time since I've done any studio-style shoot, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've rented out a studio and lighting equipment. When I got into strobe photography, I learned a lot from the book "Studio Anywhere: A Photographer's Guide to Shooting in Unconventional Locations" by , simply because I didn't have the money or space for all the standard equipment. While I can afford a few more fancy bits of equipment now, I still choose to operate light because: 1. When you have less, your scope widens, 2. I don't do enough studio work to high standards to justify owning the gear.
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In the interest of sharing some knowledge, here's some stuff I thought of during this shoot:
• It was hard to find a clean background, so I used the back of the garage door since it was the most consistent and contrasted the dark helmets and clothing. I had and step forward enough from the wall so I could use a lower aperture to blur the horizontal divots, and I had them stand in front of any door rivets so I wouldn't have to clone them out later in Photoshop.
• I took my time orienting their heads and used two continuous light sources (an LED wand and a tiny box) to ensure no harsh light lines were on essential parts of their faces (typical of geometric items like helmets or glasses/goggles). I learned through many painful lessons that you can Photoshop out minor blemishes, but you can't fix bad light. I also dimmed the lights and moved them closer to increase the surface area for a softer look.
• Working with reflective surfaces (particularly glasses) has always been hard for me, and the colours on the Zeiss lenses wouldn't pop when light sources came from the same direction as the camera. So I tilted their heads or moved the lights to the side - much easier to gauge with continuous light and an assistant.
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Oversights:
• Both models had awkwardly positioned belts sticking out straight beneath their jerseys. One was cloned out, but the other was beyond my capability, and I had to crop the frames where necessary.
• One of the helmets could have been wiped over for a clean look. It's easy to eliminate dirt spots in post-production, but not smudging, especially when it goes over any edges.
Anywho, if you read that all, I hope you found it interesting haha.
