After the year of disasters Queensland has had this year, with the massive floods and cyclones, I wanted to shoot something that stood for the great work done by Queenslanders to clean up and move forward.

XXXX Gold is brewed about 10km from where I live. It is the most iconic beer of Qld here in Australia. They put some great advertisements out congratulating Queenslanders on their great fighting spirit after the disasters. What’s more Australian than a good Aussie Beer?

And as usual here is my set up image. The white paper behind the bottles made a massive difference to the colour of the bottles. Such a simple addition but so key to the final image.

I have also put together a short behind the scenes (BTS) video of the shoot explaining my lighting and set up. You can expect many more of this in the next few months as product photography is really appealing to me. So keep your eyes out and feel free to submit ideas of things you would like to learn how to light and shoot.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Its been a month of late nights for me watching the Tour De France. So I wanted to pay tribute to the great race. Bike in the pictures is actually my brothers GT single speed that we are looking after currently. Its not a light bike I would like to add.

Canon 40D,17-85mm, ISO 800, 17mm, f5, 1/200th

For the above shot I basically used my garage as a massive light tent. Its actually much easier then it at first looks.

After a nice new coat of white paint to the brick wall we were ready to go. The wall will now allow me to make it a brillient white or what ever colour I gel my flash for.

To get the whole wall and roof illuminated I setup my Canon 430ex and set it to full power for the bike shots, and 1/4 power for my profile shots. I had it resting about 2 foot up on my esky as i don’t yet have a light stand let alone an umbrella. (Its my birthday in like 5 days so that will be rectified soon).

Attached was my DIY Yogurt Diffuser. I went for this as it will spread the light in all directions like a gary fong. However this mod is alot cheaper and tastes better too. If I had just used the flash without the mod only the back wall would get a proper covering of light. Flash was fired with my Cactus remotes. All shots were on a 10sec timer. Trust me 10 seconds flys when you are trying to pop-a-mono.

The below shot was the portrait version of the leading photo on this post. Not sure which one I like the most.

Canon 40D,17-85mm, ISO 800, 17mm, f5, 1/200th

Below are 2 shots taken with my nifty fifty. I didn’t need as much illumination as by background was much smaller. Flash was set yo around 1/4 power.

Canon 40D,50mm, ISO 800, 50mm, f3.2, 1/250th

Canon 40D,50mm, ISO 800, 50mm, f3.2, 1/250th

After a few edits in Lightroom 2.0 and adjusting to the white space like removing a few objects in the side of the frame I recon its come out ok for a first attempt. Next time I think I would snoot a 2nd lighton my tyre tread.

Next upgrades to the studio setup will be some sort of white flooring and a curved board where the wall meets the floor. Then I can do head to feet shots.  I can also do a shoot longways down the garage once I clean it up a little more.

Viva Le Tour & DIYPhotography.net.

The first assignment for this year was to take a nice headshot of someone unemployed or similar that they could use on their resumé so as to stand out from other applicants.

So my subject for the shoot was my wife Anna who is just about to finish a Masters of Environment – Education for Sustainability. She has been applying for relevant jobs like crazy and has had a few interviews of late that she has finished up 2nd best even though the relevant HR Departments couldn’t give her a decent reason why she was just overlooked for the position considering she fulfilled all requirements well. I nice headshot on her resumé may be just what she needs.

So I had my subject but now I had to decide on how I wanted to shoot her and where. Considering Anna is in the environmental field I wanted to give her a natural and warm look. The assignment also happened to begin while we were preparing to go on holidays to the bottom of Australia. At first i was worried the holiday would stop me from getting the assignment done but then it dawned on me. We are going to a massive national park with prehistoric ferns. What better environment to shoot in to convey my subjects passion.

It was getting late into the afternoon and we came across this perfect location for the shoot. I wanted to have Anna backed up against the tree and have the ferns in the background.

Gear for the shoot was:

• Canon 40D
• Canon 50mm f1.8 mk2
• Remote shutter control
• Canon 430ex
• Home made light mod(shown below)
• Cactus remotes
  
• Tripod for camera
• Voice activated light stand

With the camera in manual mode I set my exposure to 1/200th and an aperture of f1.8. My ISO was set to 400. I setup the camera on my tripod right next to the ferns trunk seen in the location shot. I then used myself as a voice activated light stand to camera left shooting the flash (1/32th power) with my mod through the ferns branches.

I don’t own a light stand or umbrella yet and there was no way I was going to bring one with me to the other side of Australia on holidays. So it was now time to test my newest flash mod.

Yep that’s one massive yogurt container converted into a diffuser sort of thingy. I have been keeping a keen eye on the container ever since my wife bought the yogurt. After a nice clean and removal of the label all I needed to do was make a nice X cut to the lid and BAM.

After a few test shots I had something i was liking and it was Anna turn behind the camera. I made sure she set the focal point to my leading eye and using the shutter remote she held the flash in a similar area to where I had it and lets just say us photographers are not great at smiling of que. Anna did get a few laughs out of me and she has done very well considering the complexity of the situation.

Next time I may use an aperture of around 4 or 5.6 so as not to blur as much of the background ferns. Also the addition of a 2nd light would be a luxury so as I could have a rim light for our heads to stand out more from the tree. Anna’s blonde hair was a savior here. But overall I’m very happy with my first ever headshot and my first proper go at a on location shoot. This is what Strobist boot camp is all about, pushing our boundaries and exploring the awesome world of off camera lighting. Bring on assignment 2.

]]> http://www.thephotojourney.com/2009/06/22/headshot-boot-camp-ii/feed/ 3