Mixing up the portraiture this week for 5. Last month when teaching Light Your World, I hired professional model Jaclynn Joseph to give the participants some real life practice. My intention that day was to let the students do most of the shooting while I did most of the explaining. As a result, I didn’t really get a chance to take many photos of Jaclynn which was a pity. She’s a natural in front of the camera, very professional, very photogenic and a joy to work with. So last Sunday, I hooked up with her, and a couple of other photographer friends for a three hour shoot. Jaclynn and I decided on a kind of 1920s vintage flapper type thing, with a bit of noir thrown in. Well, at least that was the intention, but it might have ended up more like a B-grade horror movie for our final setup of the day. Regardless, a lot of fun was had, I got some images I was happy with and also the seeds of an idea for a future shoot. Here are five photos from the day. Shooting details are at the end of the post.

Jaclynn | Canon EOS 5D Mark II 200mm ISO200 f8 1/200

Jaclynn | Canon EOS 5D Mark II 190mm ISO125 f2.8 1/200

Jaclynn | Canon EOS 5D Mark II 159mm ISO200 f8 1/200

Jaclynn | Canon EOS 5D Mark II 200mm ISO400 f5.6 1/200

Jaclynn | Canon EOS 5D Mark II 70mm ISO200 f4 1/200

All images were shot with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Lenses used were either the 70-200mm f4L or its big brother the 70-200mm f2.8L. Lighting was different for different shots. The first four were a single 580 EX II that was gelled with a 1/4 cut CTO. The final image used three lights – the Canon 580 EX II gelled red on Jaclynn, a Nikon SB28 gelled purple in the middle and a Canon 550EX gelled CTB at the back.

Taipei seems to be a popular destination for American models this summer. Fresh from the shoot with Jen a couple of weeks ago, I met up with Sheri.  Hailing from New York and represented by Abrams Artists Agency, Sheri is in Taipei for a couple of months and we met up on a rainy Sunday and headed to National Taiwan University aka Tai-Da. We had to seek out some sheltered areas as most of the places I’d originally planned to shoot in where too exposed to the rain, which was quite heavy at times. Still, Tai-Da has a lot of covered walkways and overhangs so we were able to get some good images. Images were all shot with a Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200mm f4L and 580EX II speedlight. The flash was triggered by the ever reliable Elinchrom Skyports. More detailed shooting notes after the jump.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f5.6 1/200 at 159mm

For the opening image, we used a 50×70 softbox on a 2.4m lightstand with the speedlight set to 1/4 power. The light was placed just out of the frame to the left. As well, a 5-in-1 collapsible reflector was used on the gold side to throw a little warmth into the image.

Sheri @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f8 1/200 at 154mm

This next image used almost the same lighting setup as the first. Shot in a slightly different location, the softbox was positioned just out of frame to the right (Sheri’s left) and the reflector was used on its white side. Other than the different aperture and focal length, everything else was the same.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f5.6 1/200 at 154mm

Another one with very similar settings. The lens was opened up a stop from the last one and a different location was used. Once again, the lighting came from the softbox positioned in front of her, just outside the left of the frame. The gold reflector was used again for some warmth.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f5.6 1/80 at 78mm

A change of clothes and time to try something different. This wasn’t quite as successful as I’d hoped, mainly due to the constant passage of people walking and cycling through. Every time the scene would clear of people, we’d get one quick shot and then have to wait another few minutes. Here we used the same softbox setup with the light positioned behind the arch to Sheri’s left. My wife and studio manager Selina is crouched behind the first pillar on the Sheri’s right aiming the gold reflector back into the scene.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f5.6 1/200 at 122mm

Again we’re using very similar settings for the camera and lights as we did for the other ones. The light stand is raised high so that it’s aiming down at Sheri, just outside the left of the frame. I had to burn in the door a little in processing to even things out but it was very minimal.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f5.6 1/125 at 98mm

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f6.3 1/200 at 176mm

Lighting for these two was pretty much the same. Both have a 1/4 power flash in the softbox just out of frame to the left. In the first one, a shutter speed of 1/125 allows some of the ambient light into the background whereas the second one with a shutter speed of 1/200 kills most of the ambient. Adjustment of the blacks in Lightroom takes care of any remaining patches of ambient light.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f5.6 1/200 at 135mm

This next one marks the last image that the softbox was used for. I took a bit of a cue from Zack Arias here and introduced movement to the shot. The light was positioned to Sheri’s right and the gold reflector was placed on the ground immediately in front of her.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f8 1/200 at 70mm

A final change of clothes and location for the last few images. By now it was close to sunset but the rain and clouds meant there was none. Not a problem at all as we can easily make our own. I slapped a full cut of CTO onto the speedlight and then added a 1/4″ gridspot over the top. Voila, we have sunset. Goes to show the versatility of off-camera lighting.

Sheri C at Tai-Da. ISO400 f8 1/200 at 200mm

The same setup was used here. Full CTO under the gridspot. Sheri was on a second floor balcony with the light placed off to her left. I shot up from the ground under the balcony. You can see in the background lighting how gray the day actually was.

Sheri C @ Tai-Da. ISO400 f8 1/200 98mm

Little bit of clowning around for the final image to sum up how the day went. The three of us spent just as much time laughing and joking around as we did shooting. For this, I used a tungsten white balance coupled with CTO on the light to leave Sheri with a slightly warm daylight glow while everything else went bluish.

If you’re in Taiwan and are interesting in learning how to work with lights on location, I’m going to be running a small workshop in early October. Look for a full announcement in the next week or so. Thank you.

LA-based model Jennifer is in Taipei for the summer and we met up last week for a quick shoot in Taipei’s trendy Ximending area. With temperatures in the mid-thirties centigrade, we tried to find some shady areas, but even still, we only shot for 2 hours or so. All images were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and either 70-200mm f4L or 17-40mm f4L lens.

Her scarf in this first shot casts an interesting shadow on her leg. This was lit with a 580EX II fired into a convertible umbrella in shoot-thru mode to her right, and a bare 550EX to the left. Both were triggered with Elinchrom Skyport. The image was shot at  f4, 1/200 at 70mm with an ISO setting of 200.

From there, we moved down the alley a bit further and chose a different bit of graffiti to use as the backdrop. Lighting this time was a single 580EX II into the shoot-thru umbrella which was to the left.

ISO400 f5.6 1/200 at 70mm

ISO400 f8 1/200 at 28mm

Moving around the corner and using yet another graffiti wall as a backdrop, although this time we had grass underfoot. It was a bit breezy here and the wind blew the lightstand down, causing the umbrella stud to snap clean off. Part of it is still stuck inside the Stroboframe shoe that the light was mounted on, despite the attempts of three people using a variety of tools to remove it. Fortunately, studs and shoes are cheap to replace. I had spares in my bag but decided to use hard lighting for the rest of the shoot instead of having the wind blow the stand down again. Next time, I’ll have to remember to carry sandbags. The photo below is one of the last umbrella’d shots.

ISO400 f8 1/200 at 87mm.

Above my position was a walkway platform of some kind, so Jennifer headed up for some shots there. We used a hard light in close to her left and I shot from below.

ISO50 f5 1/200 at 113mm

After a quick break, we set up for the final bit of shooting. At the other end of the platform was a shady area, so Jennifer moved in there. For this one, I used the soft light from an umbrella that was positioned almost directly in front of me. I was able to put one foot onto the base of the stand to stop everything from blowing over.

ISO100 f9 1/200 at 73mm

To finish up, we headed back down and Jennifer’s friend Clive joined in for some couple shots. Hard lighting was used here, coming in at a 45 degree angle to their right.

ISO100 f9 1/200 at 98mm

The last shot was set to match the graffiti behind them.

ISO100 f8 1/200 at 84mm

Despite the windy conditions and high temperatures it was a successful shoot, generating a number of different images. Jennifer and Clive were both great to work with which made the shoot flow smoothly.

Any thoughts, comments and so forth are welcome.