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Trash the Dress – the “Wet” run

Simon — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

So having described the setting fire to the dress sequence, here’s the drowning the dress sequence. This was a trial run before doing a real shoot for a client – and to be honest this was the one I was more concerned about because I know cloth in water can be a real pain.

Lou and I went to a local canal off the beaten path. The look I was going for was very moody – almost fashion. Throughout the sequence I’m using a speedlite – which in this case is mounted on top of the camera, which I’m flipping on and off throughout the shoot so there’s some flash, some without.

You can see the effect the flash has had on the gown, really bringing out a sheen and texture with the sun providing a great rim and hair light.

All the time I was coaching Lou through thoughts and emotions for her to act too, mostly around the theme of being depressed and suicidal!!

And here is where it went wrong. As you can see it’s really quite difficult to keep the dress floating above the water (once the air inside it has gone) and it’s also very difficult for Lou to. No matter what you think, bodies do not float in the water as you think they should.

And here’s our now drowned Lou out of the water again.

The next thing was to get her changed (though in the end Lou refused to wear anything except my dressing gown – no way was she going to get her clothes wet and smelly) and we rushed back so Lou could shower and scrub off.

By the way, I don’t want you to think we weren’t having fun.

Trashing the Dress – A “Dry” run

Simon — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

I had a trash the dress shoot coming up for a client – she wanted to be Ophelia, so I thought I really ought to have a practice session to make sure I knew what was going to work well and what I needed to take on board.

So, with the terrifically game Lou and a couple of gowns that I’ve had in my props box it was time to set fire to one and drown the other.

We started off early in the morning with a serious hike up Leckhampton Hill which left us both knackered and Lou’s a serious hobbyist hiker! So, after a rest…

Firstly we took the shots of the dress just blowing in the wind, we were blessed with terrific clouds that day and almost no photoshop was required to make the most of them.

You can see on the left the speedlist I’m using just to give a little extra push into Lou’s dress. I was expecting to have to do some key-shifting to bring some detail into the sky, but in the event the sky was perfect and I didn’t need to do anything.

The biggest pain was the wind gusted so strong keeping the tripod stable was impossible and I ended up breaking the top of the stand and the remote trigger.

Not these shots were posed with the idea that next we’d hang the dress on a tripod and frame and set fire to it. So I’m standing on another hill with the camera on a tripod. But in the event it was impossible to set fire to the dress!! I drenched in a whole bottle of meths but it just would not catch. So we had to go to Plan B later in the day.

We went down into the woods behind the studio and setup the same hot. This time we stuffed the dress full of newspaper, for a while nothing happened – the paper just burned quite happily inside the dress, then next instant the dress just went up – it was completely gone in about 5 seconds – a big lump of melted plastic on the floor. Seriously if I was a bride I’d find this really scary!!

In the next post I’ll go through the “Drown the Dress” shoot.

No related posts.

Experimental Shoots: Behind the shower screen with Brodie Lock

Simon — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:32:00 +0000

I’ve always liked the phrase “a pleasing lack of definition” – commonly applied to photographs which are not pin-sharp for a change. As a group we do have this desperate urge for crystal cut sharpness when it is not always appropriate.

Anyway, this particular set is about experimenting with what is and is not in focus, what can and cannot be clearly seen. In some of the images none of it is in focus, adding a more suggestive air to my mind. In some of them the water droplets are sharp, but the figure is not, and vice versa in others.

To my mind no single interpretation is better, just that they are all different. On the other hand, taken out of context the first couple of images look just like badly shot pictures, so go figure…

About the Experimental Shoots Blog Posts

In this series I am focussing on different kinds of setups I’ve tried. Some are more successful than others. The idea is tweak your creative juices. I’m going to give a few tips as we go, but not full details – I want your experiments to be your own – you will have different ideas, equipment, setups and so on.

I am always interested in the results, and if you want to post them to me I would be very happy to put them on the blog.

Experimental Shoots: Hipstamatic, Instagram,Iphones,Retro and Niki-Marie

Simon — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:28:00 +0000

This whole vintage / retro / cross processed look is all the rage this year. Principally because of the Iphone app Hipstamatic. Which lets you take exactly these kinds of shots with your Iphone and share them online instantly.

I wanted to have a go at creating the same type of image, but at high resolution quality suitable for print. These shots are post-processed using a variety of retrofying and cross-processing techniques, then framed up in a sort polaroidy, plate film contact sheet way.

None of this is authentic of course, it’s not supposed to be, its all about re-creating the myth of the way the images look.

About the Experimental Shoots Blog Posts

I am always interested in the results, and if you want to post them to me I would be very happy to put them on the blog.

Fifteen Top Tips for Taking Great Christmas Photos

Simon — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

1) Get In Close – it’s the faces your interested in, not the shoes. Fill the frame with the face or faces.

2) Keep it natural – don’t over-pose pictures – natural pictures are often the best ones. Keep your camera ready and take peoples pictures when they’ are not looking. This is especially true for children.

3) Get down with the kids: while your children are playing with the Christmas presents you want to be down on your knees or tummy photographing from their height.

4) If you are posing to be in a photo – guys face square forward and look big. Girls should turn slightly sideways and kick the hip out for a more feminine shape.

5) If you’re a couple, girls should rest their head on the fella’s shoulder for a nice relaxed, but loving and joined portrait.

6) If you’re shooting one person, then put them off-centre in the frame rather than bang in the middle – it makes a more interesting picture.

7) If you’re shooting a couple make sure your camera is not focussing down the gap in the middle of them – leaving you with an out of focus picture.

If you’re shooting three or more people, try and arrange the heads into a triangle, or a circle if there’s lots of people – this makes a much stronger composition.

9) Lots of Christmas pictures are taken at parties – but try and keep the drinks out of shot – they look messy and ruin many a good photo.

10) If you can, try and shoot without flash – many new digital cameras can shoot in quite dark places without flash – the images will look much more natural.

11) If you have to use flash – see if your camera has a “night” mode – this will make sure your subject is properly lit, but will also show the background well too.

12) Backgrounds are interesting too – and let you remember where you were when the picture was taken.

13) If you’ve got an add-on flash unit that fits to the top of your camera – tip it towards the ceiling to “bounce” of the ceiling – it’s a much nicer light and also stops red-eye

14) See if you can find a plain wall as a background, doesn’t matter what colour – but if you get a choice blue works best for faces. Look out for fire signs, plant pots, etc. Don’t stand the subject right against the wall though – the more space between your subject and the background the better.

15) Take a second picture straight after the first – often the moment when people relax after they think the picture has been taken is the best one.

2012 Pirelli Calendar – Behind the Scenes Video

Simon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:35:02 +0000

It’s that time of year again when the Pirelli Calendar is launched.

The video of the behind the scenes is very interesting, look at the size of the team that it takes.

Mario Sorrenti creates a very serene yet powerful series of images – underlines the importance of creating the environment for a photoshoot.

You can also see Kate Moss, Lara Stone, Natasha Poly, Milla Jovovich working as models which is also very interesting.

7 Tips for Working With Models

Experimental Shoots: Cinematographs

Simon — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:11:29 +0000

Working with Mary Addison from “Gunpowder, Treason and Plot” we’ve been building some cinematographs. These are still images which just a hint, or a great dollop of movement.

Instant Backgrounds, Stage Sets and Structure

Simon — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:23:00 +0000

Shooting with Jude Windmill, a very proficient dancer and model, I wanted to put together a stage set that Jude could improvise around. Of course I only thought of this mid-shoot!

So I used three poly boards (normally used for reflectors etc), a bit of lighting to give each board a different tonal range and off we went.

Sometimes the simple can be very effective.

In post I did clean up the edges (and straighten them) on my preferred images. The collection below is a bit of a random sample.

About the Experimental Shoots Blog Posts

I am always interested in the results, and if you want to post them to me I would be very happy to put them on the blog.

Experimental Shoots: Panorama’s, Sphere’s and Stitching

Simon — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:19:00 +0000

You are probably familiar with the idea of stitching multiple photographs together to make a panoramic image. This is the same thing just done in the studio (or actually the Grunge Room).

The first image is the raw stitch, not quite aligned and with a bit of a drift.

Second image has had a bit of free transform and correction done to it.

Then we use Polar Co-ordinates distortion to turn it into a sphere.

You can do it head first or feet first.

The above series was shot with Brodie Lock (a little undiscovered treasure – she ought to get booked more often).

This second series is with Leah Axl

I have some further thoughts about this process and when I get around to shooting some more I’ll put them online.

About the Experimental Shoots Blog Posts

I am always interested in the results, and if you want to post them to me I would be very happy to put them on the blog.

Experimental Shoots: Montage Old Master

Simon — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:11:00 +0000

These always sound so easy. Fix your camera on the tripod, take a bunch of shots with the model moving into different positions. Whap ‘em in photoshop, mask out what you don’t need.

In practice it takes far more photoshop time than you would expect, getting things to line up properly, to take care of shadows, watching out for overlapping bits, careful trimming of cut-outs. I shoot them enthusiastically and get really fed up with them about half-way through the post as I realise how many hours I’ve put in.

In this sequence you can see how the montage was shot to build up. Then at the end a couple of different post processing options.

As a tip, in general I do not crop, rotate, colour correct or anything until I have completed the montage. That way I know the treatment will be consistent across all the bits of the image.

Our model here is FiresSecret (with two S’s)

About the Experimental Shoots Blog Posts

I am always interested in the results, and if you want to post them to me I would be very happy to put them on the blog.