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Anna | Chicago Fashion Photography

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 Posted in America, Chicago, fashion&beauty, film, portrait, strobist, studio

3 votes

What a way to kick off new 2012 year, right? Great model, gorgeous location and a backdrop, great makeup artist and assistants, what else do you need to have successful photoshootWe shot again in Pandora Studios with Jeremy (thanks dude!), this time beautiful model Anna. Kamila did the makeup and Anna’s husband was super helpful in selecting outfits and carrying the equipment around. We wanted natural, clean look that plays well with the new backdrop that I got from Drop It Modern. This is, I think the 4th backdrop that I bought from Drop It Modern, so I knew that I could only expect high quality and outstanding product, but this one – spangled backdrop – is by far my favorite backdrop (until you guys release something new). Enjoy the pictures, and if you want to know a bit more how I lit them, description is couple of pictures below…

3 votes

3 votes

Here is a little about the light setup. I knew that this gorgeous backdrop from Drop It Modern will be super reflective and sparky, and at the same time easy to light. For the main light I used (1.) Elinchrom Quadra RX with 39″ Deep Octa, and thanks to that I got a some of a background light, but because Deep Octa was camera right I was getting light on the left side of the background, not so much on the right side. To fix it, I setup (2.) background light – Canon 580 EX II zoomed to 70mm. I also wanted to have some fill light and wanted it to be warm – that’s why I threw (3.) Lastolite 30″ Gold Reflector into the setup, slightly warming up Anna and also bouncing some light back to the backrop. I like the end result, it came up pretty much what I’ve envisioned, not so regular lit backdrop, but very even and soft light on the subject.

For triggering I used Pocket Wizards II. For color management – X-rite Color Passport.

Yes, I shot film here too – Mamiya 645AFD on Kodak Portra 400, the first picture is a scan from neg, rest of them are digital. I’d have to say – it looks pretty color consistent to me, but for some reason I like the look and feel of film (yes, still).

2 votes

3 votes

Then we went outside the studio, took ABR800 Ring Flash. I’m sure you can easily figure it out the position of it, thanks to the shadows, but here it is anyways: left picture – shot right thru the ring flash, the right one – ring flash moved to the right side of the camera.

1 vote

Ringflash for two pictures on the sides (centered), Quadra RX + Deep Octa for the “Obama in the background” picture (shot with Mamiya+Kodak Portra 400 film)

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Ring Flash all the way here – it gives awesome look with that kind of backgrounds and outfit

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Quadra RX + Deep Octa here, above the subject camera left. Middle picture taken with Mamiya 645AFD+Kodak Portra 400.

3 votes

Then we came back to the studio, to shoot more backdrop stuff. Same setup as in the first couple of pictures.

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6 votes

I’m very excited that few weeks from now (hopefully), we will have spring in great city of Chicago, I’ve so many ideas for shooting outdoors. It’s gonna be epic!

Also, not that all the buzz about Digital Medium Format makes me wanna buy it – I’ve been thinking (and saving) about it for months, but now, I’m thinking of renting real Medium Format camera for a weekend with friends, and giving it a test drive, IF at all, making the big jump… :]

Thanks for stopping by, and remember: “pictures don’t have to be amazing, but they sure can…” www.bizior.com

Tags: 50mm 1.2, 5d mark II, 70-200 2.8 IS, 80mm 2.8, 85mm, 85mm 1.2, beauty, bizior.com, canon, canon 5d mark II, Chicago, deep octa, elinchrom, fashion, film, kodak portra 400, mamiya 645afd, photography, strobist, www.bizior.com

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February 28, 2012 - 11:10 PM

Gregory Despain - As a fellow fashion enthusiast, I have to say that this article is great to read and was well worth the read. I’ll be subscribing/following and waiting for more articles similar to this one for sure. This blog has a great author and I hope they continue to write!

Super Bowl XLVI | Personal Post

Sunday, February 5, 2012 Posted in personal, Superbowl

It’s been 4 years since I’ve watched Super Bowl for the first time, and it was the same two teams playing as today: New England Patriots and New York Giants. 4 years ago, Giants won, I watched it in NYC and the city went nuts after the game. That time, I mostly watched it for the commercials, not quite understood the rules of American Football. This year, I started to watch NFL more and actually got the rules, so I enjoyed both: commercials and the Super Bowl game, and I’ve to tell you – it sucks, because there is not time to go to the restroom and take care of business :/ Only chance you have, if you don’t want to miss either, is right after the half time commercials, but just before the half-time show. OK, anyways, enough talking, commercials were – as usual – outstanding, here are my favorites:

number 8 – careerbuilder.com, some people probably will say – just another day at work:

number 7 – honda, those who’s seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off will enjoy it most:

number 6 – doritos:

number 5 – m&ms:

number 4 – toyota, would love to get that couch:

number 3 – cars.com

number 2 – acura:

and aired after the half time, number 1 – chrysler

ooh yeah, by the way, congrats to Giants and Eli Manning, he/they put up a great game, again!

thanks for stopping by, and remember: “pictures don’t have to be amazing, but they sure can…” www.bizior.com

Tags: ads, advertisement, american football, big game, commercials, Superbowl

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Alejandra | Chicago Fashion Photography

Sunday, January 29, 2012 Posted in Chicago, fashion&beauty, film, photography, portrait, strobist

3 votes

I had the pleasure to work with Alejandra right before Thanksgiving 2011, but then got super busy, and went to Poland for Christmas (pictures coming soon) not that I was slacking or anything like that :/ Anyway, finally I postprocess the pictures, so here they are…

Little bit about the light:

pictures with the white background – main light Elinchrom Ranger RX + Deep Octa, two Striboxes on each side behind the model to make the background white. For the picture in the middle, we turned the background lights off, and I kinda liked the grey look of it – changes are good, right?

5 votes

Below, Deep Octa as a main light, camera left:

3 votes

Same Deep Octa + Elinchrom Ranger RX here, subject right slightly above, tilted:

1 vote

Combined with Deep Octa, Elinchrom Ranger RX is such a mobile and awesome source of light, that I dragged it with me almost everywhere. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but the light coming out from Deep Octa is so forgiving and soft, sometimes it makes me feel that no matter where I position it, picture will come out nice…

0 votes

Here are couple of shots from medium format Mamiya 645AF + 80mm 2.8, same lighting setup as for digital. I used Seconic L-758DR Light Meter for metering the light (and my math skills to go from ISO100 – digital, to ISO400 – Kodak PORTRA 400) , Pocket Wizards remote triggering system.