Todays Shoot - Chasi (NSFW)

I really like working with a variety of models - not just the ones covered in body mods, but those who have no ink, and normally do fashion/swimwear type of stuff as well

So when Chasi reached out to shoot for this project - I was taken back a bit - because she isnt generally the type to reach out to me for a shoot but none-the less - i was super stoked!

We started off in studio on white - split lighting - two 3x4 softboxes on profoto compact 300s - shot with the 70-200 at F14-16 iso100 - at a 160th

























































Afte that i boomed a beauty dish as high as possible and pointed it at a slight angle toward the background - shot these at the same settings but F20












































































After shooting that I wanted to do some stuff on location in the basement and maybe outdoors -with the speedlite flash to continue the style i started with emmy (go back a few shoots and youll see it).

I jumped my ISO to 400 - and shot with the transmitter so i could use the flash off body

theres only one basement shot - Fstop was at 10



















then we went outside and it was SHITTY weather, misting/raining, super dark, a storm was brewing - so it was PERFECT for black metal photos!

These are the 24-70 - at 2.8 at a 250th

























































After that i broke the flash out again and used it against the creepy sky - trying to blend the light a bit by shooting the flash at F14 - then the sky at a 200th - I really should have been less lazy and grabbed lights for a better effect and lighting - but I didnt know if the sky was going to open up in that time, so i just went with what i could.



















































We then found a nice grassy area - which is what ive been wanting to shoot for a while - a very natural - nature type of environment for the corpse paint stuff - shot this natural with the looming lightning storm at F2.8 at a 200th

























































































all in all im super stoked with the natural light and in studio shots - not sure if im really feeling the flash ones - but maybe if i blend them a bit in post they could work... maybe...

Todays Shoot - Jill (NSFW)

WHOA! ok! - this is how i spent 420 duuuuuuddddeee

so my best friend on earth when i was about 14, 15ish? a freshmen in high school was a girl named jill. she was probably one of the best people in my life at that time, - she really looked out for me, really inspired me to be myself and not give a fuck about anyone else, and was the first person to show me photography (yep, this whole career thing, is partially her fault!) - she also became my ride to and from school, and we even have a cute little back and fourth puppy crush on each other back then (awwwwww)

check it out! this is us circa... OLD! when i was SUPERGOTH! - she wasnt but she dressed up all gothy once to get me stoked haha.



















...and as happens, we sorta fell out of touch, as lives move on. She was two years ahead of me, so she was gone half way through my tenure in high school, and though we have reconnected a few times between then and now, we never came though on plans to really catch up and hang out!

So - to the point - she hit me up because she wanted to try out modeling for my projects while getting a nice gift for her husband - and to me - i was SO pumped to be able to spend time with/catch up with my old best friend ever

So we started off with a bit of lingerie type of work split with the fetish fashion work - but mostly it was lingerie based - for these i turned my softboxes down to 75% because for some reason it was blowing out the sides at 100% - im at ISO100 - 70-200 lens at F16 - 160th - here its two 3x4 soft boxes pointed toward each other about 2 feet from the background (split lighting) - profoto compact 300s (unedited photos below)

























































After that we shot some of the fine art stuff - which (i have been asked and now i will answer) - I use two background in a bag - velour backgrounds - one on the ground - one up on a stand - i take both soft boxes and bring them far enough away from the background so there will be no light bleed onto them - then have the model stand a few feet in front of it so she only gets scrim lighting - i turned my soft boxes back up to 100% - and shot this with the same settings as above but at F22 (unedited photos below)






































After finishing up with that.... CORPSE PAINT!
the first set was a beauty dish boomed high pointed at a VERY slight angle toward the model/background - it was powered to 50% so I could shoot at F22 (those compact 300s are bright as hell!) - and oh man - do i LOVE having casters on that stand - having a very awkward teetering death stand and lifting it up when its built - sucks a peen. so those casters being able to just roll that guy around... AWESOME! (unedited photos below)



















next we shot with the split lighting - same as the first set and i powered them back down to 75% - again F16 - 160th ISO100 (unedited photos below)



















It was so incredible getting to reconnect - and im going to make sure we dont fall out of touch again. I think she might even bring in the rugrat and her hubby for a family portrait at some point, which would be awesome

probably the best looking mom on earth right?

anyway - im pumped on the shots but even more pumped that i have one of the best people ever back in my life again.

I remember spending countless hours in the dark room with her while she developed pictures - and that was my first exposure to photography - she says i stole her dream and ran with it hahaha - for sure, maybe i did?

Todays Shoot - Sarah (NSFW)

Sarah is one of my favorite people to work with, despite the fact that prior to this shoot we have only shot together one time.

she is a professional make up artist who is alllll over the place - LA, NYC, shes worked on countless celebs, movies, music videos, etc. (yes, even Gary fn Busey!).

Since our last shoot we have stayed in touch and planned to shoot again when she was in the area - but due to weather and schedules, this was probably the 5th time this 2nd shoot had been rescheduled for haha - but finally we made it happen.

She modeled for me a little over a year ago for the goth/fetish project (see below) - but this time I wanted to expand on that, add corpse paint, etc.






































So we started with the goth/fetish/fashion stuff - which to be honest - im sort of getting bored with now that i have the corpse paint book in the works - but I always need more content to add to production. I shot this with split lighting - two 3x4 softboxes on profotos at 100% - ISO100 - F16 at a 160th - I shot these with the 70-200 2.8 L lens mostly - for some reason I like that one the best in studio - I do switch out to the 24-70 every now and again but find myself really liking the 70-200 better

see unedited images below












































































In between these shots - we went back and fourth to a more fashion type of look - but I figured it was easy to just split them evenly for continuity sake on the blog. For these shots i boomed a beauty dish straight down - as high as possible - and brought it about 6-8 feet from the background to keep the background from going too white - the first stuff we did was with her gloves and black lace - which she wanted to shoot alot of - and second she had an awesome bowler hat that i thought we could do some nifty stuff with - the settings for this are F20 for the first set and F16/18 for the hat set - at a 160th - ISO100 - and i switched back from the 70-200 to the 24-70 a bit but again mostly stuck with the 70-200 - these were my favorite shots from the first (non-painted) sets

see unedited images below


















































































































We then went around the building and shot some industrial nude shots - i figured i didnt want these to be super creepy so i grabbed two dynalite jackrabbit kits - powered them to about 1/4th or so - and just used two umbrellas for the first few sets - i decided to just bring the 24-70 2.8L USM lens - as i wanted a good mid-lens for both wide and tele type shots. My setting on these are: F18 (electric panel) F16 (window shot)F14 (blue wall) all ISO100 - all at a 160th as i didnt want to bleed in any ambient light for this one.












































































for the next shot i used an umbrella at 1/4 camera left and another umbrella at 3/4 pointed up toward the ceiling/her shoulders to both light her evenly with the 1/4 light and also give background light - as i was going to be shooting from a very specific angle. What I wanted to do was shoot against the ceiling - to cut out everything around her cause i was sick of the blue/white walls and love the creepy panels of the ceiling - however - i wanted to make sure - shooting at that angle - that i 1. wasnt getting an unflattering or extremely pornographic image and 2. the background was lit enough for seperation. So I did some very specific posing to avoid anything untasteful - and this is what we got - settings are F14 - ISO100 - 160th



















After finishing up that - we added corpse paint! yeayyy! for those who dont actually know why im doing the project - or whats behind it - please check out - www.jeremysaffer.com/corpsepaint - for all the info

now - i figure shes an incredible professional make up artist so her corpse paint was going to be AMAZING (and i was right) - during the process she got some black paint in her eye - and started tearing - which made cool black tears - but i needed solid lines for this project - sooo i had her wipe it away so she wouldnt go blind or something - and she redid it with real makeup and did an INCREDIBLE job! lots of inverted crosses! just what was needed!

For the on location shots I brought only a beauty dish/boom - which i wish we had more time i would have done some things differently but it was getting VERY late and we were both feeling tired.

I started out just outside my studio on a white wall and put the dish directly against the wall so the rest of the hallway would go dark and give VERY specific lighting - then for the hallway shots - i just moved it over a bit to the middle so it would splash some light on the side but still have a dark hallway - the settings for this are F16 - iso100 - 160th - again trying to not bleed in any ambient light. - and again i was shooting the 24-70



















































After that we moved to the basement and shot again a green metal door (i love how metal reflects light and use it to my advantage always) - but i jumped to F20 to really make it SUPER SUPER dark - then we shot just outside of the door at F18 - same settings as the shots above






































I wasnt really feeling what i was getting in the basement that day - maybe i was tired - or something - but I wasnt into those shots until i looked at them way later that night - I was kinda over it before i even started shooting it - so i was stoked to get back to the studio because i know ill like those shots.

So we started on white with a boomed dish - i set the FStop to 18 - again - iso100 at a 160th - and got alot of shots i really really dig from this set - these were shot with the 70-200












































































then we switched up to split lighting with the same settings, and these i was into some of them - but again when i get SUPER tired i just get to the point where i cant produce work ill be completely satisfied with - but these shots below i did like alot.


























































after that we shot on black and i just didnt like the shots - we were both so so tired that after something like 10 shots we both agreed DONE! and went home and watched movies.

Sarah is an incredible model, and incredible makeup artist and hopefully I'll be able to work with her again sooner rather then later - I really want to get her back up here next month to shoot more when we are both more awake!