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!

Todays Shoot - Iron Thrones

Sometimes you go into a shoot knowing that its going to be a test of everything you're made of.

This was one of those shoots.

something you should know - I HATE NEW YORK CITY! more than anything on earth. driving there is on part with dying very slowly of something horrible to me. id rather be fighting a bear-shark with only a cup of water - then drive in new york city. FUCK NYC! anyway...

Now, if you've read the posts prior to this - the night before the shoot - you know im on less than 20 hours sleep for about 4 days... I was up at 9am to drop of Gage, had a shoot at 4,

So Nessa (assistant) came by around 7pm, we got some dinner, then I was going to have her drive to New Jersey.

About 30 minutes into the trip I started feeling really ill, and HAD to take over driving to avoid making some sort of mess of my aforementioned dinner.

So leaving at 930 I assumed there wouldnt be any traffic.. yyyyeah, most 3 lane highways were down to one lane. AWESOME! - so massive traffic the entire way... why wouldnt that happen? as soon as I hit the NY boarder, traffic was pretty much stopped at like - fucking midnight - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?

We go through the lincoln tunnel - and huzzah - we arrive at the hotel - which has a decent view of the NYC skyline.. - SEE!













Anyway, so I needed to get a 3rd Dynalite Jackrabbit chord in order to do the shoot, and very luckily for me, B&H is only 4 miles away from the hotel!!! YESSS! photo-nerd time!

So I meet up with the band for a bit to plan the next day, and crash out.

I wake up around 930 so i can go to B&H... and oh my fucking GOD! worst ever.

I get to the lincoln tunnel - and its stopped traffic - takes me about 40 minutes to get to the other side. - once on the other side - everyones GUNNING it - and stops short - so im about 2 inches into the "DONT BLOCK" grid - cop knocked on my window - and i get a $150 ticket - because i was dumb enough to drive into NYC - FUCK YOU NYC! SERIOUSLY! - everyone around me was beeping and there were $300 fines for beeping but nope - just me - $150 ticket... AWESOME! UGH!

I get to BH - get my gear and get the FUCK out of that shitty city, back to jersey. It took me over an hour to go 4 miles there - and about 5 minutes to get 4 miles back to jersey.

SO! after that misadventure (FUCK YOU NYC! WORST CITY EVER!) - I check out - meet up with the band - and my new aussie friend James Hartley (check out his work here - http://www.hartleyphoto.net ) - who was helping me with the shoot along with Nessa, and being an all around awesome guy.



















So for those who dont know - Iron Thrones are the "No Label Needed" Winners - it was a contest presented by Scion - where they front all the money to one winning band - that a label would usually put into a band (recording, clothes shopping, ad space, video documentary, and of course: a jeremy saffer photo shoot! hah) - more info on the contest here: http://metalinsider.net/nolabelneeded

So we start off by their studio in what was an abandoned building - which is apparently only occupied by teenage-mutant-ninja-kitties - and it most certainly smelled like it. - Because we started at noon - the sun was directly above us - which was a bit tricky for the begining of the day - i hate shooting around noon - or even being awake by noon! so, I started with a beauty dish boomed above the band - shooting with the 24-70 2.8 - iso 125 F18 - at a 40th (to bleed in some natural light) - but in the end the first shot looked WAY too natural for what I wanted for this set













So I took out the dish - and put in two umbrellas instead - turned them up a bit - took a knee to shoot upward and get a spill of the building in the shot to really capture the environment - for this one - I used almost the same settings - i turned my lights up a bit from 25% to about 50% to really battle the sun - this was with the 16-35 2.8 lens - then dropped my Fstop to 16 - and again shooting at a 40th to bleed in some of the natural lighting - and for me - this is a much more effective shot for a metal band trying to shoot in a decayed area



















Next we did the standard - shooting against a blue sky - which i normally do by throwing the sun behind the band for rim - and use front lighting or split lighting for the band... unfortunately the sun being directly above us, and trying to shoot upward, gave me nothing but lens glare - I blasted all my lights to try to fight it - and this was the one shot i got that i actually was happy with - i dont remember why i jumped by ISO to 400 - but its 400 for the rest of the shoot for some reason.. the settings are ISO400 - F22 - 200th - the lighting was split lighting with two umbrellas - and the sun gave them a nice beauty/hair light that hit their shoulders for this one













The last spot by the studio we shot was under the bridge which was loaded with cars - so i got down REAL low to cut out all the cars around them - and shot them against the top of the garage using two umbrellas to throw light up behind them - and a beauty dish for a main. - dish was at 25% - umbrellas at 50% - the first shot i wanted to really get the bridge in there - so i dropped my shutter speed down to a 25th at F20 - and for the second shot i jumped it up to a 100th at F22 to make a really selectively lit photo


























After that we drove around the corner and i spotted a little area that I knew would be KILLER for photos - it was a metal shed/barn that would reflect light perfectly - with grass below it - and the perfect blue sky above it! YESSSSS!!!! I saw it and was like "OK! SHOOTING HERE NOW!!"

Anyway - I started with just a single beauty dish boomed up above nice and high - the only problem with shooting like that is you cant get super wide shots because the light will be in the images, but I was going for CREEPY! - the settings are: F18 at a 200th - and again - going for a DARK vibe - which - this was during complete daylight - no shadows anywhere to be seen... when they saw this photo on the back of my camera they flipped out - and were like "HOW THE FUUUUHHH???" - its my job homie, its what i do! hah.



















Next I brought in split lighting so i could do some wider shots - get more of the environment in there - and even bring in the sky, and the grass below them a bit more - the settings for these shots are a 125th at F18 - the lighting is two umbrellas split behind them (giving the halo of light behind them) and a beauty dish boomed up and pointed at them - but turned down low - so it would be more of a fill then a main.






































Next we ate some burritos and moved onto a very industrial area - where it seemed every building was made of metal (PERFECT!)

I started off by doing something I dont normally do... shoot natural light... WHAAAT?!? I really liked how soft and cold the light was hitting on this wall - and really wanted to use the selective focus a bit more for a solid depth of field - so I popped on the 24-70 2.8 - dropped it down to 2.8 - at a 160th - and dropped my ISO to 100 (not sure why i even brought it up to 400 to begin with, maybe because its my safe spot *shrug* - anyway - i really like the natural look here













We moved down just a few feet to a red metal wall and i continued shooting natural with the same settings - then i popped in a beauty dish and changed my settings to ISO400 - F22 - at an 80th (to bring in some of the sky) - obviously this isnt edited with the beauty dish in the image
































Next we moved along to an overpass - and shot against it for a really standard "new jersey" type of shot - which is kinda weird thinking about it, because the band is from minnesota i think?

here I used two umbrellas behind them and a beauty main - shot at the same settings (f22 - iso400) but dropped my speed down to a 50th to realllly bring in that bridge and sky (because at this point we were losing light)
































I found yet another giant metal wall to shoot them on - and it was a MASSIVE wall so i knew whatever I was going to do was going to be perfect for them. for some reason pete decided to mess with his hair and that shit stayed STRAIGHT UP! with no effort! - looked like a troll - so i snapped a quick natural light shot of it (iso 100 - f2.8 at a 200th)



















Then i started doing real photos - I started using the beauty dish from above - and powered it up to make shadows more harsh - the shots are at iso100 - f16/11 at a 160th/200th to really cut out any ambient light and go super metal


























next i wanted to experiment a bit - so i used two umbrellas behind them against the wall - but brought them out FAR away from the wall - probably about 8-10 feet. and used a beauty dish as a main - for some reason i struggled for about 5 minutes trying to get the exposure the way i wanted - changing the power of the lights - and just being a generally frustrated dude (as this was the end,.ish - of the shoot, and the batteries, my assistants, the band, and myself were all very worn, with all of us having more work to do for the day) - so eventually i powered my umbrellas to 50% - the dish to 50% - and shot it at F22 at a 100th iso400 - and the goal was to really make it so the wall wasnt right on them giving hard horizontal lines - and MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!






































then we did a fun windmill shot - which you know - a good break in the seriousness - much needed! - i should have upped my speed to 200 - but this was a quick haha shot













last set we did was just next to that under a construction spot - i tried a few different things and hated it all then just did the split lighting with the dish main to finish up quick - and its the same settings but F20 instead of 22 - i shot thru two metal poles - then got close and shot angled against one of the umbrellas for the horizontal shot.
































After finishing up - we went back to the studio - i met up with Kathrine who came to my workshop just a few days earlier - then hung for a quick second at the syndicate office - showing them some of the photos (as they are essentially the ones who hired me and who are paying for the shoot).

Then I started my trek home... and jesus fucking christ I hate new york city. seriously - when i saw "welcome to connecticut" i nearly had a party in my car. it was allllll traffic til that point. FUCK YOU NYC! YOU ARE THE WORST!

so - all in all - it was a very successful shoot, probably my favorite of the year so far in terms of how much went into it - and the outcome. but, on the other side, i never ever ever want to travel through new york city again in my entire life - ever. fuck that place. seriously. worst. ever.

so keep your eyes open for iron thrones, as they will certainly be seen and heard - LOUDLY! in the near future

and metal injection did a behind the scenes video as well as a quick interview with me so that will make an appearance at some point at this location - http://metalinsider.net/nolabelneeded

aaand that was the longest blog i have ever written, kudos if you got through it. sorry if youre from nyc... move!

<3