Todays Shoot - Cheri Rose (NSFW!)

I had the opportunity to work with the amazing Cheri Rose again (see previous shoot here: http://jeremysaffer.blogspot.com/2010/03/todays-shoot-cheri-rose-nsfw.html ) - and again - it was too cold to shoot outdoors, so we shot more of the same as the last shoot

If you read this blog diligently - youre probably thinking - wow - alot of these model shoots looks alike.. yea. welllll thats the point when youre shooting a collection or project - to try to match lighting so you have a collection of work that flows together. SO! - thats why youll see alot of similarities in there :)

SO! We started with split lighting - two 3x4 soft boxes on profoto compact 300s - shooting at F 16 - a 125th ISO 100 - I thought the first two sets were about a stop off so i dropped down to F14 for the last few sets on this
















































































































































For the next set I wanted to do some more traditional focused spot lighting, but I didnt want it to be TOO harsh - so I set the dish way back - about 8 feet from the model (i took a set up shot for this one so you can peep that) - So I did a set or two on this at F22








































































Next it was time for corpse paint - so we shot with the same lighting and settings... at some point i moved the dish a bit then dropped the power down so I could shoot at F16
















































For the last set I kept the dish as is but moved it a bit closer - then turned on two rim bare parabolics - shooting at F18 - both on white and black paper


























































































Its always awesome getting to work with Cheri who is an incredibly talented model - hopefully we will be doing another shoot in the near future and finally get outside!

Todays Shoot - Stone Sour

I had previously worked with Slipknot a bunch of times, and when the opportunity to work with Stone Sour came up (as I was asked to do solo shots of Corey, but figured a band shoot would be better for more outlets) I jumped at the opportunity.

I had done many photo shoots in the storage area of Tsongas Arena, so I pretty much knew what I was going to be working with, but being that its also a hockey arena, the equpt is never in the same place and things get moved around constantly.

This time though... I was going to make a VERY huge mistake...

and yes - im not a photographer who doesnt admit when they make really dumb mistakes - I mention them so we can ALL learn from them - pretending everything you do is perfect and you never make any mistakes is just... ridiculous and unrealistic sooo - read on... and you will see what i did wrong.

I found a big open area - which had a really cool "under the bleachers" look, and did a bunch of test shots because I had a very specific look I wanted to get... the final set up was a bare parabolic pointed somewhat upward toward the concrete behind them - because the area was so large, I HAD to light it to make it look that way - then a second light boomed above them for more of a darker look.

I shot these at F14 at a 160th ISO100 with the 24-70 2.8 lens. I did two quick group sets here - I really liked the leading lines in the first set - but the second set was a bit off... no worries cause I already got the solid "keeper" shots anyway.






















































For the next set we went across the way to an area where i had previously shot - my chemical romance, the used, suicide silence, etc.. but the spot we shot in has NEVER been clear before - So i set a bare parabolic and pointed it down to get some leading lines in the vertical shots and even in some of the horizontal shots, I used a beauty dish pointed a bit above them but not directly pointed down like in the last set - I wanted this to be brighter.

I shot these at F11 at a 160th - and we did some serious shots then some fun shots.










































After shooting the group shots I had Corey hang for solos while everyone else took off to do their thing... I used the same light set up for the first set with Corey.. after two shots it hit me... I done FUCKED UP BAD!!!!!!!

can you figure out what I did wrong? I look at my camera, look closely at the lens... and sometime while it was in the bag - the auto focus switch had been turn to manual focus... ...fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. I basically said fuck about 375 times in my head while i switched over the auto focus - and started shooting again. I couldnt ask the band to come back - I just had to persevere and hope the images were salvageable. (conclusion of that at the bottom of the blog).






















































SO! I finished shooting the first set with Corey - then moved to the first location and to mimic the first set we did in group photos - these were at F14 - 160th - iso 100 - boomed dish pointed straight down - then a parabolic pointed toward the concrete.










































After doing that - he saw i was wearing a michael jackson off the wall shirt - he commented "that shirt is awesome, i have that on me". I didnt know what he ment til he lifted up his shirt and tadaaa - he had the off the wall print tattooed on his back! so cool!

so! for the last set i pointed the dish at him and used the parabolic as a rim - and finished up with the same setting - at F14.














































































He took off to go do what he had to do before playing - then i furiously checked the images in back of camera zooming in all the way in every set - and alas... the images were sharp... but!!! I wanted to check on my comp, which i couldnt do til i got home..

SO! I got home and loaded the raw images - and most of them - id say 95% were TACK SHARP! I dont know if it was pure luck - or second nature - but the images were sharp and totally usable. - I didnt even have to sharpen them in PS - they just worked! - SO AWESOME! - that could have been a ruined shoot easily - and its the most amateur mistake that can be made!!!! - and yes - we all make mistakes - today I made a BIG ONE! but luckily it wasnt a bad one.

Working with Stone Sour was awesome - great dudes - always fun to see Corey - who is honestly one of the best dudes in this industry. He is always beyond nice, super easy to work with, and just an all around great dude with a billion mutual friends, which is why I will always opt to work with anything hes doing.

Todays Shoot - Ryn (NSFW)

Todays shoot is Ryn who, dabbles in modeling, but is namely a photographer.

Winter kills me, especially December and January when there are barely any shows, so i tend to load up with model shoots all in studio - sooo expect to see a bunch of it.

SO! being that it was one of her first times in front of the camera, and shes never shot with me, I figured we would break in a few sets with a more lingerie type feel.

I shot these with 2 3x4 profoto softboxes as split lighting, and placed the model about a half of a foot behind them so there would be slightly harsher shadows.

I shot this with the Canon 1ds Mark 2 with the 70-200 which seems to be the best in studio lens for me - i like being telephoto with zoom so i can crop in super tight or back up and still get a full body shot with out getting off the paper and getting environment in it - these are F16 at a 125th ISO 100



















































Next it was time for corpse paint! - I wanted these to be very very slightly brighter for the first set, so i brought the lights in about 3 inches each, and angled them slightly toward the model, but kept the same settings - generally with corpse paint you lose a stop exposing for the paint, but i just left it the same and the exposures are pretty much identical with the prior set save for slightly more highlights in this one.


































For the last set of corpse paint shots I boomed my mid size dish, but this time didnt raise it up as high as it could go, as i often do. I raised it about 3/4ths of what i could do - i knew her super blonde hair would just reflect light, so I wanted to bank on that and really get it to glow.

I positioned her around the rim of the dish so no harsh shadows would fall on her face - and posed her accordingly. For these i jumped up to F20 - check it





















































































It was awesome getting to have a photographer be a model for a photographer, hopefully we will be working together again in the near future.

Todays Shoot - Diamond

Todays shoot was for my good friend Sam, who you may recognize from Trapped Under Ice.

He has another band, with Brendan (also from trapped under ice), David Wood from terror/down to nothing, and Justin...who... i dont know if hes in another band or not.

Anyway, so Sam hit me up and asked me to do some shots for them as they didnt have anything pro to work with, so after their load in at the waterfront we ran over to my studio and did a super quick 10 minute shoot.

Being that this band is more pop punk than hardcore I wanted to give them a brighter, lighter feel than I would give a band like trapped under ice or terror.

I used a beauty dish main boomed about 1.5 feet above them, pointed directly at them - with two parabolic bare rims behind them, pointed around shoulder area - but speficially not crossing light streams (cmon, you watched ghostbusters right?).

I shot these at F16 at a 125th ISO100 - using the 70-200 which is honestly the best lens for shooting in studio on a paper background cause you can still zoom in and out, while not going too wide to include anything off-paper. So we did a few serious shots, and a few fun shots, and ran right back to the show for them to play!

































































It was great getting to work with these dudes in a different way, in a different band. and although you may not have heard of them yet... you will!

Todays Shoot - Rob Schneider

As soon as I found out Rob Schneider was coming to town, I instantly looked for an outlet so I would have a reason to do a shoot with him. (sometimes in photography, in this business, you need to create your own jobs, make your own moves to attain shoots and goals you want) I found the outlets! locked down the photo shoot!

luckily this was just 5 minutes away from my studio - so I went in around 5pm. We were going to do the shoot at 6, but he decided he wanted to do the shoot between his 8pm and 10pm show.

SO! - I popped the 70-200 IS 2.8 on the 40D for the live shots - and shot the first five minutes or so of his live set, which was searing with terrible red-lighting - but not too strong that it would ruin the images.

Luckily I saved my batch settings from the last show (Gabriel Iglesias) that I had shot there - and its ALWAYS the same lighting. So post was super easy - i just applied the same batch to all the live shots and TADA! they were skin tone and white balanced perfectly for usage. - check it! - ill even put in a before and after.
















































So after his live set - I was escorted into his backstage room which had extremely low ceilings and very limited area. Before shooting, he wanted to see some of my work. I had my iPad with me, which is my portfolio - He took a look while I set up my gear. He went on to be really impressed with my work, and with some of the people I've worked with (though, he is probably in the top 20 most well known I've worked with) but very very kind and loaded with complements about my work.

Anyway. We got started on the couch I figured id have him lounge out, I wanted to get some shots that are more condusive to him being more laid back before going all out and getting some fun shots. I started with a boomed dish - i used my smaller dish (the one i got before the iwabo tour) - but still it was extremely difficult due to the very low ceilings - so i set the light down to 1/4th (i usually set it to 1/2) as the light was going to be closer. I was shooting with the Canon 1DS Mark 2 - the 24-70 2.8 L - and at F14 ISO100 - at a 160th.












For the second shot, I had him stand on the couch, which, the ceilings were so low, he would have bashed his head on the light - so i moved it camera right and angled the dish toward him. Because the light was much closer, I jumped the Fstop to F18


















After moving away from the couch our options were fairly limited - there was a very small hallway connecting the small dressing room with the stage doors, and just across from them were doors with white curtains on them that led to where a tour bus would park. So I set up a boomed dish camera right. I started with it pointing down toward him but after a few shots i gave it more of an angle toward his face to give more more full light. I shot these at F20 because the light was SO close to his face due to the extremely low overhead. - We did a few poses and then I called it a shoot - because I knew he only had a small amount of time between then and when he went back on stage.








































































Alas, change of plans! - I showed him the in camera shots and he was so impressed he insisted we shoot more! - which is AWESOME! because I could shoot him for another hour and get awesome stuff. Dude rules and TOTALLY hams it up for the camera.

So we found a little electric panel room - which is usually something id use for a metal band, but he was the one who chose it, then we decided to go with more of a flat light so i unboomed the dish and just had it straight up shooting through the doorway over my back/head - as there was no room to light it in the small utility room. We finished with that set at F14








































































Afterward, he took a look at the images, and made sure I emailed them to him as he wanted to use some of the shots for his next tour and possibly some other things as well.

All in all its always incredible to get the opportunity to work with something a bit outside of my realm, such as a celebrity or actor or... both, while still being someone who's work I thoroughly enjoy. Bottom line, his movies are awesome, and hes seriously one of the nicest people I've worked with. The images look awesome in print in both the newspaper and magazine that printed them, and hopefully we will get the opportunity to work together again.

One thing to remember - sometimes you need to create your own opportunities to get the shoots you want. I wouldnt have done this shoot if I didn't take it upon myself to contact a few outlets I work with (one I hadnt worked with before) in order to contact the PR agent to lock down the shoot. SO! my advice, if you have the contacts, and the ability, shoot anything you want, anyway you can.