Matt Julius working on his modeling Portfolio { Hudson Valley Headshot Photographer }
Well I’ve been trying to stay on top of blogging lately. We’ve been having a lot of fun around the house lately. I’ve really been enjoying the down time around here. I spent a week in austin a few weeks ago, and after that, I’ve been able to take some more time for myself. Which is great, because while I’ve been booking less work lately, they’ve been a bit more well paid, which means I can take more time on my clients and that’s something that I really love.
Overall I’ve been really happy with my work lately. I do kinda have the feeling that I’ve hit another plateau, at the same time the effort it’s going to take to move m
y work to the next level is something that I just seem to be a little too busy to actually pull off. I’d love to start doing bigger editorials, working with bigger teams, getting better clothes. Sadly though those shoots just take so much time to plan. I know in the end my work would be better for it, but I can’t convince myself I have time for it.
I also just went and sent my leica m7 in to get the shutter repaired. Which I’m can’t wait to get back. That damn thing has certainly cost me a pretty penny. I couldn’t believe that to have it shipped alone was $80. Then it’s another $280 to have the shutter curtain repaired. So here’s what happened with my leica, I had heard that if you leave it out in the sun, there was the possibility that you could burn a whole in the leather shutter. Now, I didn’t actually think that would happen. Last summer when I was up in Breckenridge, I was hanging out with a bunch of my friends about to go to oktoberfest, when I guess I left my camera without a lens cap, laying on a table lens up. What that meant is that the sun and then lens made a bit of a magnifying glass, and ant situation on the shutter curtain. That burned a few holes in the shutter. Which totally sucks, because then I took the camera to japan with a giant hole in the shutter, and then I ended up with a bunch of shots where the sun basically burned the negative.
I’m hoping that when I get my leica back, I’ll be able to start doing some more creative personal work. It might be time for me to start developing my own film again. I miss it. It’s been a while since the good old times of me not having a ton of paid headshots, and portraits that keep me busy.
Now on to these shots. Matt came in wanting to add something to his portfolio. Well I should say start his modeling portfolio. So we put together 4 looks for him to start his comp card with some really strong shots. He actually has a great look, and I’m surprised that he hasn’t been picked up by an agency. I’m actually really proud of how these shots came out. Especially that first one. Every once in a while a photographer gets to have that moment when they feel like a ‘real’ photographer. It’s rare, and it’s fleeting, but it happens. I just love the motion in that first shot. It was actually Matt’s idea to use the bag as a prop, and I couldn’t be happier with the way that headshot came out. It has a really nice fashion look to it too.
The lighting was really simple. We had a nice big octobox above head height. Then there was a black v-flat on the camera left side to add some more contrast to the lit side. I also put a white vflat further away on the shadow side to bring out just a bit of the shadows, without adding to much light to that side of his face. Of course we shot it on a fashion grey backdrop. Post work on it was actually really simple. Basically the same old dodge and burn, with a bit of frequency separation to clean it up. I’ve been liking adding some grain to the backdrop after I smooth it out. I think that little bit of texture adds something nice to it.
These shots were pretty simple with lighting, it’s just shot on white, with a ‘party light’. I’m sure this is my own creation, but it’s something I’ve worked on for a lot of years. The first photographer that I saw doing this was a U.K. photographer called Jay Mawson. I absolutely loved his work, and I worked really hard to try and replicated his look for a long time. It’s funny how sometimes the simplest solution is the right one. All this is is one can on a stand pointed directly at the model, no diffusion, no nothing. These are slightly different than a hardbox, because the can acts as a really weak grid. You can see the light fall off towards the bottom of the frame. This is different than a hardbox though, because with the hardbox you don’t get that falloff. Every shoot is different, and it’s really based on the model as to which lighting setup I decide to use. Matt had a lot of personality and could carry that big of vignette, so that’s why I went with the party light for his headshots.
These ones are a lighting setup I’ve been having a lot of fun with. Basically I’ve been trying to create the illusion of a Hudson Valley natural light in a studio that basically has zero natural light. So to create that look, I need to make the light source as big as possible, and at the same time, try and keep it a bit far away. That way you get a nice even light source that doesn’t have a strong falloff. The tricky part is creating some directionality to it. So to do that I end up bouncing a large portion of the light off the ceiling.
Anyways thanks for reading, and listening to me prattle on.
