TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography

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Studio Shoot – Bianca – Variations

Published by travel67

Studio Shoot - Bianca (1)

Studio Shoot - Bianca (2)

Studio Shoot - Bianca (3)

I had a few misconceptions about using digital in the studio. One of them is how useful it would be to check the exposure using the camera histogram or the LCD screen. If you are using a light meter then you should be getting the reading correct anyway. The extra checks you can do with digital are reassuring, but not really necessary.

One huge advantage, however, is with regards to film costs or the lack of them. When shooting with the Pentax 67, it works out at about a dollar fifty each time I press the shutter. If I shoot a street portrait, I will usually have a chat with the person then take two or three images. I am pretty sure that one of those images should be a keeper. It’s costs a few dollars, but it’s manageable.

When shooting portraits in the studio you tend to shoot a lot more. Although professional models may be able to flash the perfect smile at a moments notice, for most people the first dozen (or several dozen) shots can look less than relaxed. I checked my files in Adobe Bridge and saw that with digital I was shooting between 75 and 150 shots per person per look. On some evenings I was shooting over 400 images. That’s around 20 GB’s of hard disk space, but more importantly it’s not $600 dollars of film and processing costs.

The larger number of images means you have more to select from. In nearly all the shots the exposure and focus is correct so you can chose between more subjective points such as the angle of the head or the kind of smile. More variations give you more possibilities, and hopefully means you will get the exact shot that you or the client are looking for.

Model: Bianca Makeup & Hair: Kim Clay 645D with 67 105mm lens. Beauty Dish and Octobox as fill.

Hasselblad XPan

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"Why so serious?" Hasselblad XPan image by Nathan Keirn

My friend Nathan dropped by recently to show me his newly purchased Hasselblad XPan camera. The camera is a technological marvel, a truly beautiful piece of engineering. Hasselblad managed to design a compact camera that was light yet strong due to the titanium body. It had excellent optics, and amazingly it could shoot both regular sized frames of 35mm film and also double length frames. This gave 35mm shooters the ability to get image quality on a level with medium format in a tiny 35mm rangefinder body. (The XPan negative is roughly the same width as a 6×7 negative, just half the height.)

Hasselbald XPan II 35mm film Panoramic Camera

The Hasselblad XPan is fantastic, but I am not the only person aware of this. At a time when the resale value of analog cameras has plummeted only a few rare and collectable cameras have maintained their value. The XPan is one of them. Used cameras range in price from around US$1500 to US$8000.

Of course there’s always the possibility you’ll see one of these “obsolete film cameras” going for a few bucks at a flea market or yard sale. While you’re there you should also pick up the Ming vase, the Fabergé egg and the sketches by a young man from Vinci.

Studio Shoot – Cece – Desaturation

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Another studio shoot, this time with Cece. Makeup artist Kim Clay first put on some natural makeup, and I shot a simple beauty shot using a beauty dish as the mainlight and an octobox softbox for fill.

Studio Shoot - Cece (1)

For a second shot, Kim darkened the makeup and gave Cece a jacket. I shot with the same lighting setup.

Studio Shoot - Cece (2) original

I liked the shot but it didn’t feel quite right. However simply desaturating the image a fraction produced a much more interesting cinematic look.

Studio Shoot - Cece (2) slight desaturation

In the future I would like to take this further and “process” the same image in a variety of different ways. Anyone who has watched the various C.S.I. programs will be aware of the differences in color palette used to give the different shows their own look (Compare the saturated colors and oranges of C.S.I. Miami to the desaturated blues and grays of C.S.I. New York.).

As a travel photographer the only things I regularly do in Photoshop are dust removal and minor color or exposure corrections. The levels of color saturation were chosen back when buying the film. However, if you are not trying to document reality, but rather create an image, then you’re limited by nothing more than your imagination.

Studio Shoot – Manda – Transformation

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Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (1)

Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (2)

Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (3)

Studio Shoot - Manda - Transformation (4)

This was an interesting shoot with Manda, one of the Marines based on Okinawa.

Lighting remained constant through the shoot. Makeup artist Kim Clay added a natural makeup look between shots 2 and 3, and then an evening makeup look between 3 and 4. Another key difference is that the first two shots were taken with the 645 55mm lens (approx 40 mm on a 35 full frame camera) and the last two shots were taken with the 67 105mm lens (approx 85mm on a 35mm full frame camera). The longer lens gives more pleasing proportions to the face, which is why lenses around 85mm are often described as portrait lenses.

Santa Dive 2010

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Santa Dive 2010 - Ho Ho Ho

Santa Dive 2010 - No Reindeer Here!

Santa Dive 2010 - Rising sea levels led to serious flooding of Santa's Grotto

My good friend Hiroshi and I did our annual Santa dive today. Cape Maeda was calm, and the water clear but chilly. Not many other people diving today, but did manage to amuse a few other divers and snorkelers as we glided by.

Website Updates

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Travel 67 homepage

There have been a few changes over at the TRAVEL 67 website, that I thought I’d mention. The image on the homepage has switched from a girl in maiko costume to an Ainu man.

Flickr Facebook RSS

In the top right there are also new buttons taking you straight to my Flickr account, Chris Willson Photography on Facebook and the RSS feed.

New Shipping Details Page When Ordering Prints

There is also a new shipping details page when people are ordering prints. Several years ago the webmaster and I thought it was unnecessary and possibly annoying for us to require customers to type in their shipping details on the website when they will be automatically included at payment with Paypal. What we hadn’t considered was that this could, and did, lead to people being asked to make payment with Paypal before they had given us any customer details. It could appear impolite, or dubious, to ask for money without first asking for a name and shipping address. So we’ve learned from our incorrect assumptions and hopefully people prefer the new version.

A big thanks as always to Nick Fraenkel for all his hard work keeping the site up and running.

Studio Shoot – Niki J. Disco Inferno

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Niki J. Disco Inferno (1)

A couple of weeks ago Eboh Ajeroh invited fellow photographer David Washington and I to a shoot with model Niki J. Eboh set up the lights using a beauty dish and a hair light for the first shot, and then for the second image, orange and blue gels were used to create the disco / neon effect. Ursula Ajeroh did a fantastic job with makeup and sculpting the hair.

Niki J. Disco Inferno (2)

Thank You!

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A big thank you to all the people who came by the exhibition or offered their encouragement from afar.

It was a fun and hectic six days. This was my fifth exhibition, and the largest so far with 23 landscapes and 24 portraits on show.

It was great to meet so many people and listen to their comments. The snow monkey images “Relaxation” and “Monkey Hug” along with “Fireworks at Itsukushima” were very popular, however, the clear favorite was the “Into the Mist” shot of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge.

"Into the Mist" Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

I also learned a lot more about marketing, image selection, sales, and digital displays, but I’ll leave comments on them for another post. Right now I have to make sure that people who ordered prints get them before Christmas, and that the images from recent studio shoots are edited and sent to the models.

Busy, busy busy.

Global Panorama

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Visions of Japan at Global Gallery Pete Leong

Visions of Japan at Global Gallery by Pete Leong

This is my friend’s Pete Leong’s photo of my exhibition at Global Gallery in Okinawa.

The exhibition is from December 8th to 13th. 11AM to 8PM.
Only a couple of days left, but if you are in the area please drop by.

A little moment of calm

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Stone on the beach.

No posts for an entire week. Things have been a little hectic with various shoots, an exhibition to prepare for, a sick dog and a keyboard that would only let me use the backslash key.

I am slowly getting back on top of things. There are now a thousand or so new images on my hard drive, the exhibition is up and starts tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11AM, the dog is on heart medication, and I have a new keyboard that allows me to type prose more complicated than /////////////////////////////////////////.

And why the photo of a stone on the beach?

Because it’s a nice stone, on a nice beach. Time for a much needed cup of tea.