I've shot under constant light in the studio before, and I've shot using flash heads, and there are pros and cons to both. I guess in simplest terms, it depends on what kind of effect you're looking to get. With these shots, it was important to me to get a substantial depth of field (or DOF), with all of the subject in focus. To achieve this requires a mid to high f-stop (I think I was shooting around f7.1 to f8) and a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second, at ISO 200. The flash heads weren't particularly far away, but were turned down low, so the coverage of light was nice and even - the dominant light was camera left, the fill light camera right.
In previous shoots where I've wanted a shallower DOF, sometimes the flash is too much, even with the flash heads moved further away. The intensity of flash heads, even on a low setting, is much brighter than the constant light LEDs that I use, so sometimes constant light is the best option. Shooting at f1.8 or f2.2 will give a shallower DOF, which gets shallower the closer you get to the subject, and this can give some great images. But, for this shoot with Lauren, a deep DOF was needed, and so flash heads were the logical choice!
The set of photos from the shoot is still being added to, and it's viewable here: Lauren F. Shoot 2
We're just passing through the middle of the EPL ice hockey season at the moment, so the games are still coming thick and fast. The response that Lauren, Yolanda and myself get to our photos is mostly positive (one or two trolls aside) and shooting the games is still fun.
At the last game, Lauren and myself had the opportunity to shoot the players as they come onto the ice, from a shooting position on the ice. It's a shoot I've attempted a couple of times in the past, and the results are hit and miss, but when they hit, they hit!
As we go along, we also like to shoot some 'behind the scenes' shots - these tend to be shots not of the players, but the people around the games, as well as us setting up and working at the games.
More photos from the Phoenix matches can be seen on the Official Phoenix Flickr page here: Phoenix Flickr albums
This past Sunday, Lauren and myself were doing a different kind of portrait shooting for a good friend of mine, Andy Carson. Andy is the director of a new independent film entitled Rhumblerama, a drama/comedy about a group of no-hopers who build a new career for themselves as professional wrestlers. The film is at the casting stage, and so Lauren and myself were in attendance at the auditions, taking headshots and bodyshots of the auditionees to help with the selection process.
Essentially, our job was to take three shots of each auditionee. One with them holding a clapperboard with their name written on it (for identification purposes), one headshot, and one bodyshot, which I then combined in photoshop to make one 'photosheet' per auditionee:
The whole experience was certainly an eye opening one! We saw some incredibly talented actors and actresses giving performances that were worthy of casting. We also saw, er, some other people....
A quick note here, if I may, to all budding actors and actresses out there:
Crying is not acting. It's crying.
Doing an improvised monologue about one side of a relationship break up isn't acting. It's still crying.
Yelling and shouting aren't acting. They're yelling and shouting.
When you're auditioning for a drama-slash-comedy, doing a monologue about murder / rape / suicide / death / psychosis / torture is not really in-keeping with the theme of the film.
Acting involves adapting another personality to your own. Being a chav and attempting to play a chav isn't acting, it's being a chav.
I hope this has been useful....
From a photography point of view, it was a relatively straightforward process. Once we had set up and got the lights set correctly, we developed a system whereby I would photograph the taller candidates and Lauren would shoot the 'more normal heighted' auditionees. Much of what we did that day was watching and waiting, we were sitting off to the side whilst the auditions took place, so we were in a good position not only to watch the actors but also the faces of Andy and his fellow panel members. Watching them keep their faces straight for some of the auditions was also a good lesson in acting!
More info on Rhumblerama can be found on the official Rhumblerama facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/RhumbleRama
Thanks for reading!
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