Henrique and Moritz

We've got a couple of Grade 10 exchange students staying with us for the winter.  Henrique from Brazil, and Moritz from Germany.  Since they weren't around to get their school photos at the beginning of the year, I thought I'd just grad a couple of quick ones in the studio.  For kicks, I thought we'd do something more interesting as well.

Henrique

Moritz

Tech Stuff

I lit the guys with an Alien Bee B1600 with the stock 7 inch silver reflector on it.  Another Alien Bee with an extra small softbox was used as a fill light to soften the effect of the hard main light.  This is not something you want to do with someone much older than a teenager unless they have perfect make-up on.

Camera:  Nikon D700

Lens:  Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8

Lighting:  Alien Bee B1600 x 2

Note

If it seems that I've haven't done any blog postings in a while, it's that we're in the shoulder season between winter and summer here and I'm not that busy.  Alan at the Urban Pie toodled off to thailand for a long vacation as well, so I haven't been doing much with those guys either.  I've been filling my time with long walks with my wife, fixing some badly needed things on my pick-up truck, and finishing some wedding albums for clients, and generally goofing off.  Come June, I get busy again for the summer season.

Nicklaus North Winter Wedding

Trina and Mark came to Whistler from Washington State to have a intimate wedding at a Nicklaus North Chalet. If Trina looks a little cold in the outside pictures, it was -11 degrees outside when we did the portrait session.







Tech Stuff:
The pictures are a little misleading, as we shot the portraits the morning after the wedding. The ceremony was 8:00 in the evening, and there was no natural light at all for portraits. For the pictures of the ceremony, I turned the camera flash off and turned up the camera ISO up to 3200 for a few photos. It was so dark that the guy doing the ceremony couldn't read the vows, so he grabbed one of the candles for light, and that made the photo. For the group photo, I brought an alien Bee strobe unit with a softbox mounted on it. My camera flash just didn't have the juice to do a photo like this.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (ceremony) , Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (portraits)
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 Studio Strobe, Medium six softbox.

CabaRadio with Teddy Smooth

CabaRadio at CITR radio at UBC, (L-R) Iona Beerwagon, Teddy Smooth, Miss Fitt, eRoc, Suzy Shameless.
I did a late night shoot at UBC's student radio station, CITR, on the CabaRadio show with DJ's Teddy Smooth and eRoc. They cover the cabaret scene in Vancouver, so we had local burlesque dancer Miss Fitt, and roller derby queens Iona Beerwagon and Suzy Shameless (to see them in action, check out my blog posting on the Faster Pussycats roller derby).

Arriving at the studio in UBC's student Union building (despite all the new construction at UBC, the Sub looks like it could be a set from Animal House) at 10:30 for the start of the show. We shot until 1:00 in the morning, and then Urban Pie publisher Alan Forsythe and I headed to a 24 hour coffee shop to edit and process the photos, as the Pie was going to press the next day. Leaving Vancouver at 3:00 AM, I finally got to bed at 5:30 in the morning. I did get some nice photos though.


Teddy Smooth and eRoc in the radio station's record room.


Hello Ladies. Iona Beerwagon and Suzy Shameless.


Urban Pie publisher Alan Forsythe gets sandwiched.

Tech Stuff
The main shot was lit with two Alien Bee B1600 lights, one as a key in front, and a kicker off to camera right. The key light had a medium softbox, and the kicker an extra small 12x16" softbox.

The photos in the hallway and record room were shot with an alien Bee and extra small softbox. In the hallway, I took the light off the stand and put it on the floor to get some low angle lighting.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B-1600 lights x 2

Here be Monsters

This is a story on the 'Here be Monsters" alternative threatre troupe in Vancouver.




Here's an outtake from the shoot that Urban Pie publisher Alan Forsythe and I ended up in by mistake. It gives a good idea of the process.

Tech Stuff:
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 strobe w/ small softbox.

The Head Shot

Business portraits, or head shots as they've macabrely know as, are a fairly new thing for me. Being in Whistler, commercial space is expensive and hard to come by, so I've always worked out of my house instead of a traditional photographers studio. About two years ago, we had a big fire, and as a result had to strip out all the drywall and floors. Since it was open, I took the opportunity to knock down a few walls and opened up a space just large enough to use as a photo studio.

While I've done a few tests, I hadn't actually had a paying client in here until this week when Nick Davies, a local lawyer, called me up and asked for some new photos for his web page. I've done shots of Nick in the past, but mostly in the Whistler business style, casual shirts, outside, maybe a set of skis in the shot. He's working a lot with Vancouver clients these days, and needed to look more a suite wearing, boardroom prowling, big city lawyer.

Tech Stuff:
I used three Alien Bee B1600 strobes. A key light with a 22" beauty dish to camera left, a kicker and hair light behind Nick with a extra small 12x16" softbox on it, and a background light against the wall on a short stand. The wall to camera right is painted bright white and makes a great fill source. The background wall is painted 18% grey. To get the tone, I took a Kodak grey card to Home Depot and got them to colour match it.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 x 3

In the studio

My buddy Paul "Fabio" Fournier just go back from a month spent crewing on a yacht from Vancouver to Puerto Vallarta. He looked really rugged after that, with a big beard when I ran into him yesterday, so I asked him to stop by the studio and we'd get a few snaps of him before he shaved it off.


Lesley-Anne is a really old friend of mine from way back in the day who spent the Canada Day weekend with Joyce and I here in Whistler. I grabbed her for a couple of quick portraits before she went home.

Tech Stuff
Very simple lighting, a 22" beauty dish on a single Alien Bee head. The wall of the studio is painted 18% grey, so it has a nice dark tone to it when you don't light it, not quite black, but dark enough to get the subject to pop out. Perfect for B&W.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF 85mm f/1.8 (Paul), AF-S Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 (Lesley-Anne)
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 with a 22" beauty dish reflector.

Family Portraits

Tech Stuff
These are a few shots from a family reunion photo shoot this week for Greg at Insight Photography. This was a fun shoot, but because there were some younger kids, we had to shoot at 5:30 in the afternoon, about two hours earlier than I would have liked. As the light was still really bright, and we had some larger group photos to do, I brought in an Alien Bee B1600 studio strobe head with a 48"x36" softbox to use as a huge fill flash. Once I finished the group photos, I did a few individual family photos (the top and bottom photos) with the big softbox, which worked really wonderfully. After I was done with the posed photos, I spent a few minutes in the back yard with the kids and came out with this (middle) nice portrait. For this I didn't use any lighting, but as the yard by this time was in deep shade, I had to use a high ISO (800), and had to to do custom white balance because of the deep blue colour cast in the shade.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (top, bottom), Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (middle)
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 strobe with Photoflex 48"x36" softbox (top, bottom), available ISO 800 (middle)

Bard on the Beach

Actors Alessandro Juliani and Dean Paul Gibson from the Bard on the Beach production of Falstaff in the cast dressing room.
This week we're doing a story on Bard on the Beach, the classic Vancouver Shakespearian theatre that runs through the summer at Kits Beach. The actors are the best the city has to offer, Alessandro Juliani is a veteran of the Vancouver filmed Battlestar Galactica, many of the others are well known from local TV and film production, and the productions are lush and well staged. Definitely a must see for the summer in Vancouver.


Actor Dean Paul Gibson looking pensive.


Bard on the Beach Artistic Director Christopher Gaze.


Assistant stage manager Samara Van Nostrand checks the prop swords back stage.

Tech Stuff
This was a difficult shoot, as the subjects are busy guys who aren't, in my experience, tolerant of having their time wasted. As they were being interviewed by Urban Pie editor Alan Forsythe, I scouted the locations and set up the lighting so it would be ready for them to step in. The session with Alessandro Juliani and Dean Paul Gibson lasted less than 5 minutes, and I was able to get three usable photos from the session. A well timed dirty joke from one of the actors got a great expressions from everyone.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 strobe with a 22" beauty dish.

Tattoed Ladies

Cherry Chichi
This is an interesting story I did for the Urban Pie on Ladies with Tattoos. I had spent the day on an exhausting shoot in a re-modeled house here in Whistler. I had time to grab a shower and a bite and head to Vancouver to shoot this. I got home at midnight, 16 hours after I started the day.


Maila Harlow



Tech Stuff:
I used two Alien Bee lights, the key with a 22" beauty dish, and a kicker with background reflector on it. I still haven't replaced my grid spots, so I just turned the back ground reflector around so it aimed at the models instead.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm
Lighting: alien Bee B1600 x 2, 22" Beauty Dish, background reflector.

Le Bouffon

I really enjoyed doing the story on Trilby Jeeves and her Buffoonery classes, the one thing were missing was a shot Trilby in character. A couple of weeks later I was able to catch up with her after one of her acting workshops, in her character, Madam rouge.




A wide view of the lighting I used for these shots. There's also a kicker out of view to camera right.

Tech Stuff:
I used two Alien Bee lights, one with a 22 inch dish on it, and the other with just a bare reflector as a kicker.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: AF-S Nikon 28-70
Lighting: Alien Bees B1600 x2

Top of the layer cake

This a local three bedroom townhouse that is going back into the rental pool after a major renovation. While it's not the fanciest place I've been in, it's fairly typical of the work I do on a day to day basis. While it looks fairly straight forward, it's actually three separate photographs stacked on top of each other.


Here is the base image, except with the colour target in the frame. The lighting is very warm because of the halogen track lighting, and the colour target gives me a neutral tone to use to get an accurate colour balance. The biggest problems with this photo is that the light outside through the window is totally blown out, there is a big reflection in the painting of the strobe's softbox, and the fireplace is dark.


Here is another version with the strobe turned off and exposure set for the outside lighting. I dropped in the view of the exterior overtop of the original photo to balance the light outside. I also copied out the painting above the fireplace to fix the reflection in the glass.


In the final image, I turned off all the lights, and lit a big fire, and then dropped the image of the fireplace onto the final image.

The image was lit with an Alien Bee strobe with a medium softbox.

You can see more of my architectural work at http://www.davidbuzzard.com/

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8
Lighting: Alienn Bee B1600 640 w/sec strobe with a 24x16" softbox. Radio Popper radio slaves.

Sweet Soul Burlesque

Crystal Precious and Burgundy Brixx
I've helped to launch two independent newspapers based in Squamish, both published by my friend Alan Forsythe. It's been so much fun that he decided to start another one in Vancouver, the Urban Pie. A part of our lead up to the first edition, I spent yesterday shooting for the first feature stories, Sweet Soul Burlesque and the Rio Theatre.

Crystal Precious, leader of the Sweet Soul Burlesque Troop and Burgundy Brixx are a big part of the vibrant Vancouver burlesque scene, and can be seen in live shows around the city.


MC Purrfessor, Burgundy Brixx, and Crystal Precious

Executive House Photo Shoot

I spent a busy day shooting this brand new executive Whistler house for CR Contracting, the builders of the place. The house contains some amazing timber framing, with entire tree trunks being used for the upright posts.

This first shot is the front entry, looking towards the kitchen and breakfast nook. One of the great features of this house are the three story high, floor to ceiling windows, but that also caused me huge problems, as it's such a bright light source that almost everything in the room is silhouetted. To balance the light, I used a 640w/s strobe with a large softbox on the second floor landing to camera left to light the the centre and camera right posts, another 640w/s light on the floor to camera left aimed at the bar, and a third 640w/s light with a small softbox behind the post on camera left to light the kitchen.

Actually, the biggest problem with this shot was the $35,000 Steinway baby grand piano that was in the middle of the room and generally in the way of everything. I grabbed a couple of painters who were finishing some work, and we moved it off to the side of the room by the window. The thing weighed more than an old Buick.




This is a shot of the living room from the top mezzanine. Although it looks fairly straight forward, it presented a number of problems. First, there are some very strong vertical lines created by the wooden posts. With a regular wide angle lens, when you aim it down into the room, you get downward pointing converging lines (as you can see in the bottom version of the photo) that make it look like the posts are splaying out. I used a special perspective control lens that allowed me to keep the focal plane parallel to the posts, keeping lines on the posts straight.

Second problem was that there was a large canvas painting on the wall that was bright blue, conflicting badly with the earth tone colour scheme in the room. To fix that, in Photoshop I selected the painting, then I sampled a tone from the coffee table and used it for a gradient overlay to get the painting to match the surrounds a bit better.






The kitchen and library were also problematic. The dark wood panelling looks great, but sucks up light like a black hole. To get any definition, you need use some serious strobe light.  In the lowest photo, you can see the room sans the strobe.

The other problem is that the light outside was several stops brighter than the inside, even with the strobe. To deal with this, I needed to take a shot exposed for the light outside, and then make a special Photoshop mask so that only the outside part of that photo shows through the window, and then overlay that shot on the original image of the inside of the room.


This was actually pretty easy to shoot. The perspective control lens kept the lines straight. I still have another day of work on the house, so there's still a few shots still to come on this one.

Tech Stuff
Camera: Nikon D700
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm f/2.8 and Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 PC
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 640w/s strobe units X 3, 48x32" Photoflex Softbox, 24x16" Photoflex Softbox, 22" Alien Bee Beauty Dish with diffusion sock. Radio Popper Slave Slave Units.