Kitographer

When I assist Mark Wilson I learn new things every time. Mark has been a photographer in Melbourne for 15+ years. A large part of this time he was a photographer at Coles Myer. His knowledge on film vs digital and technical lighting is some of the best I have ever seen.

Client: Dassi

Brief: advertising material, 5 shots, showing before and after scenario of dassi service.

5 shots over 1 full day @ house in Malvern.

Gear: Maymaiya RZ67 pro2 body, phase one back. Shooting teethered to latop capture one v4.

For all but one shot we used ARRI HMI lights (HMI Fresnels). These lights do not flash, rather give a constant light source.

Ari light features:

• They can be focused by a Large switch on the bottom.
• They usually have barn doors.
• Depending on side they can fit onto a normal average size stand (Manfrotto 004’s).
• An example: Arri d5 hmi 575w
• Good for outdoor and indoor lights.
• Can be easily covered with warming & cool gels (coloured film) to vary the temperature of the light.

1st shot: kitchen floor. Showing clean vs dirty.

Camera and Tripod

This is a large standard tripod from Manfrotto with a FOBA tripod head attached onto the leg to get down lower to the ground. See pic below:

foba mini superball tripod head.

Our main light was an Ari 2000 lamp. Bouncing off the ceiling from another room into the kitchen. These lights have a reasonably warm temperature (k). I covered it with an orange gel lowering the tempertaure of the lamp to match the ambient light already in the ktichen (kitchen light was shinning in from a window).

Arri HMI 2000 w - with orange gel to cool temperature down.

Look out for the final art work to be posted here when it is made public.

More info:

• Mark Wilson’s Website
• Wiki’s def on HMI
• Photo of HMI light set

and final art work of two of the photos:

final art work 2

Share on Facebook

Photographer = Juli Balla

Client: Holeproof Print Ad

Ad Agency: Clemener

Campaign: Woman walking along in corporate attire and she looks at herself in a window seeing her dressed in her hole-proof underwear.

Final art work:

Final art work will be posted when made public

I spent 2 days assisting Sydney based tog Juli Balla. I’ve worked with her a couple of times now and everytime is a huge learning curve. Check out her folio. You’ll see that she has worked with some of the biggest brands, mostly fashion. She expects a lot from her assistants, as most photographers at this level would. Her style is very inspiring to me. There are lots of multilayered shots, heavily themed. Some of her sexualized themes/photos are a bit disturbing but would be so much fun to do.

Both days were about 10 hours long. I spent 95% of this on my feet  and being at full alert. Her lighting and attention to detail I would say is very exact. This is a common trend with tog’s at this level. For example in this shoot, we spent about 45-60 mins setting up the first shot, (3 lights and a mirror) then 15 mins with a stand in model (assistant), then another 15 mins tweaking lighting on the actual model (in set). In summary, a lot of work, pushing, pulling, lights to get the scene perfect.

Highlights

• Shooting on a Hasselbald system, with a phase one P30 digi back.
• 3 lights, the main one being a Profoto Fresnel Spot, hired from Sun Studio.
• Juli always has lots of diffuser cloths and gels in her kit. All the lights on this campaign were softened in some manner.
• She always uses cutters to shield from (flash) flare but also expects you to put up cutters between her and any other distracting lights, such as windows.
• On location, safety is a first. Usually always there are 2 assistants on location work. This 1st location was a busy atrium in a large building on Collins st, Melb cbd. I had to gaffer lots of extention cords to the ground that ran across open spaces. The security were uneasy at first but came around. We had special permission to shoot here, which never is allowed.

This shows 3 lights - 1 out window. Juli on left with cam.

in b/g = showing model in position infront of mirror. in foreground = shows digi operator. Camera shoots straight to the computer

Lighting set up - in studio shooting reflection of model

Share on Facebook