In this installment of HOW IT WAS LIT, I will walk you through a fairly complicated lighting setup which I used to shoot Lucie Doughty’s entry to the North American Hairstyling Awards in 2008.

Working with different colored lighting gels can be quite daunting and is definitely something you want to practice doing. Before we dive into it, there are some safety precautions you should be aware of to prevent any mishaps. You have to remember that even though photographic or theatrical lighting gels are meant to be heat resistant, they are still made of plastic and will melt with direct contact to any tungsten bulb, including modeling lights from flash heads. You want to make sure that you have enough space between the gel and the lamp for the heat to properly dissipate, otherwise you will melt a hole through the gel or worse, set something on fire. Whenever I light with gels, I constantly check their condition to make sure that nothing is amiss. Take the usual preventive measures and use simple common sense. For example, if you don’t need the modeling lights on, by all means, turn them off. You can read other common safety measures on my article for Sekonic HERE.

For these images, we used 3 different colors on the model plus another color to light the background, equaling out to 4 heads total. I used one Speedotron 2400 w/s pack and three 1200 w/s packs powering a zoom spot and 3 202VF heads. As much as possible I like to assign one head to one power pack to get the most control.

I start off with a basic three point lighting scenario to light the subject and fine tune it from there. My main concern is lighting position and where my shadows will fall. Knowing where your shadows lie is of great importance when lighting with gels because your shadows are where the color from the opposing light will show up. I like to mix and match modifiers depending on the quality of light I am after. You will see in the video I actually  gelled an umbrella while the other heads are fitted with regular 7″ silver reflectors. The key and backlight were from 7″ reflectors while my fill was from the umbrella. This is something you should experiment with to get the look you want. I’ve done shoots with gels using all umbrellas as well as with all 7″ reflectors. You can gel pretty much any modifier out there if you are creative and resourceful enough.

Your choice of colors will also affect output. Gels of varying colors will also have varying densities, meaning some colors will block out more light than others. Digital sensors will also pick up the warmer colors first, such as reds and yellows. This means you don’t have to pump out as much light to get the proper color exposure as you would with say, a violet or green. For this shoot we used pink, yellow, teal, and red.

I also decided to gel the background using a zoom spot shooting light through a standard breakup gobo. You can see how the setup looks in the video as well and the soft mottled effect in the image above. In the video it is positioned behind the umbrella. Note that in the diagram below, positions and gel colors are simply an approximation and not meant to be an exact replica of the actual setup. It should give you, however, a good starting point to lighting with gels.

Metering for colored gels isn’t any different than metering for “neutral” light. So long as you understand how to properly use your light meter in that it is always metering for an 18% gray, you will be able to assign the correct exposure for the desired color intensity and saturation. As you go towards overexposure, your colors will wash out towards white. If you underexpose, your colors become much richer and deeper as they block up towards black.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of HOW IT WAS LIT. Learn my approach to lighting first hand at the upcoming Lighting Workshop in DC. 

I was approached by Tether Tools a couple of years ago via email. One look at their website and I was immediately impressed. Here was a company offering a product line specifically for tethered shooting, which is something I have been an advocate of ever since I first saw it when I was working as an assistant. Their personable approach and willingness to listen to their customers was what made me want to establish a great relationship with them. Their customer service is bar none and they’re just a wonderful group of people.

Today I want to talk about a fairly new product from Tether Tools, the Strapmoore. It’s basically a neoprene strap with velcro enclosures on it. Simple right? Yes, and that’s the beauty of it. I think they initially designed it to strap laptop power adapters that were mounted via their tethering tables, but I have quickly found a number of other uses for it. Pretty much anything I can think of that needs strapping, the Strapmoore does it.

As you can see, it is actually made of three straps. the top and the bottom fasten to a C-stand or light stand or tripod leg or whatever you can think of, while the wider middle strap secures the device. The neoprene construction prevents any slippage and it also stretches to fit almost anything.

So far, I’ve used it to secure Pocketwizards to C-stands and light stands when using monolights as well as to power packs themselves, MacBook Pro power adapters, loose cables, light meters, speed light battery packs, speed lights themselves, Pocketwizards to speed lights, and even water bottles and drinks. Strapmoores are like potato chips – you can’t have just one. I have four of them and I think I may need a few more.

PREP TO POST Workshops presents a one of a kind educational and networking event open to PHOTOGRAPHERS, MAKEUP ARTISTS, and HAIRSTYLISTS mentored by beauty photographer Sean Armenta, hairstylist Sienree Du, and makeup artist Kathy Aragon. This unique workshop will illustrate how to best light hair and makeup from not only a photographic point of view, but also from the perspective of how light interacts with makeup and hairstyling products as well as specific makeup looks and hairstyles.

Learn how three different artists approach lighting for beauty in this exciting two-day event. Sean, Sienree and Kathy will share their real-world experience working as freelancers in the fashion and beauty industries to enable you to become more confident in your respective fields. As a makeup artist or hairstylist, have you ever wanted to know more about lighting in a non-technical format? Have you as a photographer wanted to know more about makeup and hair to aid in your lighting skills? This workshop is definitely for you.

Sean Armenta will demonstrate his approach to lighting makeup and hair from his experience working with clients such as Paul Mitchell, Milani Cosmetics, NailPro Magazine, Beauty Launchpad, Modern Salon, and American Salon. Sean will go beyond the lighting techniques and illustrate how and when to use certain lighting scenarios that will best feature the 6 basic makeup and hair looks you will encounter.

Sienree Du will impart her expertise from being a Paul Mitchell artist and educator, whose freelance career has included clients such as Arden B, Wet Seal, Revolve Clothing, GQ, Elle, Seventeen, Shane West, Mya, and Cote De Pablo. She will reveal her favorite products to use for various situations and how to dissect photographic lighting from a hairstylist’s frame of mind.

Kathy will reveal her secrets from working with advertising, editorial, and celebrity clients such as Elle, GQ, Glamour, Burberry, Rocawear, American Express, Demi Moore, Betty White, Claire Danes, and Paulina Porizkova. Kathy will expose the ins and outs of makeup application techniques and products to best suit the lighting situation.

During the first half of the first day, artists will be split into groups of their specific disciplines for lectures. In the second half of the day, Sean will discuss lighting with hairstylists and makeup artists while Sienree and Kathy will lead the photographers to educate and answer questions. On the second day all artists will be brought together to view a practical application of the topics and to witness the interaction between photographer, hairstylist and makeup artist within a collaboration. In addition, attendees will be able to network with fellow artists, take what they’ve learned and begin planning their way to producing better work and elevating their craft.

DAY 1

PHOTOGRAPHY

• The three basic makeup qualities

• The three basic hairstyles

• The qualities of Light

• Using the right modifiers

• Communicating with your team

• Leading a collaboration

• Post Production Considerations

HAIR

• Lighting dissection and basic lighting theory

• Recognizing lighting modifiers and equipment

• Hair possibilities and limitations

• Product knowledge

• Shooting In-Studio and On Location

• Communicating with the Photographer

MAKEUP

• Lighting dissection and basic lighting theory

• Recognizing lighting modifiers and equipment

• Product knowledge

• Selecting the right finish for the lighting condition

• Applications for In-studio and Outdoor location

• Communicating with the Photographer

DAY 2

• Live Shoot

• Q&A

• Portfolio Review

• Networking

JUNE 23-24, 2012
9am-5pm 

Hosted by
STUDIO 400
7205 Lockport Place Unit E
Lorton, VA 22079
(703) 203-5902

The cost for this two-day event is $500
Students with proof of enrollment in Photography or Cosmetology courses $299

REGISTRATION FOR THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW OPEN! REGISTER BY JUNE 3RD AND PAY ONLY $399

Registration Options

EarlyBird Registration (must enroll by June 3rd)$399.00 USD Standard Registration$500.00 USD Student Registration$299.00 USD

THIS EVENT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY

PREP TO POST presents a special workshop encompassing Sean Armenta’s beauty post production workflow. Learn beyond running pre-made actions or “secret” tricks and techniques and discover a more holistic approach to retouching.

This is not a workshop for retouchers who work on other photographers’ images. This is a workshop for photographers who want to get the most out of working on their own images without having to hire a retoucher. This workshop will help you stay competitive with your own work in the fields of advertising, editorial, commercial, and portraiture. All lessons will be delivered in a non-technical manner that is easily understood and applied. Learn from practical situations and real-world experience from someone who does this full time.

This workshop will cover:

• Developing a retouching strategy and workflow
• Editing your shoot in Capture One
• How to narrow down your selects
• How to present proofs to the client
• How to prepare RAW files for processing in Capture One
• Preparing the ideal working environment in Photoshop
• Maintaining image quality and color fidelity
• Working with your Wacom
• Recognizing and correcting makeup issues
• Recognizing and correcting skin issues
• Mastering skin retouching
• Preparing files for output

It is advised that you bring a laptop with Photoshop installed to follow along with the day’s lessons. A Wacom tablet is recommended, but not necessary for the workshop. You must have prior basic knowledge of working with Photoshop as this is not a beginner’s class. You must know how to work with layers and know where the essential tools, adjustments, and filters are (i.e. healing brush, clone stamp, curves, hue/saturation/lightness, etc)

Saturday, May 19th, 2012
9am – 5pm

Hosted by
THE CONSTRUCT
211 E. Columbine Ave.
Studio D
Santa Ana, CA 92707

The cost for this workshop is $350

 YOU MAY VIEW OUR TERMS/DISCLAIMERS/REFUND POLICY HERE

You can subscribe to Bello Magazine on the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad.

]]> http://preptopost.com/archives/1468/feed 0 http://preptopost.com/archives/1440 http://preptopost.com/archives/1440#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:35:29 +0000 Prep To Post http://preptopost.com/?p=1440 Today we have a very special episode of HOW IT WAS LIT because we will go over not one lighting scenario, but four completely different lighting setups that I used to shoot a Hollywood Icon inspired beauty editorial for Bello Magazine. If you missed the RECAP on this shoot, I suggest you read through that post to give you a little more background on how the shoot was conceptualized and executed.

RECAP // HOLLYWOOD ICONS on www.seanarmentablog.com

Okay, now onto some lighting diagrams!

AUDREY HEPBURN // Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Working off this reference image of Audrey Hepburn, I wanted to use a broad but directional light source with a quick falloff from light to shadow. I went with a diffused 22” beauty dish to provide a bit of wrap around while maintaining the structure of loop lighting. I added a white vflat on the opposite side to reduce the contrast a bit, and finished off the recreation with a gridded spot on the light blue seamless paper background.

MARILYN MONROE // Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

In this image of Marilyn Monroe, I can tell a small, hard light was used from the sharpness of the shadows and the level of contrast from light to dark. I opted to use my Speedotron Zoom Spot, which is basically an Altman 6.5” ellipsoidal spotlight converted to strobe. I took the liberty of tweaking this recreation a bit on this one, adding a gridded spot to give a little more separation between Jade and the mottled canvas background.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR // Cleopatra

This was definitely the easiest setup to figure out for me, since the reference image was an actual still from the movie set. I knew I had the perfect light to use for this recreation in a Mole Richardson 2K Fresnel spot. I positioned it up high and in-line with Jade and shot it from a 45 angle. I also added a white v-flat to control the contrast. Originally I had put up a paper seamless that was closer to the turquoise of the background in the reference image. The beauty editor wanted to go with a darker purple, so we replaced it with a purple seamless backdrop.

LIZA MINELLI // Cabaret

This was the trickiest lighting setup of the day, but my favorite to figure out. Instead of positioning lighting first, I first figured out where Jade had to be in relation to the mirror, and then I went to work on my shooting position to get the angle and framing just right. From there, I actually went through a couple of key light changes, going from a silver umbrella to a gridded beauty dish before finally deciding on the Speedotron zoom spot. I put the 2K to use once more as a kicker or a rimlight to give it that theatrical stage feel of Cabaret. Because I color balanced for the Speedotron, the 2K tungsten gave off the perfect bluish hue that really gave it that theatrical look. The lit cigarette and the backlit smoke finished off the atmosphere it needed. This was shot against some black V-Flats as the background.

I hope you enjoyed this installation of HOW IT WAS LIT. These were all shot in one day and you can see how much variation you can achieve with one or two light sources and some reflection.

Learn how I approach lighting first hand at the upcoming PREP TO POST workshop.

If you’re like me, then you like to have everything synced. I want to be able to see what I took on my iPhone on my Macbook Pro or on my Mac Pro and vice versa. I figure we spend enough money on technology, it should work the way we need it to. I guess I enjoy having everything consolidated so I don’t have to take so many steps to access my data, whether it be documents or photos or movies. This is why Apple is so successful. iCloud consolidates your data from your iOS devices to your desktop devices and all the Apple devices work seamlessly together for the most part.

One of the things I had to find a workaround for however, was getting videos I took with my iPhone onto my desktop the way I wanted to do it, which was through iMovie. Apparently, this isn’t the workflow that Apple wants you to have, and they want you to go through iPhoto. To me, that’s like using Photoshop to open up MOV files, but what do I know? After some research and suggestions from people on my photography Facebook page, the workaround was to use Apple’s Image Capture. Problem solved.

Another thing that annoyed me was the inability to move photos from one iPhone to another. On my shoots, everyone takes behind the scenes snaps and videos. So far we have had to email these files to each other, and you can only email 5 images at a time from your camera roll. This tends to be a chore. Well after some research and some time at the App Store, I found the Photo Transfer App.

This godsend of an app allows you to use either a WiFi connection or BlueTooth to do a bulk transfer of photos and videos from not only iPhone to iPhone, but iPhone to desktop and desktop to iPhone. It also works on iPads by the way. It transfers files quite quickly, and the only caveat is you must have the app installed on both the sending and receiving device. Basically it looks for iOS devices on the network that have the app installed and running. The UI is so easy to understand and use, and it works with both Apple and Windows desktops. It also has built in instructions so you will never be lost using this app.

The app costs $2.99, and the desktop versions are free. The Photo Transfer App is available on the Apple App Store. I currently have it installed on my iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro, and Mac Pro. Definitely well worth the small expense.

I am a firm believer in using what works regardless of brand. At least until Broncolor, Elinchrom or Profoto decide they want to sponsor me and make me their spokesperson that is.

Seriously though, the lighting equipment I have used to produce my work has been pretty varied. I think I have pretty much used all the popular and not so popular brands out there, from Briteks to Broncolor, Alien Bees to Speedotrons, Photogenics to Elinchroms, and Hensels to Profotos and a whole lot in between. If it’s available to me, I’ll use it, or at least find some way to make it work. There have been some shoots where I’ve used three different brands together. One of the things I have shied away from over the years are the use of speedlights, or on-camera flash units. Perhaps I have never really found the need to use them, and up until recently nobody really made anything cool to modify them with. Now we have the “Strobist” movement that really pushed the use of speedlights and a whole lot of DIY lighting modifiers for them. Throughout my career, however, I have just gotten used to using either moonlights or pack-and-head setups. Go big or go home I guess.

Lately, I have been pushing myself creatively and trying to expand my horizons further and I started by reviving my old Mamiya 645 kit that had been in storage for the past 4 or 5 years. I missed shooting film and the current trends of iPhoneography that all hearken back to the vintage era of film rekindled that fire for me. I wanted to do some location shoots with the Mamiya, so I bought a Vivitar 285 off ebay for $20 to play around with. I went to Flash Zebra to get the Pocketwizard sync cord so that I could use it off-camera.

I’m not really a TTL kind of guy, which is probably why I never wanted to drop $500 on a Canon 580EXII. The Vivitar at $20 makes a lot of sense though. That is until I found out about the Yongnuo 565EX through my friend, Jay Bartlett, who runs Simple Studio Lighting in Anaheim. It is basically a complete clone of the Canon 580, with a really useful added feature – it has an audible tone when it finishes recycling. You can turn this off, of course, but otherwise it functions exactly like the more expensive Canon for less than $200. It even powers down to 1/128th of full output. Cheapo Chinese knockoff you might think, right? I sure did. That is until I took it for a test drive on a fashion campaign for Hause of Howe last January. I have to say it performed without a hitch. It didn’t die, didn’t misfire, nothing. It kept working, shot after shot, off camera and on. To be perfectly honest, I even liked the Yongnuo interface way easier to use than Canon’s. You can use all the Canon 580 accessories like the battery packs and what not. In fact, I’ve used the Calumet Speedlight Powerblock 900 with the Yongnuo and that is a flawless setup for less than $500 for a flash and battery pack.

Yongnuo 565EX with a TetherTools Strapmoore holding a Pocketwizard

Using the Yongnuo for a beauty editorial with makeup legend Sharon Gault

Yongnuo setup with a silver umbrella

To date, I have used the Yongnuo to shoot numerous editorial features for Laguna Beach and Newport Beach magazine, a fashion campaign and catalog for Hause of Howe, and a beauty editorial with legendary makeup artist Sharon Gault.

I’ve always thought that photography equipment manufacturers tend to overprice their products, whether it be bags, lighting gear, or cameras, so it’s nice to find companies that provide a quality product that is very affordable. My advice? Sell your Nikon or Canon branded speedlights and buy 2 or 3 of the Yongnuo units from Jay or Todd at Simple Studio Lighting.

Last month, photographer Sean Armenta, hairstylist Sienree Du, and model Jade Corinne of the PREP TO POST team worked on a beauty editorial together for Bello Magazine. Bello beauty editor Mathias Alan wanted to pay tribute to Hollywood icons by using one model and transforming her look through the magic of makeup and hair.

Using Jade as a blank canvas, Mathias brilliantly used makeup to turn her from Marilyn Monroe to Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Liza Minelli. With skillful hairstyling, Sienree finished off the looks with extensions and hairpieces, completely changing Jade to resemble the Hollywood icons. For more info about this shoot, read Sean’s blog post on www.seanarmentablog.com

art director // JAMIE BREUER
makeup // MATHIAS ALAN
hair // SIENREE DU
model // JADE CORINNE
assistants // DONDEE QUINCENA & WAYNE HAYES

Data backup strategies are as varied as they are numerous. There are several dedicated backup programs that automate the process for you, and even OS X has their own built in data backup solution called Time Machine. How you perform your backups isn’t quite as important as long as you ARE doing backups.

The strategy I use for backups is actually quite simple. I do complete clones of my volumes onto bare hard drives which I then store offline. Each volume has at least two cloned backups so that in the unfortunate event of a hard drive failure, I can simply swap out the defective device with a cloned backup and be up and running without having to perform some sort of restore operation. Did I mention I am impatient when it comes to computers? I have tried many different hard drive cloning apps and the one I like the most is Super Duper by Shirt Pocket.

Super Duper is an amazing app because it is so easy to use. The user interface is simple, clean, and easy to understand. What makes this app stand out is the ability to clone your system drive and have it be bootable. Super Duper has a Smart Update feature that greatly speeds up the cloning process by only needing to update data that has been changed or added, meaning it doesn’t have to do a full backup each time. You can also schedule backups if you wish.

Super Duper costs less than $30 and is available for purchase directly from Shirt Pocket.