Hi Aster!
Thanks a lot! I'd share more works... - I've got more works nearing completion.
Location:
Selecting a Location - well, besides this pedestrian bridge being rather famous in our parts - and I do go there once or twice before the actual shoot to get used to the shooting conditions and what are the best portions of the bridge to work with. As someone who almost exclusively works outdoors (only one shoot in my current port is done in studio), I was very lucky to be blessed with a good sunset and great skies on that day, so big sigh of relief there - it's quite cloudy in Singapore as of late - and I did try going up on other days, it wasn't that good. So it's a hit or miss.
Lighting:
The lighting setup is pretty cheap and simple - one 300w strobe and another 400w strobe. They are all china-made and should cost somewhere around £200-300 for a 300w or a 400w light - no modifiers are added. These are pretty heavy to lug up for one person (thankfully, I've got my Adviser and my trusty mentor/assistant/friend on site as well) - each system, minus stands but including battery, is about 12.5 and 13.5kg (for the 300w and 400w) - so we took a cab half way up the hill, and carted them up the rest of the way.
Talent:
Well, having access to the model isn't too hard - the thing is to walk down to the Agency with a printed portfolio - at least it should be populated by Super 8R Photos. They do provide models for test - and those guys are kind enough to let learning photographers use their models for test. There are plenty of models available in Singapore - both imported, and local.
The make up Artist is my high school mate.
DI / post-work:
Not much Post Processing work has been done for the model, but it's rather necessary for me to remove some blemishes from the model's face - blemishes like pimples - the model's Russian, and she's definitely not used to our climate, and her face shows it with a little outbreak of zits - these blemishes are raised above the skin, so they are three dimensional in nature - i.e. those things pop upwards and is very hard to cover up just by using make up (besides doing prosthetic make up). Besides that - another thing I do is to give some parts of her skin a little more shine - although the most of the shine comes from the model's own skin, and the hard lighting setup I gave her (hair/rim), some parts of her arms and legs don't shine as much, and that's where post processing comes in.
Photographic Equipment:
I was being treated to my friend's Zeiss 85 1.4 with a pol-fader (dual-polarizers) on his A900, but I just couldn't get used to composing with that prime, because my main workhorses are the 17-35 f2.8-4 and the 70-200 f2.8 - it throws me off a little - especially the pol-fader, which I have to twist a little in order to get the light stop I need.
At the end, I ditched the Zeiss with the pol-fader, and reverted to a 17-35 with a Tian-Ya ND8 Filter (china-made copies of Cokin, where a piece comes at a price of mere £5) and made all my wide angle shots with it. p.s. I love the 17-35 with the a900 - and there's a tendency for me to point it at the sun whenever I mate the 17-35 2.8-4 with the a900 - I like the flare coming out of it.
For the A900, I usually keep to around f11-16 for most of my works these days, and for A700, I keep my settings to around f8-11 to get enough Depth of Field, but still avoid the diffraction limits of the camera - but sometimes at Base ISO - the light's still too strong for me to keep the shutter speeds to within the camera's x-sync speed of 1/125, so I use a couple of ND filters to knock the light down a little... Whilst the max x-sync speed for the a700 and a900 are 1/250 with SSS off, but then again, since I'm using cheap, £10 china-made receivers
- I go for the lower end of the sync speed limit.
As the light fades - the ND faders are ditched as well - the sun's down by 6:40pm, and it's almost totally dark by 7pm - I took that chance and shot some fashion-y poses in the dark against the balau timber - with one light, and again, no modifiers - which gives the image a rather edgy feel - a lot of local photographers like soft, nice and mellow-y looking lights - the sort of photos that helps to sell cameras from where we come from - but I just like to throw them off their chairs a little.
Hope I hadn't missed anything out and you've enjoyed reading-
Cheers,
CA.
.