December 30, 2012

SHOOTING (FUTURE) STARS !!!

Yesterday, I had the good fortune to try out my new heavy-duty Lastolite vinyl studio backdrop for a portrait shoot with an extremely talented up-and-coming musician, Michael Kilbey, who was in search of ‘some iconic shots’ – a daunting, but exciting brief. I decided that rather than traditional high key ‘white’ look, a more moody low-key black backdrop would suit his aim to represent the emotional angst of his music. The studio shots were accompanied by a pretty basic 2-point Elinchrom lightbox setup, my trusty ‘Colour Burst LED Changer’ DJ light (lol), and the ever-crucial reflector disc. No assistant (girlfriend) for this shoot meant some nimble manipulation of the disc, WHILST pressing click (thankfully we live in the age of image stabilisation!). DEPLOY MULTI-TASKING! Ventured out to find some idiosyncratic ‘London’ / ‘moody’ locations to shoot against too armed with nothing but a 70-200mm f4, a 24-105mm f4 and the awesome 15mm fisheye…

I (and thankfully, he too) think the results are strong – the studio backdrop passes the test, and for monochrome shots (part of the brief), it is ideal. Handy benefit? Thick durable vinyl is WIPE CLEAN!! Big win. Click ‘MORE‘ for larger images…