Scenes From Last Week’s Studio Shoot in Miami
Last Thursday I flew down to a very cool photo studio complex in Miami, near South Beach, for a photography training project I’m working on. Brad and I spent two days on location with a video crew filming behind the scenes footage of a bigger, more ambitious “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” project (that’s one of our models—Jerrid shown above—click on him for a much larger view).
Above: Stevie during a one light shoot with a very powerful turbo fan, run by Brad.
We actually did 19 different photo shoots, setting up—and taping—each lighting set-up from scratch over a two day period, and we filmed segments in three different studios and on location on Miami’s South Beach. We used everything from one light, two lights, to three lights, and quite a bit of off-camera wireless flash, too. We did shoots with scrims, diffusers, reflectors, and about everything in between.
Above: This is Wanderson (that’s his real name) during our sunset off-camera portrait shoot on the beach.
That’s Vanessa above (a model friend of Dwayne’s who lives in Miami) during one of our daylight shoots. Those are the Raw untouched originals from the camera (Click for a much larger view). The red labels are the ones Vanessa chose as her favorites.
Here’s Shay caught between snaps joking around with the crew.
Above: The regular version of this shot is part of the project, but the all-white blown-out look you see here won’t actually be in the class—it was just me trying something new in Photoshop, just for fun.
We knew we’d be swamped (and on a tight schedule), so we contacted one of one my buddies, Dwayne Tucker (a frequent commenter here on the blog), who’s going to school down in Miami, and got him to come be our 2nd assistant on the shoot, He was a great help (well, when we weren’t all cracking up about something—-we usually have a pretty fun time on the set).
Above: That’s our 2nd assistant on the set, Dwayne Tucker, taking a break between shoots.
Above: That’s ‘The Scriv,’ Creative Director for Video at Kelby Media Group, with his trusty Steadicam. Also, notice how nicely his “tips” are in bloom (that happens every year right around Photoshop World).
That’s “Beach Blanket Braddo” above, on Miami’s South Beach, holding a diffuser—-ready to spring into action at the first sign of harsh light). Also on the shoot was video cameraman Eddie “Fast Eddie, Easy Cowboy” Lynn, but I don’t have all the production shots here, so sadly, I don’t have a picture of him I can post right now, but he was everywhere! (and a huge help the entire shoot).
Anyway, I thought I’d share a few shots from the shoot. I’ll have more details soon about this project (The Light It, Shoot It, parts are done, but I still have 19 shoots to retouch, and record every step along the way).
Thanks to Brad for all his hard work in setting this up, and to Dwayne for helping us out, and to the five professional models who worked pretty much non-stop for two solid days to make this whole thing happen.