Sean's Recent Shoot: Panos Galore

[Sean Setters]

These are great Sean, I think we all want to know what he was thinking in the third picture.

At the beginning of the shoot I mentioned that I should have asked him to bring some music he liked so we could play it over my home entertainment center. H said, "I've got some CDs in my car. I'll go get one." We put the disc in, turned up the volume, and he was jammed through much of the session.

[Sean Setters]

Nice...

It would seem you are making good on the New Year's resolution.

Too bad no one in town knows it. I really need a marketing firm. :-)

[Steve U]

Hey Sean, congrats on explore.

[btaylor]

That's a great set Sean, the background fits the subject perfectly.

[Sean Setters]

Hey Sean, congrats on explore.

Thanks Steve!

That's a great set Sean, the background fits the subject perfectly.

I was a bit hesitant of using the background again. However, I decided that if I kept the main light from hitting the background I could make it look darker than when I used it last time and therefore make it look substantially different.

[Sean Setters]

Kati and Alex, brother and sister, wanted to give their parents a portrait for Christmas. Kati contacted me and we worked out the details for the shot.

1) The portrait must have something to do with music.
2) The portrait needs to have some cropping room on the sides because the size of the print to be gifted had not been chosen yet.
3) A "natural" setting was desired.

Having done a couple of other portraits at Cane Creek Park recently, I figured it would give me a backdrop that would work. I've used Cane Creek Park for many of my portraits, but I had never used this particular spot. Why? Well, for starters, this is a very popular spot for people to be. Thankfully we chose a date/time where the park was less busy so that we weren't much of a nuisance to anyone. Second, this spot has no shade from the sun. I ended up shading the subjects from the sun using an 86" umbrella while using a monolight in the umbrella to replace the sun with a much larger, softer fill light.

I used two other lights on the shoot. I used a large octabox as the mainlight (boomed above from camera right) and a medium-sized softbox that was placed on the ground and pointing slightly up at them. I knew by the placement of the mainlight that the ground (and their legs) would be very dark. This setup somewhat mimicked clamshell lighting, but not exactly.

Anyway, the pair were a blast to shoot. They kept playing music throughout the session and joking / kidding around with each other. We got some good shots, but this one was my favorite:


Kati and Alex by budrowilson, on Flickr

[Sean Setters]

Sean you really do a nice job with your 'portable' lighting. If you still think you need a marketing firm I can only wonder if you have arranged a gallery showing or any other kind of public exhibition of your work? Would believe your work will almost sell itself.

My work was on display at a local coffee shop a couple of months ago. However, it wasn't for sale - it was just there to generate interest in scheduling a session.

As my for-hire work is almost 95% portraiture, the only people are are genuinely interested in paying for it are the subjects themselves (and the families of the subjects). They appreciate how good they look in the image more than anyone else. ;-)

If I were taking pictures of famous people, then I could likely generate serious income from a session. But I like photographing ordinary people and making them look good. Because of that, I'll never be a financially successful photographer. :-)

[Sean Setters]

After getting some inspiration from a YouTube video, I decided to buy a fish tank, squeegee, and some bell peppers to see what I could come up with.

I used two Canon 580EX flashes and one Nikon SB-24 set to a relatively low power to allow for the quickest flash duration I could get away with (all flashes were set to 1/4 power or lower). My exposure settings eliminated ambient light from factoring into the exposure. In other words, the short duration of my flashes became my shutter speed - allowing me to freeze movement.

I set up the aquarium in my kitchen. I used a black foam core craft board as my backdrop.

Image:

The Bell Drops Here by budrowilson, on Flickr

Setup:

The Bell Drops Here Setup by budrowilson, on Flickr

The next morning I found another use for the yellow bell pepper - it was great in my omelet!

A couple of days later I still had the red bell pepper left. I decided to try a macro shot with it using my Kenko Extension Tubes and Canon 85mm f/1.8.

I sliced the bell pepper in half and fired a flash through the red outer shell pointed at the seeds. This gave the seeds a nice red glow emanating from the back. I then used a red gelled flash and raked its light across the top of the cut portion so that the light hitting white fleshy part would closely match the light coming through the shell.

I like how the image turned out because it looks like something out of a medical reference journal (at least to me).

Image:

Seeds of Red by budrowilson, on Flickr

Setup*:

Seeds of Red Setup by budrowilson, on Flickr

*Note: I fired a third flash into the ceiling to provide fill light for the room in the setup shot.

[Jonathan Huyer]

I love what you do with light. Thanks so much for sharing not only the amazing results, but the methods also. Very creative!

Edit: I would think that the macro shot would also make a very worth submission for the current assignment!

[Sean Setters]

I love what you do with light. Thanks so much for sharing not only the amazing results, but the methods also. Very creative!

Edit: I would think that the macro shot would also make a very worth submission for the current assignment!

Great idea Jonathan! I think I'll add it. ;-)