Sean's Recent Shoot: Panos Galore

[Sean Setters]

I recently picked up a used Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo on Ebay. The Vari-N-Duo pairs a circular polarizer with a variable neutral density filter. After being impressed with the results I got while shooting at Burgess Falls, I really wanted to try the filter out on a portrait shoot.

So, here we have a young lady who will be graduating high school later this year. We set up in the same location as the Jordan Chitwood shoot, and the lighting setup was a near mirror of it as well (however, I was using a fill light on this shoot, unlike the previous shoot). Samantha wore the flannel shirt to the shoot, and that's what we used first. After several shots, I asked her to put on her prom dress (which I had seen pictures of on Facebook). The dress transformed this (for lack of a better term) kid into a Greek goddess. The dress turned out to be a stellar choice. And on the equipment side, the Singh-Ray filter surpassed even my highest expectations. While the Genus provides satisfactory results for a variable ND filter, having a circular polarizer in the same filter is an ideal fit for my type of shooting.


Samantha: Flannel 1 by budrowilson, on Flickr


Samantha: Flannel 2 by budrowilson, on Flickr


Samantha: Prom Dress 1 by budrowilson, on Flickr


Samantha as Aphrodite by budrowilson, on Flickr

[Dr Croubie]

Yep, greek goddess is definitely the right word. The first and third pretty much sum up every teen movie, girl next door turns into a princess for the prom.
I love it.
(and I think the building behind the third shot also helps with the goddess image, modern-day acropolis maybe?)

I don't know what it is about your photos (these and all the others), maybe it's the fast lens, or the lighting (like in your basketball shot), or a bit of PP, but that foreground-background separation you get is amazing. I have so much to learn, master.

[Sean Setters]

In this case, it's primarily good lighting paired with a [relatively] wide aperture (all are between f/1.8 - f/2.8). She has 4 different lights on her:

1) Mainlight, camera right, beauty dish
2) Fill light, camera left, octabox
3) Rim light rear right
4) Rim light rear right

The subject was actually shielded from the sun with an umbrella. The biggest role of the sun in this shot involved lighting up the background for me. That said, I'm underexposing the ambient light by using powerful monolights. The monolights allow me to use, in this case, an ND filter and a circular polarizer to bring the ambient down while illuminating my subject to allow her to stand out against the background. The polarizer also helps by bringing that rich blue to the sky. It's the kind of shot I've been working toward for a long time now, and I'm finally getting the exact results I've been after.

[Sean Setters]

Well, I'm running behind on the Suburban Rapper series, but I finally got May's done. As the flickr caption notes, the inspiration for this shot came straight from my buddy Mark. He said, "You know what? You need to do a group of kids for the next rapper cover thing you do. And I'm pretty sure I know where you can get a bunch of kids..."

So, we ran with it. We used his five kids to create the next cover. I had to make sure and tone down the humor in this cover because I wanted his kids to be able to show it off to their friends. ;-)


Suburban Rapper: May 2012 by budrowilson, on Flickr

[ddt0725]

Ha! Ha! Lovin' this one, Sean! The little girl in front looks like she can keep her big brothers in line pretty good!

[Sean Setters]

You're right, she's tough. :-)

[Steve U]

Very cool, nice light all the way around Sean, well done.

[Sean Setters]

I posted a couple of these in various threads for one reason or another, but I had initially planned on putting the series on this particular thread.

This young lady was a joy to have in front of the camera--funny, cool, with an almost zen-like attitude about her. Great shoot.

[clemmb]

Fantastic as usual

[Kayaker72]

Fantastic as usual

+1

But top right and bottom left really stand out to me. Great great shots.