This is model Amber Smith, shot for the cover of a magazine. We were about two and a half hours out of LA, in the Lucerne Dry Lakes area.

the day was gloomy, and everyone was uptight because of the weather. With a little bit of underexposure, and an awesome model, it turned out okay!

Tech stuff: Hassleblad 500 EL/M, 120CF, Provia 100F [at ei. 80], and a KR1.5 [it was raining!]. Lighting is ambiant [about -1.75 stops --underexposed] and studio strobe --shot through an Octabank. Handheld, 1/60 @ f8.

-- Robert Anderson (rap@rapfoto.com), May 08, 2001

Answers

head and shoulders above the rest - even if it was Don Knotts in that outfit, I'd still think this was a great photograph.

Q - how much luminous power is on that strobe and how big an octabank did you use? I've never seen big outdoor fashion flash setups, so I'm curious...

-- edward kang (ekang@cse.nd.edu), May 08, 2001.

Thanks Edward,

I use 12oo w/s packs. This was one head, at full tilt.

You are too fast, I was resubmitting this post because I screwed up the HTML, and her legs are a little stumpy....

Moderator, please kill this one if you can...

-- Robert Anderson (rap@rapfoto.com), May 08, 2001.

I measured her legs and they are long enough :)

What's with her eyes? Intended to look so feral?

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), May 09, 2001.

I think he was going for that "Daryl Hannah Look" from Bladerunner!

-- edward kang (ekang@cse.nd.edu), May 09, 2001.

Moderator, please kill this one if you can...

Fixed the HTML in this post and nuked the other. Lovely legs now :-)

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), May 09, 2001.

Yow! Great shot! Dunno what to say, really. Great model, great light, great scene. Wish the uplaod was better (bigger, and with less aggressive JPEG compression) so I could see her face better, but it's great. Thanks for sharing.

Would it have been fun if the ball had been lying in the distance?

This image reminds me that all weather is good weather for taking phototgraphs. "It's not the weather, stupid, it's the photographer," as they didn't quite say in the election campaign. In this case we obviously have a great photographer.

OK, I'll bite: what's an Octabank?

 

Allan "Natual Light" Engelhardt

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), May 09, 2001.

I'm probably the only one who was confused, but just in case: The KR1.5 is the B+W specific name for essentially the same filter as the Kodak Wratten 1A Skylight filter. (See this page for more information.)

Allan "I only ever use Hoya and Lee filters" Engelhardt

(So as to not start a flame war: B+W (a.k.a. Schneider) is supposed to be nice, but my shop doesn't stock them, and they have traditionally been hard to get on back-order in this country.)

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), May 09, 2001.

feral - adj - of, relating to, or suggestive of a wild animal.

Thanks for that! Great word.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), May 09, 2001.

an octabank is what separates studio strobe men from studio strobe boys.

Basically a gigantic 7' octagonal softbox that spreads a very even amount of light.

-- edward kang (ekang@cse.nd.edu), May 10, 2001.

I can't decide if I don't like this because of it's genre, or because of her catatonic expression. What was the magazine? Perhaps putting this much contrivance into one frame can be justified within it's own terms of reference.

Technically the shot is excellent.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), May 11, 2001.

First off, thank you comrades for the kind words.

I’ll try and answer your questions, but in no specific order:

1) KR1.5; Alan, you’re exactly right. I use Heliopan and B+W filters. It is a little stronger than your typical skylight or 1a filter. Just the ticket for the ‘blue’ light of an overcast day. Now, it probably wouldn’t be ENOUGH warming if I didn’t do a little trickery in development. I always run my people shots [when shot on transparency film] with a modest push to warm them up a bit. My typical scheme is to run the film with a +1/3 stop push. The extra time in the first developer gives me just a kiss of added warmth, and then the KR1.5 just brings me back to where I usually start from [it neutralizes the scene to my base color temperature so to speak.]

I’m not a big fan of on the lens filtration, and typically would gel each light source, this avoids contaminating the entire scene with a cast from the lens filter, but in instances like this, a little boost to the general scene works well, and besides, I still haven’t figured out how to keep the Sun from melting my Rosco's when I hang then too close!

Different shoot, and lighting set-up, but this is a Octabank in use

2) The Octabank is a special, seven-foot in diameter reflective soft box. As Edward mentioned, it is a specialty piece of gear, and Elenchrom charges accordingly. However, it is very unique in that it is set up like an umbrella/soft box hybrid. It first shoots the light into a reflector [the back of the Octabank], then it diffuses the light as it exits the front of the device. It throws a very unique light, and has been broadly used by many photographers. The secret is to have it close enough that it is soft, yet far enough away to give a slightly hard edge to the shadows [penumbra].

The shot THEY used… hmmmm, typical, I would have picked another one, but…

3) The shoot was for RAZOR Magazine, which is a competitor with Maxim, and that sort. The styling was to be one that, while she was serving her ‘time’ for unknown crimes, she somehow still maintained some sort of composure and aesthetic beauty. She is supposed to be a little ‘hard, and a little ‘menacing’. We had the ‘ball’ with us, but because this was a cover shot, the A/D [art director] was concerned it would complicate the placement of the text… so we dropped the ball.

All in all, this is really close to my initial vision, concept, and design. When dealing with clients, super expensive models, seamstress’ for custom made wardrobe items, and top of the line production artists, it can get a little busy keeping everyone focused on the ‘prize’. You have to be very strong willed [my girlfriend might say a**hole] and believe in your vision 120% to pull these kinds of shots off successfully. I’m glad that it did. I really like this series, though like everyone else, if I had it to do over again I would…..

Best regards,

RA

-- Robert Anderson (rap@rapfoto.com), May 11, 2001.

thanks for the follow up Robert, interesting stuff!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), May 11, 2001.