Lighting by Design Workshop - Announcement

I have revamped my lighting workshops, and re-branded them as the “Lighting Design Workshops”. I’ve heard a steady stream of comments on my work with regard to my creative lighting style, and have been asked by many if I would focus more on that in my workshops. I listened, and the result is the Lighting Design Workshops.

It now covers the basics just to make sure everyone is on the same page, and then launches into using lighting in a more creative manner. I won’t be teaching three light portrait setups (although touched upon), but how to take lighting further and make it work creatively for you. More of a cinematic and creative approach to lighting.

I’ll post an update once I have the new web site up, and the current workshop schedule. If you happen to be interested in more details, send me an e-mail at workshops@stephenfaust.com and I’ll make sure you are on the list for the updates and schedule.

I am currently working on delivering one in Boston this summer (Newburyport to be exact), New York, and California or Las Vegas in the fall. I’ve also had some requests from Florida and the Rhode Island, so I am looking at those as well. Pricing is generally in the $300-$400 for a intense 3 day weekend workshop.

Motion blur or Having fun with Siblings

I was out one evening with my sister, and she was shooting with her point and shoot. We all know how good point and shoot cameras are with being hand held in low lighting conditions! She showed me a blurry image with light trails of a neon sign and asked what happened. I started to explain it to her, while showing her the images on the LCD of the DSLR. That allowed me to vary the shutter speed and its easy to see the motion of the camera since its so much larger (huge, and heavy I should say. Canon IDsMkII).

So we played around for a while trying to different looks by changing the motion of the camera and shutter speed. Up and down, side to side, in small circles. with some zoom, and so on. We had a great time and make some interesting images. We tried a dozen different signs and lights to see the effects and try our luck at one-upsmanship! Here are a few more showing some of the variations of the one sign. If you look at the bottom edges of the images, you can see the motion that was used to create the effect.

Underground Fight Club

This is one of the images from a series we did called “Underground Fight Club”. It was tough trying to keep everyone lined up such that we got to see all the main players in the image, and capture interesting action in the foreground as well. Russell and Matthew were the two fighters, and did a great job considering they didn’t have any stunt or simulated fighting training. I would have liked to speed up their movements, and had better contact between them for a more realistic look, but that was risky without any training and we didn’t have the budget for experienced stunt/actors. The theatrical makeup was done by Lisa Roche. The following is the color version, while the black and white is my favorite.

There is a bit too much blur on the woman bet taker in the background. However, I can lift her face from another image and replace it in this one when it gets to post production. I also took a series of images with the people in the background without blur so that I can replace as needed. But I did want the organic blur motion on the fighters, rather then doing that in editing. I used a very slow shutter speed to capture the motion, and a combination of continuous lighting and strobe to get the blur I was looking for.

The above shot shows Matthew getting his makeup touched up by Lisa.

Stephen Faust, http://www.StephenFaust.com

Using found lighting

080405-VU0S9449, originally uploaded by Stephen Faust.

This is a great example of using found light, rather than trying to recreate it. We were in the Caribbean and the sun was high and bright, as typical mid day along the equator. I placed the model under a roof of a fishing shack, and used the wall as a prop for her to lean on. The sun was high in the sky in front, but she was shaded from it by the roof overhead.

There are a couple of reasons this lighting scenario worked so well, and we will break it down as an example. The bright sun created a north light type of effect when the model was under the roof. Since she was shaded and out of the direct sun, she was illuminated by the indirect light from the sky, hence the north light.

The white sand on the beach in the foreground also acted as a reflector and threw light up from the groun d and basically filled the lower shadow area with light. This filled in the dark shadows that would have resulted from the model leaning against the wall with only a north light.

Since she was also leaning against a white wall, it acted as yet another reflector taking in the north light, reflected light from the sand, and bounced that into the shadow areas behind the model. Even directly behind her lower back area on the wall, there is a slight shadow, but the wall texture and details are presented because of the bounce and reflected light it is receiving. Had she been wearing a white cotton sun dress, even those shadows would almost disappear because of the added reflective power it would add.

The result is a very nice combination of light that is natural, low in contrast compared to being in direct sunlight, but with directionality and ‘character’. It also has a softness to help smooth out her skin tones and texture.

Caribbean Trip

I landed in Aruba for a week, and decided to do something different. I haven’t been shooting as much personal work since becoming so busy lately. So I decided to capture and post a few pictures each day of whatever catches my eye at the moment. I’ll concentrate on personal work, and not commercial images. I’ll limit my equipment to a Canon 1Ds MarkII, 24-70mm, 70-200mm, 20mm, and for low light a 50mm 1.4, and a polarizer. In my free time I’m going to roam the island with camera in hand and see what I find. I may also shoot some with a Canon G7 P&S.

Garufa club entrance in Aruba. Grab a Argentian steak across the street at El
Gaucho restaurant, then finish it off with a Cuban cigar and a nice aged port
wine across the street at Garufa.

One advantage to shooting here is all the beautiful color and sights on the island. Like Miami, Mexico, So America, or just about anyplace in the Caribbean, the colors always stand out and say shoot me! The use of bright bold colors mixed with the earth tones and turquoise blue sea just sing. Throw in some palm trees, warm weather, white sand beaches, constant breeze, and its no surprise why I enjoy my time whenever I hit any of the islands.

This is the view from the condo terrace. Aquamarine blue water, blue skies (gray
today), palm trees, white sand, and a steady trade wind. And the occasional
cruise ship or yacht sailing by.

Sitting on the terrace of the condo, I can see aquamarine ocean, white sand, green lush palm trees, and the occasional luxury liner or recreation boats passing by, or off in the distance oil tankers or container ships heading back and forth from Columbia, Venezuela or beyond. Aruba sits about 15nm off the coast of Venezuela.

A few more images from my trip.

Kite surfing along Palm Beach on the western coast of the island.

Iggy. He lives on the third rock from the left docks at the Marina. He actually seemed
to respond appropriately when I asked him to look a little to the left, drop
the right shoulder, and suck in the tummy

Playing around with the Lens Babies.

This is one of a few shipwrecks along the coast. This one you can almost
walk to in the surf. It is located along the shoreline of Palm Beach, Aruba.

Are you the next SI Swimsuit Photographer?

This is being passed around, and you may have already seen it. But I’m more than happy to add to their hit count If you want to try your hand at shooting a SI Swimsuit model, check this out SI Swimsuit Photographer. It’s a fun way to pass your next coffee break.

Bridal Fashion Catalog Shoot

I haven’t shot a wedding since the very early 90’s, but I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot nice beautiful women in gorgeous wedding gowns either. We were approached by a local company to photograph their wedding gowns for their latest catalog. We would have 9 gowns to photograph using four models. Each gown needed to be photographed in a creative image, as well as a straight catalog shot with close up details for inserts. We shot the 9 creative images, and the straight catalog shots (front, back, and inserts) during the same day. The models were in makeup at 7:30am, ready on set by 10am, and we shot until 5pm.

Here are a few images from the shoot.

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Technology - Love hate relationship

One of my favorite winter spots. I tend to head here when I’m up north,
the weather is nice, and I feel like something to lift my spirits. It’s a great
feeling to sit here and just gaze.

Technology has become a burden, as well as an enabler. While I rant every now and then when technology fails me, I do seem to forget the times it has enabled me. Yesterday was one of those days I need to remember next time it fails me.

So there I was, standing on the top of a snow covered mountain along the border of the United States and Canada. Wind was howling, air temp about 17deg, and a wind chill factor well below zero. I’m looking straight ahead at Canada from about 3,100 feet, Vermont on my left, Maine on my right, my feet firmly planted in New Hampshire, and my Blackberry dings with an e-mail alert. A client wants to move a shoot from this Tuesday to Thursday. I check my calendar, hit reply, and let them know it’s not an issue, happy to accommodate him, and make the schedule changes. I get a pat on the back for being so responsive, and everything is set in a matter of minutes. He probably thinks I’m never working, sitting in my office waiting for the next e-mail to arrive and seeing how fast I can respond.

I check the other e-mails that have been automatically collected on the way up to the top of the mountain, and learn my assistant for that Tuesday shoot had an unexpected gall bladder surgery. I send off another e-mail to book a different assistant for Thursday, and made a mental note to call my first assistant when I get back to civilization and see how he is doing. He was actually supposed to be out of state on a trip, and I hope  his surgery was here rather than in a  strange city away from family and friends. I’ll know soon enough.

Ok, so the ills I’ve faced by technology gone awry can wreak havoc at the wrong times. But it can also be a blessing at others. As in life, it seems everything has balance. I thank Verizon for having such great cellular coverage (I wonder where the tower was out here?), and the Blackberry for being so damn useful to me. I now know why they call them Crakberries. They really are addicting!

I love having everything (voice mail, phone calls, e-mail, SMS text messages, RSS feeds, weather updates, etc) channeled into a small device, and sent to me automatically on the fly no matter where I am or what I’m doing. And even better, if I had met someone up there who wanted to see my portfolio or video demos, I could have accommodated them easily. Or just kicked back and transfered funds from one bank account to another, listen to the latest podcast, or something from my MP3 library. All for $500, and smaller than a pack of cigarettes.

I think the latest appropriate hip phrase is… ‘Swwwwweeeeeeeeeet dude!!’