finally…

Finished up as much as I’m going to finish up on this shoot. Ran across this pic (above) last night and I love it. I overlooked it because the exposure was off– but a couple tweaks in RAW and it’s good to go.

Tried and “artsy” look here but I’m still ambivalant about it. Maybe needs more contrast? I was trying for a dreamy feeling though, not a contrasty b&w.

A natural light shot I should have worked a little harder– at least included a reflector. I love the natural sunlight and really wish I had worked on my composition a bit more. Photographers are always the hardest critics of their own work…

And one more final photo that I liked from the shoot. The hair stylist wanted this one and turned out I liked it a lot too.

Okay, now onto the next post-production project that I’m about two weeks behind on– if I get a chance! Supposted to be doing another test shoot tonight with a model I’ve never met, so that should be interesting. Studio stuff though, and I have a couple of ideas.
Pete Springer fashion design photographer portland oregon

catalog style shooting

Did a shoot Sunday for a local boutique and they just want shots of clothes for the web– no heads for the most part. There was no hair and makeup, obviously. While the majority of what I shot was headless, I still couldn’t resist a couple of more traditional photos that included a head!

I loved this skirt– I have some cool close-up shots of it too. Anyway, these were all shot on location and the boutique is tiny– I’m using a 24-70 on a 1.3 crop cam and still the only way to get a full-body shot is at 24. There’s about four feet (maybe) between me and the model, and only three feet between her and the backdrop. I slipped a kicker in and started with a spot on the backdrop but eventually switched to a softbox for more subtle lighting.

I loved this dress too– what I would do to actually get a chance to properly (70-200, not a 24-70!) shoot this model in this dress… outdoors or walking down the street. For this photo, I’m was literally up against the wall to get a full body shots. It’s tough to work a shoot in an environment about as big as a cubicle! And wide lenses are not the most flattering.

On the plus side, I was able to get these images fully processed and posted and burned to CD within a day of the shoot. I used a custom WB and really watched my cropping. The only RAW tweaks that were needed were of a white shirt that was a bit bright. Yeah, these posted photos have some skin smoothing on them too– but I didn’t have to do that for the headless shots the boutique wanted.

Pete Springer Photography, catalog, fashion, and boutiques, portland oregon

still crankin’ through my post work

No one ever told me photography would involve so much time in front of the computer! Oh yeah– that’s because there was a time where everything was shot on film… sometimes I miss those days.

Here’s a shot from a couple weeks ago– softbox as key. I really like this photo, just can’t decide whether I like or hate the stop sign/yellow sign in the upper right. It’s distracting, but I kind of like it just because of that. I guess that’s why there are editors for when something is published– photographers are about the worst at editing down their own stuff! We’re just too wishy-washy.

Yeah, already posted a similar shot here, but I think I like this one more. The light is fantastic– reflector as key, late afternoon sun. I’m going to get a chance late next month to do a whole bunch of street shooting– just crossing my fingers the weather is clear.

Okay, and finally an indoor shot. It’s nice but not quite what I had in mind. I wanted the model on the actual steel grid floor and to light her from the side to catch the texture of the floor, but the designer was worried about her designs getting dirty so we had to use the bench. This particular shot could probably use more of a crop too. Oh well– guess I’ll just have to head back to this location with some clothes that can get dirty!

Unlike big-time shooters who do Vogue photoshoots, my own little fashion shoots usually involve the actual clothes that are going to be in the store for sale. It’s too bad because many cool photos I see are models on floors or the ground in crazy-ass poses (there’s even a very cool ad out right now with a model wearing a designer dress and wading deep into a river pool below a waterfall) that are sure to ruin the clothes, yet that’s exactly what makes the photos so cool. So much of fashion photography involves promising something that is impossible– and we all know ruining nice clothes is impossible for the average consumer.

Pete Springer Photography, Portland Oregon, fashion & portraits

pbase server still down…

… so I’m hosting these on my web server instead. You won’t be able to see any previous post pics though, until the pbase folks get back from vacation or wake up or get out of drug rehab or whatever it is they’re doing. Back in September when pbase (that’s where I host these blog pics) went down, the owners were rumored to be at Burning Man and no one could get a hold of them for a week so there was no access to pics they host. Great customer service, eh? Oh, and I should mention pbase is not free.

Okay, couple more 40’s pics today– this next one I cropped in heavily and can’t decide if I like it or not. I like the intensity but wonder if it’s too intense? And the skin is NOT blown out– verified that with the eyedropper tool in PS. It just looks that way in web-res.

Okay, now some more bridal shots. Yeah, yeah, I’m all over the place on this post today. I’ve been working my ass off lately though and I’m struggling a bit to keep up with my post-production work.

Oh well, back on track. I liked this shot– it’s a dramatic crop from the original– gotta love the res on the 5D for stuff like that!

This is a variation on the other red background bridal shot posted previously and that you can’t see ’cause pbase has decided to crash for a while. I wonder if these were the kind of shots Oregon Bride is interested in when they asked to see my portfolio?

Alright, that’s my post for the day. I think I’m tired and cranky from working too hard.

EDIT: now pbase appears to be back up– the bender must be over– hope it stays this way at least until this years Burning Man!

Portland fashion photography

photo server is down– grrr…

Not much of a photography blog without photos, eh?  The server is down right now so if you only see text, please be assured it’s not always this boring!

polarizer for camera phones?

Okay, kind of a strange post today. My wife was sick last night so I ended up doing the big huge grocery store trip solo, and while I was redeeming WAY too many beer bottles, I noticed these signs all around the bottle room:

“Winco Food will refuse any and all bottle slips that have blood on them!”

Had to get a snap of that with the camera phone– should have used a polarizer to reduce the glare though

I bet there’s a cool fashion story somewhere in Oregon’s bottle bill law… a model collecting bottles and cans to buy clothes?

Anyway, by the time all the shopping was done, there wasn’t much time to work on photos. But I did create a PSCS action for that new skin technique I’ve been using– complete with pauses and prompts. This will hopefully speed up processing on beauty-type shots like this. I’m still very much refining my lighting technique for beauty shots– this one used a beauty dish for key, softbox for fill, and a grid on the backdrop. Beauty dishes are cool but they are a pain to transport– they’re big and mine seems to dent easily.

Alright, told you it would be a strange post today! See what happens when I actually have to venture out in the real world to get food?

Fashion photography Portland, Oregon

here comes the bride…

Nah, this isn’t the bridal shot. But I love this photo anyway. It took five lights, believe it or not. Though I don’t think the kickers are making any difference here– they were set for a standing model. But damn, I’m so pleased with these 40’s style shots! Martina, you photograph beautifully!

Here are a couple more shots I was able to crank through last night. Pretty big update to the website in terms of speed and revamped features yesterday so I spent a lot of time last night figuring out everything and adapting it to my own style. And I’m slowly making progress on updated banners… most of which visitors won’t notice, but that’s good ’cause it should be seamless.

Softbox for key here, and three lights firing from behind and to the side. But… I was optically slaving two of them, and it doesn’t look like they fired for this shot. So it’s four lights with only two firing. I’ll have another PW soon– the one I sent for repair was fried (battery corrosion), but luckily PW/Mayima gave me a fantastic deal on a replacement (half-price including shipping). That will be nice and will greatly help with shots like this– the black just absorbs so much light that optical triggering is very iffy. And to make things worse, I was using a black curtain for the backdrop– much more light absorbing than black paper, that’s for sure.

Alright, here’s the bride. Many more to come, but so far this is one of my favs. The red background was a pain– two strobes with gels and it would not work in my tests, and I was still testing when the model was ready. Makes me a little nervous when I’m testing my lighting on a fully styled, prepped model, but it seemed to work this time. Must have been my lucky day. Now if only I could remember the setup…

Pete Springer Photographer Oregon – fashion, portraits, and fashion shows

some studio photos

Shot a really great model yesterday in the studio. Worked my ass off but nailed some great shots in my opinion. We started with a really basic look for some headshots. There’s no retouching on these shots (haven’t had any time!)

We were going for a 1940’s look for some of the photos and all I can say is, Terri and Julie, you two are fantastic. Terri Lodge (hi google!) did the makeup and Julie Ruckman did the hair. I am continually amazed at their work– literally I can put them in a room with a model with nothing more than, “Let’s go for a 40’s look” and they deliver stunning results. My photos would be nothing without the two of them.

Aria Chillenden did the wardrobe styling and came up with some great 40’s style clothes too. It was my first time working with her and I really like the clothes she came up with. Thanks, Aria!

And of course, the model is quite important too, thanks Martina! It’s ironic because many models I shoot tell me they’re not sure how to pose, but once they get in front of the camera, they absolutely deliver with almost no guidance.

This is one of my favs from the shoot. There are a couple more looks, but we’ll save that for another day.

So I’m always really careful with my full CF cards and yesterday was no exception. When I get home from a shoot, I always label the cards and download and backup everything. Well last night, I couldn’t find one of the cards! After about a half hour of searching, I literally started ripping everything apart in both my camera bag and equipment box. Nothing.

The missing card had more than a hundred images on it and was from the middle of the shoot which is typically the best stuff– everyone’s energy is still up and everyone is warmed up. I about cried to think all those photos might be gone. Then, as I dug through my gear for the fourth or fifth time, I found that CF card– wedged between a lens and lens hood! I was so relieved– because not only would I have lost some great photos but I would have had to tell the other four people involved in the shoot that the photos were missing. Whew!

Okay, one more thing to blab on about yesterday. Remember my post Friday about “Blow Up”? Well there is a scene where the David Bailey character does a photoshoot and at the end he is so worn out he basically hands his camera to his assistant and collapses on the studio couch. That’s the way I felt at the end of the day yesterday– only I don’t have an assistant so instead of collapsing, I got to spend a couple of hours packing up studio gear and backdrops and all that to haul home. Then once I got home, all that gear has to be unloaded. So all I can say is Mr. Blow-up-david-bailey-dude, why so tired? You don’t even have to tear down and pack up your own gear!

Pete Springer Portland Oregon fashion photography

sloggin’ through CSS

Alright, so I spent much of last night sloggin’ through CSS on my website trying to figure out how to make the banner and navbar wider in only select places. With help from smugmug style guru (smugmug hosts my site) Allen @ dgrin.com, I finally figured it out. It’s going to save me from entering a new CSS header everytime I add a fashion gallery too. Very cool. Allen, thank you for your help. Now I just need to make the conversion for my other galleries. It’s a slog but it saves me time in the end– CSS is very cool that way.

My ultimate goal is to try to pump a new look into the website, but I get the feeling it’s going to be a long process.

Anyway, so no new pics to post, just a half-ass review of a 1966 film “Blow Up” (my featured photo today). The movie is based on David Bailey and the main character looks just like David Bailey’s son (who is not only a photographer these days, but also featured in a couple of Vogue layouts and ads!). Anyway, the movie is not really about fashion photography, but there are some crazy snipits that make the film worth watching for anyone into David Bailey and studio photography.

The David Bailey character, for example, does a photoshoot where he ends up on top of the model just like the movie pic featured here. Well, that’s cool but wouldn’t his photos look kind of crappy since they would need to be shot with a wide due to his proximity to the model? And his studio lights seemed to flash rather erratically throughout his shoot.

There’s another scene where the Bailey character and two women end up pulling all his background paper down and rolling around in it for a good ol’ threesome. All I could think was, “Hey, that paper roll is worth 50-bucks and they’re ruining it!” I’m such a geek.

Now there are much better reviews of this movie elsewhere– I’m just saying it’s an okay viewing in terms of photography– at first. Then it drags into a murder mystery and drags and drags and drags. I would have liked it better if they had just stuck to the antics of David Bailey during his photoshoots.

Anyway, you can see why I’m not a film reviewer, eh?

Pete Springer, fashion, portraits, landscapes– but no movie reviews– Portland, Oregon

more photos from fashion shoot

Some more photos from the weekend. As mentioned previously, I’m trying a bunch of new workflow ideas– just sent the link of all the pics to the MUA, hair stylist, model, and designer, so I’m crossing my fingers it all works out.

This is a lighting set-up inspired by a fashion shooter in London who posts on a forum I frequent. Thanks for the idea, Chris! The key is two softboxes firing behind a white sheet. I gotta say, the light mimics a window more than any other modifier I’ve ever seen. I definitely want to try this technique out again. It really looks like a window– but it’s all artificial.

Okay, another new trick up my sleeve– followed some steps from a fairly recent book called “Skin” to do the post-production work. First off, the model didn’t really need it ’cause her skin is very nice already– but it’s a handy “glam-blur-skin” technique. The coolest part (I think) is using the emboss filter to add texture back. I’ve never known how to do that and my glam-skin usually ends up a little plastic looking.

Strip dome as key here, no fill. When we were shooting, I wasn’t crazy about this set-up, but looking at the files, I think it’s kind of nice.

Okay, time to gear up for the shoot this weekend… sounds like we’re going to be in the studio again so now I need to come up with some cool lighting techniques. There’s one in that book “Skin” that I’d love to try– lots of kickers with just minimal fill.

Pete Springer Fashion Photography Oregon