Shoots: Kathy

I'm not sure if my soul was sold to the Devil without my knowledge... maybe I was drunk? Probably. But I am batting a cool 300 when it comes to working with sweet, easy-going models. I imagine a horrible diva is just around the corner, but in the case of Kathy, couldn't be a nicer gal. Yes, I say 'gal', because that's the perfect way to describe this Louisiana-born Korean/Caucasian portrait of beauty meets genuinity-- which, after checking, is apparently a word I just invented. No, wait-- Urban Dictionary has got it; why is this not a word? Webster's now recognizes 'google' as a verb... where's the love for genuinity?!?!

Anyway, with wardrobe on-loan from Kareena's Trends, I drug poor Kathy all across Malibu Creek State Park-- which is officially my new favorite location in the greater Los Angeles area, and apparently a well-kept secret, as on a Sunday summer afternoon, there was probably all of 12 people we came across. Most importantly, it's got golden-fields galore, which of course, is my favorite thing ever.

Kathy got her start in Maxim as one of their 'Home-Town Hottie' selections and has gone on to have a steady and successful modeling career. Kathy's portfolio is very versatile, from swim/glamour to high-commercial... but what she didn't really have was, well, exactly what I'm all about-- I really need to find a word for my style; maybe, "Shazoom!" No, that's terrible. "Pofow!"; "Kaplee!"; "Fadoo!"; (i'm not sure why I'm trying to make onimonipia fake-words).

Well, the point is, I did "my thing" with her and it resulted in some stunning images. I realize that might be a bit biased to say, as I was the photographer, but I default nearly all of the credit to Kathy. Not only does she look great, but she managed to pull it off while hoofing around the park for 5 hours in the sun. Bravo, kiddo.

And if you missed it, check out my live portrait of Kathy, too. Special thanks to Juliet Monroe of iCandy who provided amazing, natural make-up/look!

Shoots: Amy

Amy is both an actress and a model (repped by Click). I first saw Amy in the film Garden State ; I had a friend at a big-shot talent agency who hooked me up with her acting manager; from there I cast her in my (bad-ass) short-film.... where the main-character kills her with a shovel.... but I digress.

We've since become great friends and she's one of the most genuine, sweetest people I've ever known. She also comes in handy when I want to get out and flex my camera-muscles with a professional model for the modest fee of a couple beers!

For this shoot, we headed up to Escondido Falls in Malibu. The annoying thing about this location is that you have to park, then hike a mile JUST to get to the trailhead... where you then hike about 1.8 miles to the falls. Upon a semi-trecharous, winded journey (hey, i ain't a teenager anymore!), we came upon a dismal sight: the waterfall was mostly dried-up! I had scouted the location over a month before and it was pretty impressive... but I guess with the onset of summer and the quickly changing temperatures of Los Angeles, the water level drops fairly rapidly. So, if you plan on checking out this location for shooting, I'd recommend going later in the year or in the spring.

However, the local was still completely salvageable, with plenty of choice settings along the trail. Shooting time was my normal 4pm-7pm slot for this time of year; any earlier in the mostly un-cloudy Los Angeles (smog doesn't count) would be far too bright for exteriors with no diffusion boards.

I've already posted my live-portrait of Amy from this day, and the photographs came out great as well! Big thanks to Amy for hiking all that way in the hot-sun without complaining and still managing to look great!!

Live Portrait: Kathy

Live Portrait: Kathy from Shoot Luke on Vimeo.

(click here to view in glorious HD)

Through various photography community forums and my own hack research I figured out a lot (not all) of what went wrong technically with my prior DSLR-video attempts.

First off, when shooting (HD) video with a DSLR, always shoot in manual mode. Shutter-speed is incredibly important and can't really vary from the following: If you are shooting 24p, set to 1/50 (closest to the 180-degree shutter of classic motion picture cameras - there is no 1/48) and for 30p, set to 1/60. If you set your shutter-speed too fast, you're going to get overly-crisp and choppy playback which will look very odd-- fight scenes in movies such as "Gladiator" and the opening sequence to "Saving Private Ryan" were shot (though on film) at a very high shutter speed, which gave the scenes an intended aesthetic quality/look. Of course, this is up to you, but if you want your playback to look, well, "normal", then 1/50 for 24p and 1/60 for 30p is what you need to be at. I naively shot my previous live-portrait at 1/125 and you can absolutely tell.

**A critical note about shooting 24p-- a lot of us use Final Cut HD Express for editing (as it's 1/5th the cost of the full FCP); however bear in mind that the current version of FCP Express does not support 24p. If you import 24p footage, it will convert to a 30p timeline, which will result in jittery footage and weird motion noise. This is also evident on my prior live-portrait attempt. Some people are concerned that 30p looks too much like video, therefor opt for 24p. However, if your principle screening-venue is going to be the internet, via YouTube, Vimeo, etc... you're not going to be able to distinguish 30p versus 24p to a point that matters. So, don't drop the grand-plus$$ on a full version of FCP unless you're a serious film-maker who will be screening their video/movie/short in/on a larger venue, such as projector screen or television. If you're the casual videographer like myself, just shoot 30p.

Next is your aperture setting. Working without a good outboard monitor, making sure you have sharp focus on your subject proves more than difficult on a 3-inch screen ('sharp' being the operative word here), so I recommend a thicker DOF overall to help combat this. But you don't want to lose too much nice bokeh, so I'd go no wider than an f/8 if your subject is about the same distance away as Kathy is in this video. Of course, if you bust out the tape-measure and crunch the numbers given your aperture and focal length, you're going to start getting more reliable and accurate sharpness even without an outboard monitor, and you can increase your DOF knowing your math is sound.

...however, I am terrible at math, and to be quite honest, when filming, the scene and subject is (and should be) fluid and alive... things happen on-the-fly, so sometimes you just have to "run and gun"; so having a base of a "safer" aperture can help you focus on your subject/scene and not worry as much about sharpness.

But you still need to grab your critical focus; and for at least the 5d mkII model, AF "Quick Mode" is really your only option without a larger monitor. Yeah, there's ways of getting around that, but I wouldn't; the contrast-based method of Auto Focus while in live-mode can take very long, especially in bright lighting circumstances and it renders the footage captured while trying to achieve focus unusable, not to mention the onboard mic pics up all the noise of you pressing the AF button and the motor noise of the lens trying to re-focus. If you want to go for that aesthetic "rack-focus" look, just pull focus manually. But again, without an outboard monitor, it'll be tough to see how sharp you are once you re-focus.

Finally, a helpful "no duh!" is while in Live-Mode, make sure you are in 'Movie Display" and not "Exposure Simulation"; the later is great when shooting stills, but you need to be in the former to A) make sure your subject falls within the 16:9 crop, and B) you will not be able to manually adjust your exposure-- which is ultra-critical.

Back to sharpness for a moment: you may notice that Kathy's face, especially during close-up's, is not ultra-sharp. This is due mainly to the extreme back-lighting and sun-flares going almost directly into the lens, as well as not having a fill light or reflector bouncing back into Kathy's face. This is a somewhat purposeful aesthetic choice, as I wanted to portray Kathy in (my typical) "romantic, hazy, memory of a girl long since gone" motif that I do... but honestly, she still could have used some fill light; however, I did not have an assistant or P.A., so I had to make-do.

I still feel the intended theme I wanted to evoke shone through. Just have to keep shooting more and more and never stop trying to improve!

Shoots: Sam&Sophia

Last Sunday, Q Models, Los Angeles were gracious enough to allow me to test with two of their newest faces, Sam & Sophia.

I gotta say, as a formerly/current vain person, shooting with all these beautiful and YOUNG people is really starting to take its toll; not so much on my self-confidence, but moreso I'm being reminded that I'm getting older and am going to die one day. Fashion and mortality: the "new black".

Location was Griffith Park, which remains a favorite and convenient spot; shooting time was once again my preferred "approaching and through magic hour"... which in SoCal this time of year is 4pm-7:00pm.

Fancy new camera, beautiful models, and comfortable local were more than enough to create some great images; but then I got a Pulp-Fiction style giant-needle-of-adrenaline stabbed into the heart of the shoot, via one amazing stylist, Alexandra Estin. Did I mention she's not even 20 years old and already working at a professional level?!?! The little prodigy understands color palettes and texture/pattern combinations like Steven Hawking understands astrophysics and time-travel. And to make me feel even worse about how I wasted my early twenties being, well, wasted... she also does hair and make-up!

Watching Alexandra work is like watching Beethoven conduct, Michael Jordan play basketball, or me drinking beer: purity and beauty. If any San Francisco, Los Angeles, or SoCal photographer, art-director, or producer needs a stylist... I can't recommend Alexandra enough.

As far as the annoyingly perfect, flawless, and stunning models go: Sam has got to be one of the most positive, upbeat, and excited individuals I've encountered in an otherwise very jaded Los Angeles. He was awesome and has such a sharp look. Sophia was totally laid-back and very "go-with-the-flow", which is more appreciated than she'll ever know!

Many thanks to Alexandra Estin, my 2nd MUA, Summer, and my P.A., Jeff.

Shoots: Andrea

Andrea is a little ball of spunk repped by JetSet Models who contacted me to update her portfolio book and headshots. Speaking with her agent, they wanted to portray her in a youthful, happy, accessible way... which was pretty easy, because she was indeed young, cheery, and very laid back.

Though I have a certain proclivity towards the longing, wistful, pensive, faded-hazy-memory-of-a-girl-in-overpowering-sunlight thing... I felt pretty confident I could still "do what I do" and combine some safe, wholesome commercial appeal in there, too (marketing firms, did you read that??).

The location was that big park along Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills (the word 'big' has a different meaning in L.A., than the rest of the country; usually means, bigger than a postage stamp, but probably not as large as your average backyard in Illinois). Though the park is pretty standard (aka boring), it does have this amazing storybook-tree that I've always wanted to shoot; and I will say it is every bit fantastical as it looks. I still think there's a knot somewhere on the trunk, that if you press it, a door will open to Narnia, or better yet, The Pit of Despair. If you don't know what 'The Pit of Despair' is, then you are entirely too young and I do not like you because you're making me feel very old.

Anyway, the results were definitely more "beaming" and less "pining", but hey, it's good to lighten the mood once and awhile, eh?

Live Portrait: Amy

Live Portraits seem to be catching on quickly in the HD-DSLR community; they're a fun supplement to your traditional portrait and gives the viewer an intimate window into the subject that you may not get with a static photo. I actually think advertising is going to began leaning towards "living ads" only too-soon, so a traditional photographer may be required to be both a skilled photographer AND a DP!

Below is my first attempt at a 'living portrait'... though some may argue it's more of a 'tone-poem'. Whatever it is, I think I'll be doing more of it in the future.

If you wish to view in larger, glorious HD click here to jump to my Vimeo channel!

Living Portrait: Amy from Shoot Luke on Vimeo.

Shoots: Emily

Emily's look is gorgeous-tomboy meets a much much prettier Kristen Stewart, and I wanted to embrace that. Subconsciously inspired by the semi-indie flick Adventureland (coincidentally also staring Kristen Stewart), we headed to the Santa Monica Pier for this kind of "last days of summer" theme, even though it was technically still Spring.

I had done the tourist-thing at the Pier years ago, but had never shot there before; and I must say the variety of colors to be found and photographed are simply amazing. **In any given frame is a veritable rainbow that will make an image pop. One thing I think is hilarious about shooting in more public, tourist-traffic locations is that everyone stops to watch and thinks you're doing something important and/or glamourous. You just gotta chuckle to yourself and make the model feel like people are not gawking... which of course, they are.

As for Emily, couldn't be a more chill, fun girl; I'd gladly trade in my friend Phil to be friends with Emily. Just kidding Phil....maybe...

Started shooting at 3:30pm in the afternoon, and mainly kept the 24-70mm mounted, throwing on the 85mm at the end of the shoot to grab a few portraits at a shallower DOF. Once again a smooth, fun shoot that yielded some great images!

Thanks to Emily, my friend Phil turned P.A. for the day, and of course my wonderful MUA Summer. **Please note that due to funky internet compression, the colors of the uploaded pics do not appear true to what they really are... very frustrating.