17th lightGIANTS Friday night shoot. 30.03.2012 “Creative Minimalism”
The idea behind this shoot was based on several youtube videos and DVDs I have watched over the last few years. They were all about using just the minimum amount if equipment to get the best result. As several of the last work shops have had quiet complicated lighting set ups I thought it would be great to use just 1 Bowens flash and 1 or 2 reflectors. Although I limited the number light sources I didn't want to limit the light modifiers, this way we could create totally different looks easily e.g. Hard light vs Soft light, Direct light vs indirect light or Large light source vs Small light source.
It was a long night.... With 4 models and 5 lighting setups we ended up shooting for about 6 1/2 hours. So thanks every one for putting in such a great effort. We started of with a large Octobox behind the models and 2 reflectors in-front, we shot from a position between the reflectors. This achieved a strong back lighting and the reflectors threw enough light into the faces that the models weren't just a silhouette. This lighting design can deliver great results but you need to keep the "Inverse square law" in the back of your head. The next few set ups were variations of 1 softbox and 1 or 2 reflector. The last set up was 1 large parabolic dish set up opposite a sofa.
I also deliberately used different depth of field for each set up this way each lighting construction had a totally different feel to it. To add to the different feel we shot different poses head shoulders, 2/3 body , full body and sitting. Everyone had a great evening which makes me happy, as I put a lot of time and effort into organising the Friday night shoots. I have at least 5 or 6 more one flash set ups floating around in my head so there may be a "Creative Minimalism 2.0" latter this year.
Unfortunately our in house video production crew (2dudes) were busy and couldnt make it to the shoot 
..... But thanks to M-Arx and Thorsten, they shoot some "making of" footage during the night so that the 2 dudes had something to edit.
16th lightGIANTS Friday night shoot. “Looners”
I have seen a few photos around the internet taken in a studio with balloons but when looking at most of them I thought they only out in 50% effort and needed to fill more space with balloons. Last year I was photographing a wedding and one of the guests had a extremely large bunch of balloons, there was a few kids that kept hiding among the balloons and every now and then you would see a hand or a head sticking out. All I could think was..... "I have to do this in the studio". So we blew up 400 black and white balloons and started to shoot.
The lighting concept was to keep the shadows and contrast that separated all the objects in the photo. When you have a lot of items the same colour in your photos you need to control the angel of the lighting so that shadows still fall where you require them. What we didn't think of was how much static was involved, it played havoc with the models hair. Next time ill be a bit more prepared.
We only used 2 different lighting set-ups. But they couldn't have been more different. The first set up was a large octo-box from directly above the models pointing down, using the balloons to reflect light back up for a bit of fill light. The second set-up was 2 strip lights set horizontally on both sides of the studio, and set down at eye level.
And finally the world famous Making of/behind the screens video
15th lightGIANTS Friday night shoot “Retro Games”
Wir wollten 2012 mit etwas anderem beginnen. Dank RetroGames e.V. konnten wir das Studio in eine kleine Spielhalle verwandeln und oben drauf hatten wir noch 3 fantastische Models. Die Idee hinter dem Shooting war eine kontrollierte Beleuchtung mit Lichtformern und Wabenfiltern damit nur die Models und Spielautomaten beleuchtet werden. Zuletzt haben wir eine Nebelmaschine und Farbfilter hinzugefügt. Hier und da haben wir noch kleine Softboxen eingesetzt wenn an manchen Stellen etwas mehr Licht benötigt wurde.
Je später es wurde, um so aufwendiger wurde auch die Beleuchtung und um ehrlich zu sein, ich kann mich nicht mehr an jedes Set-up erinnern. Zumal die Set-ups sich sehr schnell änderten. Aber das Grund-Set-up für die meisten Bilder war ein 400w Bowens Blitz mit einem großen Reflektor und einem Wabenfilter auf einem kleinen Galgenstativ als Haar-Licht, ein 400w Bowens Blitz mit einem roten Farbfilter und eine Nebelmaschine in einem alten Space Invaders Spielautomaten. Das restliche Set-up änderte sich ständig während wir uns im Studio bewegten.
Einen großen Dank an alle Teilnehmer, ganz speziell an Missy Mantis für ihre Beratung.
Und zu guter Letzt noch das weltbekannte "Making of" Video, dass ihr normalerweise nur auf der Collectors Edition DVD zu sehen bekommen würdet 
Outfits: www.nakedshameclothing.com
Styling: Missy Mantis - Mantissima
14th lightGIANTS Friday night shoot (last shoot for 2011) “A bit of everything”
The last shoot for 2011 was was a bit of a mix. The first theme was a body builder who transformed over the night from someone in a business suit to a masked Mexican wrestler. Secondly we had 2 new models strutting their stuff, they also mixed it up a bit with body builder.
A special thanks to our models |links| for a great job and putting up with all out crazy ideas.
We only use 1 basic light set up but changed light formers during the evening. The was we could have a similar fell and flow through the photos but have different looks and affects to match the situation. As the evening went on we added a smoke machine and coloured filters to the hair light this changed the atmosphere of the images witch was planned as a part of the transformation over the evening. Also that way we didn't have to adjust the key light.
Well that almost wrappers up the last shoot of 2011 Thanks every one who participated and contributed to all the work shops in 2011 but what we have planed for 2012 will be even bigger and better......
And finally the world famous making of video.
10th lightGIANTS Friday night shoot. “Glamours/GQ style”
This time the Friday night shoot theme was based around fashion magazines like GQ. To achieve this high fashion looks we had 2 models "sandra" and "lars" (Some of you my recognise Sandra from my rocker girl shoot). Speaking very generally mens' fashion mags tend to use a lot harder light source them womens' magazines. There for we limited the the lights sources to beauty dishes, large parabolic umbrellas and a ring flash.
One thing i noticed very early in the shoot is that a 2m umbrella can (that we were using as a fill flash), was putting out way to much light although it was set to minimum power. My mistake was that the silver umbrella was so large and so close to the subject, that it was acting as a reflector for the key light. After a slight bit of repositioning the problem was solved.
For a lot of the solo photos of Lars we only used a beauty dish with a honeycomb grid. That extra hard light works wonders on is chiseled cheek bones and jaw line. Maybe we should have added a hair light for a bit of separation, but at the time the results were looking good.
and if its finished in time...... the world famous making of video 
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