The Phelps Photo shoot!

A home studio shoot.

The story.

Back in late October 2012, I was contacted by a friend of mine, Chris, who`m had decided to start a health and fitness regime which would hopefully end up with him losing a substantial amount of body fat and gaining muscle as well. He had already set a date and targets for himself and asked weather i was interested in photographing him and providing finished printed images. I jumped at the chance as i needed some experience in this type of photography and we agreed on a date of 30th March 2013.

Planning.

I decided to research on some locations for the shoot including location shots but decided not to because of potential weather problems and Chris getting a little cold in the process. I rang around some studios in Manchester getting prices for studio hire. Eventually I decided to do the shoot at home, realising college had most of the equipment I would need. Experience in the college studios would give me confidence on lighting setups and the safe and correct use of the equipment. The only thing I didn't have was a suitable back drop.

Preparation.

On Thursday 28th March I signed out a flash head, stand, reflector and a soft box from the college. Still having no backdrop I decided to go to Leon`s Fabrics in Chorlton near Manchester to buy some fabric as a
back drop. Because I had already decided i was going to shoot High and Low key images I new that I would need black and white fabrics, the only problem was that most fabrics come in 2 meter widths, with my living room only measuring in at 3.5 meters anyway I'll have a job of squeezing every thing in if the stage was any wider. The only other thing I needed was spare batteries for my flashgun which I would be using to light up the white backdrop whilst shooting High key.

Studio setup.

This in a nutshell was the setup I used for the shoot although the width was narrower at home, the flash on the left was a camera flash with a diffuser set on full power mounted on a camera tripod pointing at a 45 degree angle to the backdrop. The strobe on the right had a large soft box as a modifier to soften and spread the light covering the model this will be set a couple of stops less than the flash covering the back drop. In this shoot I'll be using my Canon 500d with a Tamron 28-74mm f2.8 zoom lens In addition i have a Canon 450d with a Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens. This Set up was for my first session at high key.

The Shoot.

The time had finally come, i'd had several chats with Chris during the 6 months prior to the shoot to make sure he was happy with his progress and that he still wanted to go ahead, in one of those conversations he'd asked if I would take some shots of his wife and daughter to which I had no problem with until it came to the group shots! They arrived on time and we chatted for 20 minutes or so just to get everyone relaxed, as well as me. Firstly we did some test shots to evaluate the lighting levels, coverage and direction.

My first images were of Chris wearing an open shirt in a catalogue style pose.

Shot at f6.3 , 1/200 sec,@  iso200

I was quite pleased with this shot, I like the way the light from the left hand flash spills over onto his shirt. The light from the soft box is quite subtle but yet brings out tone and detail.

Shot at f 8.0, 1/200 sec @ iso400

Although I've upped the iso to 400 I've closed the aperture by just over a stop the light is a little harsher but still retaining detail and tone in the image, this was also shot in mono by using a modified setting on my camera whereas it increases contrast and tonality. The vignetting in thew corners are an accident and are a product of the light on the left having a reduced spread of light. The top of the backdrop is also creeping in to the top of the shot so I will crop at a later date.

Low Key.

The following two shots were taken in low key by removing the left hand flash and changing the backdrop to black giving a Film Noir feel.

Shot at f 8.0, 1/200 sec. @ iso 200.

Shot at f 8.0, 1/200 sec, @ iso 200

These images work well and give a more extended black tonal range. the model is more defined against the backdrop, I was happy that there was little or no light spillage on the backdrop.

These next few images are some other shots taken on the day.

Squeezing all three into the shot wasn't easy hence the Portrait orientation.

My thoughts.

Considering it was my very first home studio shoot I was and the Phelps's were very pleased with my results, so pleased they've ordered 40 prints of various sizes up to A3 I gained a lot through working this shoot and will offer my services in this field if ever required I have only one issue though..I need a bigger lounge.

Thanks to-

The Manchester college ( Fielden Campus ) for the loan of their lighting equipment.

Chris, Sam and Jordan Phelps for allowing me to photograph them.

© Sean Wareing 2013