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Lighting was a couple 500w halogen floodlights, the type you buy from your local hardware or department store for working on cars.  One was bounced off a reflector held in place by a chair and a camera bag, the other was hung from a curtain rod and shone directly on Nyung.  The backdrop was a white sheet looped over the curtain rod.

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After a couple minutes on a moto we were at the beach, I wish my beach shoots in Aus were so easy to get to!  We actually could have walked down to Victory beach in less than 5mins from my room but I wanted to try Hawaii beach as it’s a bit more out of the way and so I figured we’d have it to ourselves, which we pretty much did.

This was my first shoot in a couple months & Young’s first ever. So I figured we’d ease into it with something short and simple. A half hour beach shoot at sunrise in two different outfits. No makeup artists, no lighting, no assistants, just myself, Young and a camera (and our moto driver peering through the bushes!)

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Ok, before I get stuck into the tutorial I’ve got a quick challenge for those of you photographically minded: have a look at the shot, look at the shadows and have a guess yourself at what lighting setup I used, then read on to see if you are right!

The reason I thought I’d do a quick lighting tutorial on this particular image here as it’s probably the number one image I get asked about in terms of technique used in the lighting setup. These questions often come with explanations of attempts made or theories as to what the setup was. I’ve had every theory under the sun thrown at me, some with up to 6 lights coming from various angles at varying strength ratios through various modifiers etc

Funny thing is though, that as these theories get more and more intricate they also get further and further from the truth. The real setup was in actual fact nothing more than a cheap piece of cheesecloth type material pegged (yes literally held up with clothes pegs) to my garage rolla door which was opened fully at about 4o’clock in the afternoon.

We then wet the cloth and the model (who was my girlfriend at the time) jumped behind the cloth and moved against it in different ways with my shooting effectively her 4pm shadow (ok that sounds a bit wrong, but you know what I mean!)

There was no photographic studio, no “professional” model (though Kess is still one of the most amazing models I’ve ever had the good fortune to work with – thanks Kess!), no studio lights, no makeup artists, assistants etc and the complete cost of the shoot was ~$5 (for the material, which has been reused many times for other shoots).

Now at this stage in my career I often worked in fully equipped photographic studios, however that didn’t stop me from pegging a bit of cheesecloth to the garage door and going nuts when at home. Which brings me to one of the main points I want to make here. The lack of such high end devices as studios, strobes, light modifiers, even makeup artists (I very rarely use them in my personal work) etc need not stop you from being creative and making the most of whatever you have.

This image has gone on to be one of my all time most popular photos and among my own personal faves. I guess other people just find it to be a pretty picture. But for me it’s a little more than just a piece of eye candy. It also epitomizes everything I love about photography – which is the ability for creative souls to use passion and drive (as opposed to gear and resources) to capture the world around them in unique and beautiful ways and then share that vision with others.

So next time you are bemoaning your lack of studio lighting gear or that L series lens you crave take a step back and think about what you can do with what you DO have – it may be much more than you at first realise.

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A couple weeks ago through an unfortunate set of occurrences I ended up meeting a couple pretty cool people.  One is the model in this shoot, who ended up being a substitute called in at the last second when things went awry with the first model. The other being Ian Barclay, the excitable Scottish bloke who is himself a decent snapper, model Psychologist, impassioned shirt connoisseur (trust me, you don’t want to wear a Hawaiian shirt in front of this guy) and finally the owner of the resort these images were shot at. The beautiful Serene Sands Health Resort.

He even came to pick us up in the morning when the taxi driver didn’t know the way and we ended up reversing back along a decent length of Sukhumvidt highway.  I had verbal directions but I’d never been there before and it’s amazing how many green signs there are about when you are looking for the bastards…

Anyway Nardia proved to be an enthusiastic model with a free and creative spirit who was a joy to work with and we came away with some photography we can both be proud to add to our folios.  Thanks to Nardia for jumping in at the last moment and getting to us for the shoot and for such a tremendous effort and thanks to Ian for the excellent location and back up.

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Before we get to that if all you want to do is use one of my images for inspiration for a drawing or painting etc: go right ahead, the only thing I’d ask is that you provide a link back to me from anywhere you publish the finished work.

As for using my work directly in graphic designs, digital art, photo manipulations etc: For this I sell my work as rf stock for only a few dollars a license. You can either purchase the image from one of my agencies (which I’ll link to after this paragraph) or you can send me US$20 for one image and $10 each image thereafter (on the one order) by paypal and I’ll send you the full res image(s) via email/zip file link as soon as I get the payment notification. This will almost always be within 24hrs and normally sooner. Please include a message with the paypal payment including a LINK to the required image (either here or one of my other folio sites) and not just the title, as I often name my images differently on different sites, names for images just really don’t mean that much to me.

Paypal account: ben@artofimagery.com

(If you don’t have a paypal account just send me an email or contact me here with your request and I can email you back a payment request that you can pay via credit card)

Agencies:

Dreamstime

Shutterstock

Conditions etc:

Please note that even with the rf license purchase there are limits to what you can do with the images. I am only selling a license to USE the image, not to resell it either by selling it mostly unaltered as a print/coffee mug etc or using it in a design you then resell as stock yourself. Most other uses are fine though, including most sorts of commercial publishing or advertising etc The other restriction is if the shot contains a model that he/she cannot be cast in a harmful light, ie please no using images of my models for a 0055 6969 add in the back of a sleazy magazine or for advertising STD medication. If in doubt contact me and we can discuss it.

I have full legally binding model releases from almost all models I shoot and if I lack one for a model/person in a picture you request I’ll be sure to let you know, along with how this effects how you can and can’t use the image (ie editorial use is normally ok). If you do require print re-sell rights etc those too can be arranged, albeit at a higher price point.

I hope to be able to help some of you out with the images you need.

Cheers,
- Ben

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Ok, the (more) complete story goes like this: Hacker hacks the server my site is on and does such a number on the server that not only are all sites screwed with on the server but all online backups are wiped as well.  Server manager has since migrated to a new box from a new company with much stricter security measures and around the clock active security apparently.  Now my only offline backup sits on a dvd back home, off the top of my head I’m thinking that’s prolly around 20 000km away, anyway you get the idea.  It was fly home or make a new site.  And so with some help from (and many thanks to) my good friend and talented web designer James QH,  I sunk my teeth into learning wordpress, by way of piecing together a new site for myself.

It’s been something I’ve been meaning to do for years, along with getting the blog back online so that I can return adding to it, hopefully much more frequently than I did over the previous final few posts.  And so in the spirit of appreciating the results gained from the impetus to get off my ass, I issue a kind bow of thanks to the start of all of this: the arsehole hacker.  Much like a bushfire, flood or tornado (name your disaster) from your destructive tendencies has come not only the inevitable disaster but also creation and new life – there’s yin and yang in everything.

To celebrate I’m posting a new edit of one of my very favourite shoots ever, this was the image that I had in my mind that was the impetus for the whole setup for this shoot.  I’d previously edited others from this series but never the original shot I had in my head.  Ironically thanks also go to James QH for this shoot.  He put together a mighty effort that day as an assistant, spending many hours just mixing up fake snow & ice.  Anyways here’s the newest edit and the oldest vision of one of my favourite shoots.

A model diet:

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I arrived Monday afternoon after only a few hrs in a relatively comfortable bus from Phnom Penh.  I’d only been about 4 hrs including the rest & ‘get made to feel guilty by kids selling fruit’ stop of a half hr and I was feeling pretty good.  A moto driver immediately came up to me offering his services and after assuring me that we could transport all my gear (to which I was initially dubious as with all my photo & laptop gear I was carrying 4 bags) we were off.  I knew I wanted to stay near Serendipity beach as the guide book told me that there’s two main beach areas for budget accom in Sihanoukville, one is the backpacker central which is the grubby beach just in from the port and the other is the much nicer and less crowded serendipity beach.  I knew which of them I wanted.

I was brought to a guesthouse a block from the beach and after being shown the large, clean room with private bathroom, furniture beyond just a bed and even cable tv for $6 a night I was sold.  Anyways after check in I wandered up the beach and although it was a far cry from the wide surf beaches of back home it was nevertheless also a far cry from Phuket.  It was relatively clean and the water, depending on how the light hit it could even be called clear.  I threw a meal down my neck and went for a wander.  Up by the end in by the headland I found a nest of bungalows all with balconies with their own hammocks looking out to the sea.  After inquiring the price and finding out the double bed ones were 15$ I immediately made a reservation for the following night.  That night I enjoyed a couple 50cent happy hour pints of beer and then after happy hour finished and a few more @ $1 a pint.  Stumbling back to my guesthouse a block away from the beach was only a few mins walking but I couldn’t help but think the the next night I’d be swinging on a hammock listening to the ocean.

And I was.  Been here for a few days now.  Food in the restaurants up and down the little cove here is generally brilliant and though more expensive than other places in Cambodia it’s still cheaper than you’d pay for the equivalent western meal in Thailand.  I go to sleep and wake up with the sound of the ocean lapping the shore.  Not a single day has been too hot in fact the weather has been beautiful.  Mild to hottish days, thankfully lacking the humidity of back home, quenched by afternoon/evening rain storms and lightning shows.  My only wish was that the water was a little clearer and cooler, you can’t jump in the ocean in the middle of the day to cool off a tad as it’s just very warm, no coolness or feeling of refreshment to it at all.

There’s only one way into this little beach headland and you have to walk up the beach to get here.  That means that everything I need, including internet and a range of restaurants is available before I hit a road, means no dealing with tuk tuk or moto drivers that ever seem to be hounding you for rides as in most other SE Asian locations.  Also for the most part there’s nobody trying to talk you into their shops or sell you things.  The odd kid comes past with the morning paper or selling bracelets and stuff but they are quick to move on when they see you aren’t interested.  It’s definitely a low stress place to stay.

It means I get to kick back in this little bungalow and really relax, check the net when I want to and eat when I want to without bracing myself for the string of “Otay orkuns” (no thank yous) that I’d have to deliver in the other Cambodian locations I’ve stayed at. And when I’m not doing that or wandering around the headland path for a view of the sun going down I’m in my bungalow doing some editing, or some writing, or reading a book swinging in the hammock with the sound of the ocean in the background.

All in all a very peaceful and serene place and a great one, I think to get lost for a little while.

From my balcony:

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Now there’s not as much photoshop done to these images as you might first think.  Just some local contrast adjustment and colour tweaking, that’s it.  The effect was achieved by the use of 3 strobes.  The first two were standard rim lights set up behind and to each side of the model to provide separation between her and the black background.  The third was the creative one, I actually had it shining up from the bottom through the crystal ball.

The setup was as follows:  I started with a small round glass table & used cloth to mask off around the edges and even most of the table top, just leaving a circle in the middle, the strobe was placed under the table and faced upward so that it would fire through that circle and not spill anywhere else.  I then got a large glass bowl and a drinking glass both of the same height & placed the drinking glass in the bowl and the crystal ball on the glass.  I then filled up the bowl with hot water and dropped some dry ice in the bowl of water for the smoke.  The result being that with the smoke flowing out of the bowl of water and the crystal ball being of the same height of the bowl that the ball appears to be floating on smoke, with light coming from underneath through the table, bowl, glass and finally crystal ball to illuminate the smoke & the models hands and face.

I wasn’t sure it would work before we tried it but couldn’t have been happier with the results.  Often when you try playing around with ideas like this (and even less adventurous) some little thing you never figured on ruins everything and you have to play around a lot to get something decent out of the setup.  This was one of the rare experiments that just WORKED, straight up.

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