Creative Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Zhi Lee Photography

Getting Creative with Fire and Gels

June 29, 2014June 30, 2014
by Zhi Lee

Creative Portrait lit with Fire and Red Flash Against a Black Backdrop. By Zhi Lee

Flash gels are pieces of coloured transparent plastic film that you can place in front of a strobe or external flash to change the colour of light being emitted.

In our last post post about fire photography, we described the setup for photographing fire. In preparation for our creative shoot next week, we had a second round of fire photography, this time in combination with coloured gels.

One of the difficulties we encountered was that white cornflour dust would show up starkingly white when flashed with white light, as in the picture below.

White flash on cornflour dust yields very white smoke. You'd want to place a coloured gel in front of the flash if all that white isn't to your taste. — White flash on cornflour dust yields very white smoke. You’d want to place a coloured gel in front of the flash if all that white isn’t to your taste.

Playing the reflective properties of the white cornflour dust to our advantage, we placed a piece of red cellophane in front of the flash. These are cheap and easily obtainable from a dollar shop.

Observe the drama added to the setup.

We did have to spent a bit of time cleaning up the mess we made 😛

But the results were worth it!

Cornflour dust in flames against a black backdrop

These images were created in safe conditions with water and fire extinguishers within easy reach. Be safe and have fun!

Zhi

Aperture: ƒ/6.3
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Focal length: 165mm
ISO: 200
Shutter speed: 1/160s

Creative

A Photographer and his mate get hold of corn…

June 21, 2014January 7, 2017
by Zhi Lee

In preparation for our Dark Angel creative shoot, Vijay and I practised creating and photographing flames in the courtyard. Safety measures were taken with fire extinguishes in place and the experiment done on hard brick, away from any flammable hazards.

Here’s how it was done.

Tape the funnel to one end of the hose and the other to an air pump
Tip corn flour into the funnel
Position a fire starter above the funnel and light it.
Compress the air in the air pump and release the air.

Copyright Vijay Prema and Zhi Lee — Blowing Corn Flour into a Flame

Aperture: ƒ/11
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Focal length: 105mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/500s

Creative

Elevating Dark Angel

June 2, 2014June 27, 2014
by Zhi Lee

A Casting Call in Epic Photography

Lately I’ve been following Benjamin Von Wong and getting sparked up (notice the pun as you’ll see later :)) with ideas for a new concept. Von Wong is known for his “Epic” imagery which are products of a good vision combined with exceptional lighting, and of course a large budget (which is something we don’t have!).

Copyright Benjamin von Wong. — Image by Benjamin Von Wong

The concept I’m working on came together as a result of:

The desire to buy a portable power source for the 600W Studio Strobe I already have
The desire to work with a powerful strobe outdoors with a large softbox.
An urge to shoot fire.
A strange recollection of a fire photography tutorial by Kai Man Wong from Digital Rev TV

With a very little bit of Google Image’ing, these images came up:

Image by Kevin Garrison — The Arrival by Kevin Garrison

Archangel Tyrael — Image from Wallpaperstock.net

Here’s the setup in my head. A model in a black lingerie or nude, with black angel wings (from Trademe), in a dark forest setting (there are some secluded forests near Piha, easily accessible away from the crowds), back-lit with a large 80cm x 120cm softbox, elavating in mid-air (by means of skillful jumping), captured through flames between the lens and model.

Elevating Angel Concept

With this I’ll leave you with a casting call, and a quote from Benjamin von Wong. If you’re a model, photographer or pyrotechnics specialist interested in working together on this concept, contact me.

[quote]Being creative is a way of life[/quote]

– Zhi Lee

Creative

Reliving the Corbans Estate Hip Hop Shoot

May 31, 2014May 31, 2014
by Zhi Lee

What better way to kick-start a new blog by pulling out some old photos?

I’d just gotten hold of an orbis ring flash, Vijay wanted to dispose of daytime fireworks, a few photographer friends wanted to get creative, so we pulled this baby out of the bag.

This was a collaboration between photographers Rory Laubscher from Firefly Photography, Sean Dick from Evoke Studio, Nick Tran, Vineet Menon and models Vijay Prema, Sylvia Philcox, Jeffrey Wang and Helen Fergusson. Feb 2012 seems like a long way back!

Gear used:
– Orbis Ring Flash
– Couple of $100 YN 450’s (You don’t need expensive gear to achieve great results)
– Canon 60D
– Daytime Fireworks