Planning your photography with a makeup artist

August 23, 2014August 23, 2014
by Zhi Lee

The Thought Behind the Makeup

When putting together a themed shoot, as we did with ours, it’s important to collaborate with the makeup artist on the concept. I had the privilege of working with Lisa Robb who not only grasped the concept, but added her own spin to it. Lisa is a qualified Makeup Artist who’s work ranges from weddings, special occasions and events to fashion shows, film/TV and special effects! Here are some tips from us, and Lisa’s rationale behind the hair and make-up which really made the shoot a success! Thanks to Lisa for contributing to this blog post.

Tips for photographers collaborating with hair / makeup artists (HMUA)

1. Open Communication – Exchange samples for what you are visualising. We exchanged a number of images we got from Google and discussed how to complement each model’s look with hair and makeup. We did this over a few weeks and Lisa even sent me sketches.

2. Agree on the theme – Use a few keywords to describe the mood, lighting and post-processing effects. For our shoot, the keywords were – “dark”, “angel”, “fantasy”, “mystery”, “fallen” and “elegant”.

3. Get to know them – We created a Facebook group for models, videographers, photographers and HMUA to get to know each other. It formed an open forum for discussions and agreeing on the schedule of the day, the storyboard, and who was bringing what props / clothes.

Rationale (by Lisa)

For this Dark Angel shoot I took inspiration from movies like Hunger Games and Underworld. I wanted to create something that was both dark and mystical but also angelic to portray both good and evil.

When developing my ideas for Alisha I wanted her eyes to be the main focal point. I achieved this by making them black and using white eyeliner to enhance their size. I went for black and white contrast to show rebellion and confusion. I chose to make her skin tone pale to show a lack of belonging in this world “Angel fallen from Heaven.”

Model: Alisha Fitzpatrick
Makeup: Lisa Robb

With Katrina I wanted to show her as a majestic creature, with fairy tale characteristics of innocence and mystery.

I wanted her intentions in this world to be questionable “is she good? or is she evil?”I used pearl and black rhinestones to add to the fantasy and bright pink blush around her temples and down her cheek bones to soften her appearance. To create a halo I used a soft fountain braid in her hair and then added random curls and waves to fit with the forest theme.

This is the face chart used for Katrina on the day of the shoot. After being shown examples of what the client is after I will draw up a face chart or two with my interpretation to show we are both on the same track. I will often mix and match aspects of each face chart as well as add or remove features to suit the model, theme and time allocations. I will also list down what colours and products I intend to use. This makes application on the day faster and straightforward.

“A makeup face chart is used by makeup artists to test out or plan a look. They are also used to record a look that has been tried on someone else, like for a photo shoot or bridal trial. Makeup face charts are useful to have because they help you keep track of all the different products and color combinations that were used, in the event that you wish to recreate the look again in the future.” Excerpt from Totalbeauty.com

Model: Katrina McCloy
Makeup: Lisa Robb

Final Results

Model: Alisha Fitzpatrick Makeup and Hair: Lisa Robb Photographer: Zhi Lee — Model: Alisha Fitzpatrick
Makeup and Hair: Lisa Robb
Photographer: Zhi Lee

Related Images:

Creative

Vulnerable Angel – Katrina McCloy

July 25, 2014July 25, 2014
by Zhi Lee

After our main dark angel shoot, we took to a darker more shaded part of the forest and did some magic with just 1 large 80cm x 120cm softbox. To get a nice reflection on the angel wings, we bright the softbox right in close. A few branches and twigs were cloned out to declutter the image but as much was left in as needed to set the forest scene.

In this image I asked Katrina to get into character and portray a sense of vulnerability, gently holding her wings so she would be elegantly covered. Katrina was a great sport – it was probably about 10 degrees at that time of day. I wouldn’t want to be out in the open unclothed in those conditions!

Aperture: ƒ/8
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Focal length: 80mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/125s

Related Images:

Creative

Hot Angel Photo Shoot – Lighting setups explained

July 22, 2014
by Zhi Lee

A little behind the scenes and explanation of our lighting setup for those wondering how it came together!

A 80cm x 120cm strobe with blue cellophane in front of the outer baffle, prepped cautiously on a ladder on top of the pergola. This gives off a blueish light, perfect for the night lighting we wanted to create. We wanted to create a rim light coming from high above slightly from the back. This would create an angelic effect around the model as if the light were from the heavens.

Testing the top lighting — Here’s the effect of the blue rim light from above the pergola. And our very charming and talented pyrotechnics man Vijay, without whom none of this would have been possible.

Setting up the source of fire — We ripped the top off a garden citronella oil burner which you can get from your local hardware store for about $5. It was perched on top of a ceramic pot. A funnel filled with fine cornflour (the cornflour was passed through a sieve to make it very fine) was placed against the base of the fire pointing upwards.

Dark Angel Photo Shoot - Lighting Setup Take 1 — This was one of our first takes with the lighting and photo setup. Looking good, Sean.

Dark Angel Lighting Setup — Now we decided, we wanted a bit of red in the flames to add a bit of heat and interest. This would also mask the parts of the cornflour dust cloud that hadn’t burned (shutter pressed too early) or had already burned (shutter pressed too late). The WHITE cornflour would be given a RED tint. A speedlight with a red gel was placed at the base of the flame pointing upwards.

Dark angel photo shoot - Behind the scenes with model Katrina McCloy — Shooting through the flames, we managed to create the effect that the angels were actually burning. Model: Katrina McCloy

Dark angel BTS with Katrina McCloy — An outdoor shoot doesn’t come without challenges. Not only was our gear splattered with mud, so were our models feet! Model Katrina McCloy being a great sport!

The Final Images

Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Focal length: 32mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/100s

Creative

Angel Fallen From the Heavens

July 14, 2014July 14, 2014
by Zhi Lee

Forsaken, banished, forlorn, the dark angel gazes into the heavens, angry but repentant.

This image was lit with a blue softbox above and behind the model, making it seem like lighting from the heavens. A red gel was added for slight accents to add to the surrealness in working with the fantasy theme.

The fire is real, created by dousing rags in alcohol and setting them alight on a wet leaf litter.

Canon 6D, 24-105mm @ f 4.5, 1/125s/ 45mm. Model: Alisha Fitzpatrick Makeup: Lisa Robb Photographer: Zhi Lee Pyrotechnics: Vijay Prema

Aperture: ƒ/4.5
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Focal length: 45mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/125s

Creative

Fallen Dark Angel in Forest Creative Shoot – Katrina…

July 9, 2014July 10, 2014
by Zhi Lee

Katrina and I have worked together a few times, once on a body painting project and another in a life art workshop. You might recognize her from these other creative portraits!

Lisa Robb and I tossed around ideas for the makeup and this is what she came up with. Sequins were used to add elegance to that dark theme we were working with.

This is the first image we’re releasing from our Dark Angel shoot.

In order to block out as much of the forest background as possible, we lit Katrina with a 300W Visico strobe + 120cm x 80cm softbox from the left with a small reflector on the right for fill, in a shaded area of the forest during the day. As we were working in a very tight space in the forest, we used a wide focal length of 28mm, which allowed us to get in close to the branches. There were actually so many branches in the way and what you don’t see in the picture is Lisa holding back a bunch of branches in one hand, with a reflector in the other.

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Creative

Fallen Dark Angel Fantasy Shoot with Fire – Behind-the-Scenes…

July 7, 2014
by Zhi Lee

A Creative Collaboration with:

Models Katrina McCloy Alisha Fitzpatrick Vijay Prema
Makeup by Lisa
Hosted by Evoke Studio

Pyrotechnics by Vijay Prema
BTS Videography by Vijay Prema and Vincent Chik
BTS Stills and logistics by Don Chin and Vincent Chik

Model: Katrina McCloy Makeup: Lisa Robb Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi — Model: Katrina McCloy
Makeup: Lisa Robb
Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi BTS Image: Sean Dick

One day I was sick at home and watching BTS videos of other photographers. Then I came across Benjamin Von Wong’s fire shoot. For awhile now I have been wanting to do something collaborative with a few like minded people. I started thinking of a dark theme that would complement fire in the foreground or background. One thing led to another and I settled on a fallen dark angel theme in a forest location.

BTS Videographer: Vijay Prema Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi — BTS Videographer: Vijay Prema
Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi

The shoot required a lot of planning, reaching out to models and a makeup artist who understood the theme, illustrating the ideas by posting similar samples of other people’s work, searching for the right angel wings to buy, seeking out a suitable forest location that was secluded enough for privacy yet easily accessible, and practising generating and shooting fire. Vijay and I completely thrashed my garage with cornflour and for days it smelt like a bakery from the residue of firestarters and cornflour dust.

Model: Alisha Fitzpatrick Makeup: Lisa Robb Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi — Model: Alisha Fitzpatrick
Makeup: Lisa Robb
Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi

We experimented with different setups and came to the conclusion that a long lens had to be used to compress the background and make the fire seem bigger as we couldn’t really generate a huge fire.

Creating the fire effects required for the levitation scene.

We’ll be posting more images as our edits come through. But for now it’s time to get the gear thoroughly cleaned out. I learned that softboxes don’t travel well through bush.

Aperture: ƒ/4
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Focal length: 105mm
ISO: 400
Shutter speed: 1/125s

Creative

Getting Creative with Fire and Gels

June 29, 2014June 30, 2014
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

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