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Home » creative shoot

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.
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

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

 

Creative Portrait lit with Fire and Red Flash Against a Black Backdrop. By Zhi Lee
Yours Truly, Your Creative Man Zhi Lee
  • Aperture: ƒ/5.6
  • Camera: Canon EOS 6D
  • Focal length: 32mm
  • ISO: 100
  • Shutter speed: 1/100s
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.
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.

Model: Katrina McCloy Makeup: Lisa Robb Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi
Model: Katrina McCloy
Makeup: Lisa Robb
Photographer: Zhi Lee Photography @__zhi
  • Aperture: ƒ/4
  • Camera: Canon EOS 6D
  • Focal length: 105mm
  • ISO: 400
  • Shutter speed: 1/125s

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