Lucy Jane Totes - A Colorful Workspace Story
The Calm Before The Storm
I met Kim of Lucy Jane Totes through my wife. The two of them had met at a women's function shortly after our arrival in Louisville. When the subject came up of how the Jester family ended up in Kentucky, Kim was very excited to learn that I moved here to shoot product for Amazon. Kim had been stuck in a rut with her product photography and was interested in learning some new techniques to help her achieve more flexibility and consistency. I absolutely adore teaching, and when I get a chance to help a small business out, even better.
We got together for a single hands on session and that was all she needed to springboard herself to the next level. During that session, I took note of Kim’s incredible workspace. It was clean, organized, and very well decorated. The wheels started turning on how we could do some really great environmental portraits of Kim in her space.
Getting down to work. A rare glimpse of Alicia in front of the camera.
One of the benefits of working in a production studio is your coworkers. I work with some extraordinarily talented people on a daily basis, and since most of us are recent transplants to the area, most everyone is very motivated to collaborate on projects outside of work. Alicia Cannizzo is one such talented person. As a stylist for Amazon, she is regularly taking product straight from it’s packaging and making it look amazing. Alicia and I connect a couple of different levels, and one of those levels is our belief in the power of good visual merchandising. I knew that she would be a good fit for Kim’s incredible space.
The next time I saw the space, it was shoot day. For our first shot, we were going to frame Kim through the opening from her foyer into her workshop. The theme here would a peak into her workshop from a “normal” part of her house. The composition technique would be framing. Framing the space in the doorway frame, framing her inside the box created by her work table and the top shelf behind her, and finally framing her form out with decor and props on her shelving.
The key here would be impeccable set dressing, which is where Alicia comes in.
I literally mean hours were spent dressing this set.
Every single prop, piece of decor, bolt of fabric and tool in this shot was placed with intent and after much discussion. There is not a single part of this image that is not 100% intentional. This is one of my key tenets of photography: Do everything with purpose. If someone asks you “why is it like this?” always have an answer. Always have a reason for this prop or that light. You control the perspective, so own it 100%.
For lighting design, this was all about mimicking how this room looks in person, which is awash with light. The lighting would be simple: blast the corners of the room with strobes and generally boost the amount of light in the room. We would use the window light as fill and the key light would come from a Broncolor monolight hitting the wall opposite the windows.
The room was lit in three zones, the foyer, the workroom, and the back corner.
Here is the final scene with only the window light. This light was used for fill in the final lighting design.
Shown here is foyer light + window light only. Broncolor Minipuls C80.
Shown here is the key light + window light only. Broncolor Minipuls C80.
Shown here is the fill light for the back, camera right corner of the work room. LumoPro LP180.
The foyer light was simply to keep the dim foyer even with the workroom. As mentioned above, the key light was used to boost the way the natural light looks in person, but allow us to shoot at settings that will net us the sharpest, cleanest images. Finally the back corner light was used to address light fall off in that back corner, which was betraying the fact that the scene was lit with strobe.
Once the light was dialed in, we spent literally HOURS fine tuning the set dressing. I think the time and effort really pays off. The result is an image that I’m in love with, and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
The final shot. Well, one of several really solid options. I like this one a lot because of the quiet confidence that Kim exudes. For the record, that confidence is earned. Her product is top notch.
Tech Details
Camera: Fujifilm X-T1
Lens: Fujinon 35mm F1.4
Camera Settings: 1/15 @ F4, ISO 200
Foyer Light: Broncolor Minipuls C80, with shoot thru umbrella aimed into the corner
Key Light: Broncolor Minipuls C80, reflector only, aimed towards wall, camera right
Corner Fill Light: LumoPro LP180, with shoot thru umbrella
Radio Trigger: Pocket Wizard Plus III
Other Details: Tethered shooting into Lightroom. Imported images into Capture One Pro 9.1 for editing and processing
Purchase one of Kim's bags here:
www.LucyJaneTotes.com
Life This Week: Summer Camp, Pool Time, Night Out
Even though it's only officially been summer for a few days, it's in full swing for the Jester family. We just finished working two of four weekends at a family summer camp at Whispering Winds in the Cuyamaca Mountains east of San Diego. My son Jack is out of school for the summer and already embracing a summer schedule, meanwhile my wife and I are enjoying not having to schlep across town to and from the school. Life is good.
Musicians Angel and Matthew relax on the patio and play some music
A little bit of double exposure sillyness with the built in double exposure mode on the Fuji x100s
Hannah hangs out by the pool
Hannah hangs out after dinner
Family photo at the pool. Photo courtesy of Ed Bonadiman
My gorgeous wife at dinner for our 7th Anniversary. Super low light portrait manual focused with the Fuji x100s.
BTS Tuesday - The Dancer
I recently reposted an old image of mine on Instagram and got a few questions about how I set up the lighting. Going through my old images, I don't have any good BTS shots of the lighting set up, so I thought I'd do it the old fashioned way and draw out a diagram and do this little write up. I figure this might be pretty fun to do regularly with images old and new, so BTS Tuesday is now a thing on my blog. Yay!
The Set Up
The lighting set up for my photograph "The Dancer"
My family is very blessed to have an incredibly talented group of family and friends whom have often become the subjects of photo projects, one such person is the truly gifted Victoria Souder. She is a dancer and studio owner in Moreno Valley, CA and this was our first attempt at collaborating together. I was doing a mini portrait project where I was photographing people I knew doing what they loved.
We were to shoot together at her studio after class, which I knew would be challenging because, as some dance studios are laid out, the entire west wall was a mirror that ran the length of the room. Judicious use of flags would be the key here.
I knew I wanted my final product to be low-key with dramatic rim light and heavy shadow, and that Victoria would be mid-motion. I set up my only two studio lights at the time (two Calumet Genesis 200's) directly to the left and the right of Victoria, with only the standard reflector, we were going with hard, focused light. I set up my flags to keep stray light off my lens and had to double them up to also block reflections in that mirror wall. We snapped a few shots and they were ok, but missing something.
An outtake from my first shoot with Victoria Souder
Victoria did some amazing things, but I wanted to add a little flare (Zing!) to the shots. I wanted them to feel less heavy and more like a presentation of immense talent, but with that low-key look. It was time to break out my trusty LumoPro flashes.
I added both of my LumoPro LP160 manual flashes to the rear of Victoria, to be shown in frame light stage lights. These lights would also even out the rim lighting I was getting from the Genesis mono lights. The result: "The Dancer"
"The Dancer" Model: Victoria Souder
This image was also featured in the book Strobox Vol. 2, the yearly highlight of the best images on strobox.com. You can purchase a copy here: http://strobox.com/book/vol2. This is a really cool book with a lot of great images, all of which include lighting diagrams and information on how they were shot. Check it out and support the site!
Lovers and Ice Cream - A Photo Re-Creation
Having spare time often means impromptu photography projects in my home studio. On one such occasion my darling wife and I decided to re-create the Farrells Ice Cream logo, using ourselves as models.
Dirt Biker - Desert Portrait
My baby sister has become quite a dirt biker. The last time I visited my family at their cafe and gas station in the desert, I set some time aside to take a sunset portrait of her on her dirt bike.
Tech Details
Set: Backlot of the Blu In Cafe and Gas Station
Lights: Canon 580exII, 2x LumoPro LP160