Lighting Test: Omega Speedmaster Professional Mark II
For this next piece I wanted to experiment and see what types of unique lighting effects I could produce using nothing but everyday light sources I had laying around the house.
The Goal: Light a product shot using basic LEDs and a long camera exposure.
The Set-Up: Black backing card, colored LED lights, tripod, pitch black space (walk-in closet floor).
The Process: To get the watch to hold it’s nice natural shape, a ring was cut from the middle section of 2 litre soda bottle and expanded inside the wrist band in an O shape. Then, the product was placed on a basic black reflective card (from the project folder used in the Water Shot – High Speed Capture shoot) and placed in a pitch black space. Next, the tripod was set-up directly over the product, lens focus was set, and lights turned off for the LED lighting to begin. From here it was a basic trial and error, motioning LED lights around the watch at varying distances, speeds, angles, and positions over a 20 second exposure to produce the final results straight from the camera.
Metadata: ISO 100 | 48mm | f/8 | 20.0s
Lighting test shots:
AP Magazine: Spec Cover Shoot
Last weekend, Justin Bettman & I came together for another collab with Music Artists Shane Gelinas, Like Giants, and Lions! Tigers! Bears!
The Goal: Re-create an AP Magazine cover with similar lighting/style.
The Set-Up: 2 bare strobes, 6 foot octobox, 1 white backdrop; very basic living room shoot.
The Process: Each subject was shot separately and individually lighted based on varying heights, skin tone, and desired rim light/shadow balance. While shooting subjects together saves time, shooting individually makes the photo selection process significantly easier and adding/removing subjects in the final composite is a breeze. Next, final shots were selected and cut out in post production over an ominous sky background with AP style text overlays. The results below.
Tutorial: In Progress… check back for updates.
Behind the scenes:
UNCHARTED: Arshie’s Rebellion
Over Labor Day weekend I had the opportunity to shoot another collaboration with fellow photographer and good friend Justin Bettman. We came up the concept based off the trailer for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception meets Angelina Jolie – Tomb Raider. While shooting in the desert would have been ideal, we stayed local to the Greater Los Angeles area and shot everything in 1 day. To prepare for the shoot, we took a quick trip to Goodwill and scrounged together a $17 outfit (boots, pants, belt, shirt, & misc. props) for our model Arshaluis Hogikyan, who was an absolute pleasure to work with. We photographed Arshie on site with a basic dual octobox and a bare flash set-up, and wrapped around 3:00. From there we drove up to the north side of LA and shot the rest of our elements under natural sunlight.
At the end of the day, Justin and I parted ways to our respective studios to create our own composites, one entirely shot off Justin’d 5D Mark II and another off my 7D to compare. I was really happy with the way the conceptual video game/movie poster turned out.
Final Composite: 
Assets: 
*Justin’s original piece can be seen here.
