Took this shot during some location scouting last weekend.

Some shots from a recent model test with Diana. The last shot was a lighting test shot… and at the time I thought “the light is crap, now what?” In moving some lighting, I snapped a plastic housing on a monolight… tried a ringflash… snapped a plastic tightening knob on that… so moved to the window for some backlighting, and lastly to the wall with diffused light from the window coming in from her right.

In the end… what did I learn? The initial lighting looked pretty good and I should not have abandoned my initial setup so quickly. And secondly, you have to have durable, reliable gear. That’s why made the switch to Profoto Acute2 1200R… and window light. I’m loving both, though the window light is significantly less expensive.

All of these were shot with window light with model against a matte metallic silver v-flat.
In the second image I used a light with a 20º grid to brighten the face and shoulders.

Here are some shots taken over the weekend. Lighting: AB1600 in beauty dish… very close. Subtle rimlight withAB800 with 30° grid. 5DMKII with 24-70mm.

This is from a shoot with model Jen Lee. I was messing about with Silver Efex Pro and really liked the tones. So, I wanted to share. Highly recommend this plugin.

Here’s a short video I put together with some of the random footage and stills from one of Sarah’s tests. Based on this first try, we have a much better idea of how to document the entire process. I just want to thank Chase Jarvis for continual inspiration. His “Frames” pieces gave me the idea to work with all of the frames of the shoot… for better or worse. It’s difficult to throw every shot out there–where people can see just how bad some of them really are. I look at some of my choices and wonder “what was I thinking?”

I shot Sarah Hartshorne last Friday at the South Norwalk, CT train station. Here’s some samples from the shoot.