Lifestyle & Jewelry Photography

So, I got a bit bored of shooting straight product shots this week. Although they are pretty, nothing conveys the feeling of "if I buy that diamond ring, I'll look as gorgeous as the model in the poster" better than a lifestyle photography of model(s) wearing or using the product in an ad campaign.

This genre of commercial photography takes a lot of work and can cost a bit more. Think about it. Instead of only hiring just a product photographer and his/her assistant; you'll be paying a crew of talents that range from great model(s), a makeup artist, a hair stylist, photography assistants, coordinators, security guards, location rentals, equipment rentals, etc, a la Annie Leibovitz le grandeur style. And of course, don't forget about the knowledgeable photographer who needs to project manage this team of artistic and talented players in the studio or on location.

It's no wonder that only the large jewelry companies are the only ones that can afford the types of ad campaigns that slap enticing images into several pages of popular magazines. These larger scale expenses can chew into the profit margins of large corporations with a tight budget. For the smaller guys, these types of campaigns are near unreachable.

I don't think it needs to stay that way. Amazing lifestyle imagery with products can be achieved without breaking the bank.

So, how can we increase efficiency in a photoshoot? Here are some suggestions.

1. Substitute some of the less important roles with freelance models. Your photographer has probably worked with plenty that they think have high potential. Ask him/her for suggestions! Do note that, a risk involved is the ability of how the model to performs. Professional models are a bit more in-tuned with their poses, look and style that will match your creative needs.
2. How about getting a good photographer who has the know-how in lighting and can work his/her own lights without hiring 5-10 assistants that he/she can bark out orders to. Yes, of course, project size varies and there are times where a large crew is necessary. What I'm merely recommending is to increase productivity without creating waste or cutting corners.
3. A photographer who owns his/her lighting equipment means that he/she won't have to rent them and that can be a great cost savings too! Equipment rentals can run from hundreds to thousands of dollars!
4. Also, getting a good coordinator to manage the time is absolutely critical and can save you money overall. Bottlenecks in production can halt the entire process and increase cost!

On another note, last week was an amazing week. I am proud to say that my photographs (both comp cards and beauty shots) help propel two more fantastic models to get recognized and interviewed by huge international status agencies; i.e. Ford Models and Marla Dell. These are the agencies that supply models to ads and campaigns such as Elizabeth Arden, Cosmopolitan, Glamour magazines and Abercrombie catalogs.

Suffice to say, there are phenomenal opportunities that can open up to them and I'm truly happy to be a big part of this turning point of their lives and careers!

- Michael Soo

Commercial Photography Project with Models

Commercial and Advertising Photoshoots projects with models is my favourite photography work.

I really enjoy organizing the whole package. From contacting models, working with the client, to pulling the whole project together. This isn't easy especially if the client is on a budget and the models are freelancers. The reason is because they tend to either lack experience, can't pose or are not as professional. However, once in a while, you do get some models who are good.

I've shot Ashton (shown here on the right) a few times before and she is very professional, beautiful and poses well. Here, she is backlighted with a blue-green gel that enhances the imagery with a beautiful aura of "intelligence" if you will.

Lighting is very important. When the space for the shoot is large, the lights will need to be ultra powerful. You'll need at least a 1200 True Ws lights, preferably, something even more powerful, such as a 2400 True Ws lights. This is due to the inverse square law for light where the light falloff is rapid. If you are using medium or large format, your light usage will be even worse. Just be sure not to break the circuits too often. ;-)

On top of that, your lighting pack needs to be flexible enough to go into low power without changing its light temperature as much. I know for a fact (Yep, I personally tested them) that just about all monoblocks lights have a horrible shift of color temperature (300 to over 1,000 Kelvins) between max and min power. You probably don't care about such shifts if you are doing casual fun photography but it can be incredibly frustrating if you care a lot about the colors, for fashion or product photography. Imagine shooting a white product on white background and you see a yellow-orange tint on one side of the product and bluish cast on the other. Yuck!

Back to the point, lower power is needed to enable shots such as those on the left where the screen of the monitor's glow is important to be captured while you still want some lights to illuminate the background and fill the shadows.

- MS

Beauty Shoot, the Beauty Dish Way.

I've been desperately shopping for a new beauty dish (that comes with a better semi-opaque center) for a while now. You see, the beauty dish that I have been using for a while (made by Paul Buff = $120) has a opaque center that causes light to not pass through very well. So, the reflections from it looks like a donut. Ok, you must think I'm a madman to spend hundreds, just to show a non-donut shape light on the reflections of my models' eyes? Unfortunately, the laws of diminishing returns has caught up to me.

Granted, I can spare my wallet a lot of money to construct a round center that is semi opaque and slap it onto my beauty dish. But I guess time is money and hence, I don't have the time to do that type of construction. Plus, I'm lazy. Go figure.

My final excuse is that I'm slowly converting my gears to Profoto, it's a good idea to start swapping out the previous products. Ok, also, you can get a nice grid to go with this one. Which is fantastic. Just what I need, really. ;-)

I was looking intently at the 33" Euro Mola. They are really, really nice but are ultra big, heavy and it costs a lot of moolas. Maybe when I have more moolahs, I'll buy that mola.

In the middle of the shoot, Jade stopped by to pick up my still_wonderful_beauty_dish and got a bit disgusted with how I sell a perfectly good equipment and got a new one that look just about the same. Damn you, Jade. I still got your extra $3!!! Buahahaha!

I invited the whole football team to my residence for this shoot. Since a beauty shoot doesn't take that much space, I had everyone occupy my dining and kitchen area and have the shoot done in the living room. it was heckavu fun.

The usual suspects arrived, Janice and Mikel. We even have Van from Ocean Blue Videography of San Jose to help with with my idea of videotaping the shoot for a possible instructional video!

The gorgeous and amazing models are none other than Tiffany, Sharin, Brittany and Mary. Test my stamina, baby!

I used 5 lights for this shoot instead of my usual 1-2 lights. LOL. Some people think that more lights = better pictures. Is it true? No comment from me on this subject. So, let's move on.

Janice did makeup, Mikel did hair, I focused on the shoot. It was like a production line but we were just happily chatting along. It was casual, smooth and I had a blast.

I gotto tell ya. The models _really_ worked it. Tiffany got her hair in her eyes the whole time while Mikel had too much fun with the blower. Sharin's skin is omfg, flawless. Brittany pull amazing poses out of thin air while using a toothpick to keep her eyelids open due to the ultra heavy makeup. Mary, she shot with us more than we shot her! It's a complete teamwork that would not have worked if one of us are missing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

For dinner, I got a large spinach artichoke, a large BBQ Chicken & a small sweet pig pizzas from BJ's Brewery for dinner and we're at it again non-stop till midnight.

We managed to stay alert enough to capture this shot of Mary looking disgusted at us while we prop her. Hahaha! I love it!!! Love it!!!!

Model Photography Workshop

"I'll help hold your reflector" is what a fellow photographer will nudge into my ribs when they see my modeling portfolio work. They are interested to work with gorgeous models but has nothing in his portfolio...yet. It's a catch-22. You can't attract a 8/10 model to work with you if you don't have images of other 8/10 models in your portfolio and you can't have a portfolio full of 8/10 models if you never work with a 8/10 model! So, how do you go from point A (zero portfolio, zero interest) to point B (beautiful models calling you to have you shoot them, and PAY YOU $550 while you're having your fun)?!?! I suppose everything comes at a price. You can of course start by investing a lot of time working with the 5/10 models. It will take you some time and if you're lucky and have the charming personality of car salesman, you may coerce a 8/10 to work with you. The alternative, is to find a good model photography workshop that you can get get some immediate air time with great models in a nice friendly location. They'll even sign your model release form while rubbing shoulders with you, handing off more of their friends to you. While you are at it, you do also get to learn about lighting, how to work with models, communications, workflow, tips and tricks that you can't learn anywhere else. It's no secret that I'm trying to put workshops together and one may think this is a shameless plug. The truth is, this really isn't my main line of work where I'll make my millions. I love teaching, I love sharing and I love shooting models. And if I can get paid while doing what I'm passionate about, I'll be in heaven. Workshop info provided here, http://www.soophotography.com/workshop/ These shots are done at Libby's dad's 300+ acre ranch in the east bay, a location that I'm contemplating on doing the model shoot workshop. There are full of wonderful spots, props and rustic background that will fill your portfolio to the brime with amazing landscape (location work) and model work in one. On top of that, it's private and is only a mere 1.5 hrs away from most bay area cities. When is the model photography workshop? It's still undecided. I'll let it swirl in my head a bit longer. Email me if you are interested. msoo (at) soophotography (dot) com Of course, here is a thread to the SooCool Forum with all the images from that day. - MS

Eat, Drink, Video and a Studio shoot

What better things to do than to have friends over (who bring beers and wines), edit some videos, have a great meal, have a couple of beers, some Chardonnay and a photoshoot? Good times! Ok, my idea of fun can be different than the average Joe and that's that. ;) So Jen & Paul came by to edit Jen's video to showcase her experience as a news broadcaster. Jen, being a real sweetheart, brought not one, not two but TWENTY-FOUR bottles of beer and a bottle of chardonnay. I'm not sure where she got the idea that I edit video much more artistically while intoxicated. Brittany came over at 6pm. You don't know who Brittany is? Shame on you, go back into my past blog and read the Angel's Descent. Yes, you. You with the big nose! Go read it NOW and don't come back till you show this young lady some freaking respect. Breathe! Breathe! Anyways, we finished the video editing. Damn fast job too. I managed to trick Jenny into thinking that it was extremely difficult and will take 20 engineers and 20 hours to edit, but with my spanking NEW Apple iMac, that typical 20 hour task shrunk down to a mere 2 hours using only half a brain (the other half is intoxicated, remember?). Anyways, went to BJ's for dinner, came back, and NOW, the fun begins. Rolled out the seamless gray and setup the lights, ready, set, SHOOT, SHOOT, FLASH, POSE, POSE, SHOOT, DRINK, DRINK, BURP, SHOOT AGAIN. I have not had so much fun in a long long time. The absolute best shot of the night? Without a doubt, that prize winning photography goes to Paul who captured this winning image. I think I'm going to submit this image to some contest. I bet I'll win lots of money. - MS