"Outlet for My Creative Self": Helene Glassman @ Lepp Institute

Another amazing weekend spent up in Los Osos, California, at the Lepp Institute! This time with Helene Glassman, of Santa Barbara, California, and Atlanta, Georgia. Helene is a photographer (as is her husband, Jim Divitale.) She has done PJ. She has done weddings. She has done lots of things and sometimes just needs to "to do her own thing" to let the creative juices flow. And apparently this flow has been into specialized greeting cards and bookmarks. And over this weekend, Helene walked us through both the business and the workflow aspects of this process.


Before I forget, I need to mention that I am always amazed at the quality of people who turn out to be my fellow students. Often doctors and lawyers although no indian chiefs, yet! Susan is just a hobbyist with no intention of selling anything ... turns out she has been a math teacher and computer programmer (and knows several languages that I know, too.) Greg does dogs! Cynde, who has been in two or three other classes with me is a professor and hospital administrator. And Alice has already been doing this for a while. Fascinating high quality people with wonderful personalities and amazing life stories. We all sat around in the break room chatting several times until Victoria herded us up like kittens to get back into the digital lab.

So, Helene showed us her products, both physically and "on the big screen". Then she looked through our stuff making suggestions and offering direction. While most everyone else had animals, landscapes and flowers, I as usual had well known entertainers, sigh ... same old boring stuff!

Next she reviewed many ways to put images onto cards and many types of cards: triptychs, Thank You note, vertical, horizontal, in series with lots of variations. She talked prices. She talked supply vendors. She talked software.

Then she had us shoot a bunch of flowers she had assembled in vases ... plus an old chair that she had found dumpster diving behind the Institute! Out came the cameras. I have just purchased a G10 and that was what I brought! I normally lug a big Pelican Case up with $20K worth of stuff but I needed to expand my horizons! I did discover almost immediately that I needed a tripod (I'm big into tripods!) I borrowed a RRS plate and tripod. I have since ordered (and received) a RRS L-plate for my G10. I also have a cable shutter release coming.

We then took our images and started working our way through her techniques. I, as usual, didn't use my new images but pulled up entertainers and worked with them. Victoria really likes this so I normally use Tom Jones as that's her Mom's favorite ... and when I come back home I leave all my Sir Tom Jones stuff for her to send to her Mom.

As we neared the end, we were printing off cards left and right. Some of the other students were amazingly artistic. Then Helene and Victoria ran down to the pizza place, grabbed an employee, brought her back and made her judge our output and pick a winner! I didn't win which I am sure was a mistake!

And now the usual disclaimer: I am not compensated for reviewing the Lepp classes I take in any way by the Institute, the instructors or the sponsors!

Travel Safe!

Dwight

Big Monitor and Sound in the Studio

With the two new 20 amp circuits in place I decided to upgrade a bit. First I put my 30" Dell monitor on a pivot arm and added a glass shelf underneath to put my laptop on so that I could tether to it. The monitor swings out so that the model can see it or it can be turned back so that "visitors" can see it. I almost always shoot tethered in the studio using EOS Utilities and pulling the gray card images into Bridge to check exposure. The only down side is that the little jpeg preview the camera embeds in the RAW file starts to pixelate at this size.

I also bolted up three other glass shelves next to the laptop setup, unboxed my old stereo components and bought a couple of JBL wall mount speakers. Now I have SOUND in the studio ... the most requested addition by models. Anybody know if there are adapters for iPods to RCA plugs?

So, I had just shot a few images of my daughter and decided it was a good time to get a couple of shots of the new additions. Starting on the lift is my new big beauty dish turned up toward the ceiling to light the scene. On the floor right next to it is a QUADX 3000 generator. Camera on tripod tethered to laptop is 1DsMIII with Really Right Stuff L-plate & quick release on Gitzo legs. Behind the camera is laptop with Dell monitor overhead. The power strip shown is plugged into one of the new 20 amp circuits. Above the monitor you can see one of the new speakers. To the right of that stuff are new glass shelves: top to bottom is 200 watt per channel amp, 5-CD changer and pre-amp. The copper wire is the test speaker wire that I expect to replace today with Monster Cable, with the cable run being in #6 screw hooks in the ceiling ... since the speakers are mounted in removable lift out adapters I will have at least 25' of cable to each and will be able to move them elsewhere as needed, although they are a bit heavy. For those offended by exposed speakers I will be putting the grills on them ... my wife can't stand to see the speakers, sigh. Underneath the stereo are wire rack shelves.

Anna & Marna in the Studio

If you've followed this blog you know that back in November I took a seminar with Kevin Ames at the Lepp Institute in Los Osos, California, entitled "The Art of Photographing Women." I had a particular setup from that workshop that I wanted to emulate and it has taken me a couple of months to get the equipment I wanted into the studio, grab my most used models and shoot it. I've still got a lot to learn but that will come with experience. In the meantime I want to share some of the images.

My most willing and very talented model is Anna Martina, 7 going on 14. She does her own hair and makeup, requires virtually no retouching, takes direction very well and is a prize. (I assure you I have parental approval to use her pictures.)

The setup includes a beauty dish high on the left of camera and white paper on the posing table to act as a reflector. I noticed the I sometimes get the paper in the images but I thought it looked quite good. If you don't think so, please comment and offer suggestions. There is also a hair light directly overhead to help pop her off the black background. This is all pretty standard stuff. What makes it Kevin Ames is having the camera on a tripod, tethered to my laptop and using an X-Rite Gray Scale and Balance card. After metering the exposure I shot an image with the model holding the gray scale and used EOS Utility to upload to the laptop. In the utility I opened the image in Bridge, did white balance on the gray bar of the card and then put droppers on the white and black, mainly to ensure that the white end of the exposure wasn't over about 245. I backed down about 1/2 stop from the meter. This gives a superb exposure and as long as you are using the same lighting and outfits and are using good studio lights, the exposure should be about perfect for a series.


With my second most willing but utterly most difficult and demanding model, Marna, I added a rim light behind her ... it has a reflector with barn doors limiting the light spill. I also tried adding a red gel to a background light but it didn't work and I decided it wasn't the right thing anyway. Marna, like Anna, can pretty much go through a series of poses without much direction. She does, however, insist on a lot of control and has her own thoughts on what she wants. In this shoot she specifically wanted her bangs in her eyes and wanted a tough/powerful look more than soft glamor or sexy.

Did I mention that Marna is very firm about having her own way at the photoshoot?


Finally, here's a BTS (Behind The Scenes) image of the setup. The beauty dish on the upper left is a Bowens QUADX head with a Supersoft 600 Kit which is a deep white reflector with two diffusion panels. The overhead light is a reflector with barn doors as is the rim light which you can't see as it is behind the model. The camera is on a tripod just to the left of Marna and is tethered with a 10' USB cable to the laptop which is on top of a wire drawer stand to the right.


Have any questions? Please ask.

In the meantime, Travel Safely!

Dwight