Recently I watched a virtual back lot video from Stargate Studios. It was a fascinating look behind the scenes. I’m very gullible when I watch movies and think the actors and crew are really there, it doesn’t occur to me that it’s green screen. The same holds true with still photography but in miniature. We generally only need snippets of information for the viewer to fill in the blanks.
The background is simply blue vinyl table cloth material from Jo Ann fabrics laid over my background stand. The wrinkles are what give you the different shades of blue. You buy this by the yard at fabric stores in the home goods department.
I have a strobe coming through the back. I’m using two small gridded strip boxes on the sides as rim. By the catch lights it looks like FJWestcott Spiderlites left and right.
This shot happened at the very end of the day. The ironing board was out because he was ironing his shirt. I don’t iron models wardrobe, ask me about the plastic letters I melted. I’ve shot Leo on several occasions and have shot most of his wardrobe. For men I’m not crazy about just shooting button down shirts, I prefer more form fitting wardrobe. I put a large Tupperware storage tub of water on the ironing board, he’s holding onto the edges and simply dipping his head in the water and popping back up. It kinda looks like he’s doing the butterfly stroke.
Leo wasn’t a willing participant and thought it was ridiculous looking but had a fun attitude about it. As a model sometimes you have to roll with a shoot and trust the photographers vision. A great fun attitude is what keeps me testing with models like Leo over and over again. He loves the shot now and was pleased when it was voted Image Of The Day on Model Mayhem.
What you see is not always what you get…just sayin
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