Every now and then I like to do a google image search for my name and see what pops up. It can be interesting, amusing and sometimes a little distressing to see where my pictures have wandered off to on the interweb all by themselves. Last night I happened across one of my shots on GuessTheLighting.com, a blog run by Ted Sabarese who I have never met. I think all photographers try to break down the lighting when looking at pictures to a certain extent, and Ted decided to create a blog about it. I was a little taken aback at first to see lighting diagrams because I thought maybe we had worked together or something but then after reading the details I realized he was in fact just guessing, as is the point of his site. He is pretty close on quite a few things and others, especially the comment section is pure speculation and meant as a joke I’m sure. I made a few corrections so it’s no longer just a guess.
Ted writes:
This hyper-sharp, seemingly pencil-sketched portrait of Clint Eastwood for the recent Mandela Day campaign was created with 4 lights. True
Camera: Nikon D3x with 135mm 80-200mm f2.8 lens, handheld 6 10ft feet back from Clint. Shot at 1/125 250, f11 16, ISO 100.
Lighting (Clint): Crisp, punchy lighting like this can only be achieved with bare bulbs and no diffusion. True. The key light is a grid reflector at f11 16 with a 40 30 degree grid, boomed 3 1.5 ft feet above camera and 4 feet from Clint’s head Just above Clint’s face and just out of frame. Overall fill is achieved with an on-camera ring flash at f4 1/2.81/2 Two small strip lights white beauty dishes at f16 are 5 feet behind him, positioned camera left and right and above. Two v-flats have been set to focus the light on his head and medium black flags block any potential lens flare. The strips white beauty dishes lend strong highlights to his hair and shoulders. There is a black duvateen background.
Lighting (Hand): The lighting for Clint’s hand is nearly identical Not really except that the two strip lights have been replaced with two normal reflectors and aimed at the white background. True. The key light has been lowered below the hand and pointed slightly upward. Nope, It’s just Ring flash. There is a 6′x6′ black piece of duvateen with an 11″x14″ square cut out of it for his hand to block flare from the background.
Comments: When Clint arrived at the studio, he asked Scott what he was looking for. Scott said he wanted a combination of Dirty Harry, Bronco Billy and Josey Wales, but without the shooting him in the face part. Not Exactly. This was shot at the Beverly Hills Hotel for Nelson Mandela’s foundation 46664. Clint, like most people, does not seem to enjoy having his pictures taken all that much and this is actually the first frame of the shoot as he had just stepped into position on set and was not super enthused about being there. He soon loosened up and I have lot’s of frames of him with a nice friendly smile but this one captures that “Dirty Harry, Bronco Billy and Josey Wales” thing we all know and love so much. The shots of the hand is just him messing around. For the campaign we shot just the palm of his hand facing the camera and after a few frames of that he started improvising.
The cover of Snooki’s 2nd book “Confessions of a Guidette” was just released on Amazon for pre-order. Following the New York Times Bestselling success of her first book “It’s a Shore Thing” which was a novel, this time around she’s going for more of a “how to” lifestyle guide, of sorts. I was lucky enough to get the call to shoot the cover again as well as some shots for the interior. She was a pleasure to work with as always and this time we had the added fun of working a tanning bed into the mix, although the original shot below was altered in the final layout (Which includes a tanning bed I did not shoot). Over at the Monaco Rep’s LOOK HERE blog, Briana included a short behind the scenes video from the shoot.
