Recreating a photo.

Recently, I did a photo shoot for director/editor Joe Harris that involved recreating a shot of director David Lynch. The original shot is above on the left, my final shot is on the right. Looking at the lighting, the key light seems to be almost directly above the subject and if I was to guess, I would say it was a beauty dish. Based on this quick assessment, I decided to try to shoot Joe with just a single beauty dish. I left the grid on my Norman beauty dish and started with just this single source. I'm still waiting to get a nice heavy duty boom stand for my strobes, so the beauty dish was on a straight light stand and angled as far down as I could get it. This meant that the dish wasn't in the same place as the original photo, but even so, it was making the eyes too dark so I added some fill light using an on-camera flash with the Ray ring flash adapter set on a very low power setting (between 1/64 and 1/128).
After a dozen shots or so, I ended up with the shot above, which was close to the original pose and yet not forced by Joe.

If I was to shoot this again, I could get closer to the original by using a boom light stand for the beauty dish and removing the grid for more specular highlights. I would also add a small light source from behind to really catch some of the smoke coming from the cigarette. Looking at the original, it's possible that there was another light directly behind Lynch on his left pointed straight up to catch the smoke and possibly a little of his hair. Even a speedlite at low power would be enough to really highlight the smoke in the air.

Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out as I was able to deconstruct the original photo and get something close to it and yet original without any kind of trial run.

Joe continues to work on his latest short film The Lonely Sound.

Photo of the Day

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Originally uploaded by d double u

An iPhone shot taken at the Double Wide - where I seem to spend most of my down time.

Photo of the Day

Double Wide Wig Party!
Originally uploaded by d double u

This photo has been the most viewed for several days in a row now. Another one from the Double Wide Wig Party.

Photo of the Day

Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians.
Originally uploaded by d double u

The Wig Party photos are still favorites on Flickr, but this one popped up the other day. It's from 2006 and was taken with my old point-and-shoot Sony. I remember this night at Club Dada - Carter Albrecht was playing with the band and Paul Simon was standing in the back with a bodyguard. A lot of people were coming up to him and telling him how much they appreciated his music - it was a pretty good night.

Photo of the Day

Double Wide Wig Party!
Originally uploaded by d double u

My photos from the Double Wide Wig Party continue to be popular. I managed to get some good photos at this event since just about everybody was in costume or at least in a wig. This set on Flickr has been one of the most popular with more than five thousand views.

Photo of the Day

Double Wide Wig Party!
Originally uploaded by d double u

This photo has a lot of views and is part of the very popular set that I took at the Double Wide Wig Party.
I'm hoping that the set I put up after the Labor Day Pool Party will be as popular!

Photo of the Day

Will Johnson at Renfield's
Originally uploaded by d double u

Friday's most popular photo is this shot I took of Will Johnson and Ryan Thomas Becker at Renfield's Corner in Uptown. Will played an amazing set and I decided to get a photo of him with Ryan afterwards since they look similar.
It was a little awkward for all involved, but they were champs about it!

Photo of the Day

Westboro Baptist Church protest in Dallas
Originally uploaded by d double u

This photo is from the counter-protest that happened in response to the Westboro Baptist Church visit.
The church's first stop was the Holocaust Museum in downtown Dallas. About 150 counter protesters showed up to show off some creative signs.

Photo of the Day

Dallas!
Originally uploaded by d double u

Today's photo comes all the way from 2006 - back when my only digital camera was a little point and shoot Sony.
It's not the greatest photo of Dallas, but it seems to be popular with the search engines.

Photo of the Day

Bobgoblin
Originally uploaded by d double u

Today's photo is from a recent show by the local band Bobgoblin, easily one of my favorite bands. They put on a great show at the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff and debuted a new song from an album they're currently working on. Can't wait to see them again and here more new tunes!

Photo of the Day

oops1
Originally uploaded by d double u

In an effort to post on my blog more often, I've decided to post an entry for the most popular photo from my Flickr photostream every day.
It's usually a pretty recent photo, but this one is from back in 2007.
I remember this night very well - Shibboleth had played at Sons of Hermann Hall and the DART rail was under construction. The white car in the picture made a wrong turn and ended up stuck in the construction.
Not sure why people are looking at this one again, but it's a nice blast from the past!

Ray Flash adapter on a shoot

Doublewide Parking Lot Pool Party
Originally uploaded by d double u

Last week, I decided to try using the Ray Flash ring flash adapter along with off-camera flashes - something I wanted to do in a studio setting but haven't had a chance to do yet. I used this setup at the Double Wide Parking Lot Pool Party, which took place in the parking lot of a local bar. I set up three off-camera flashes, which were triggered by Radio Poppers. The transmitter was plugged in to the PC port on my 5D, which left the hotshoe available for a 580 EXII with the Ray Flash adapter.
Ideally, the ring flash would provide fill, maybe 1 stop below the off-camera flashes. In a studio setting, this is easy to do since the lighting remains constant. Running around the parking lot, I set the ring flash to E-TTL, letting the camera determine the flash level. Since the light was different depending on where I was, the flash level wasn't consistent, but it always looked quite good.
The ring flash gave great fill-in light from the camera direction and with a little tweaking in Photoshop gives a lot of depth to the photos.
I plan on trying this setup again in a studio setting.