Recent Professional Works

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

This is from my series of nudes, shot on film. RZ67 - Ektar color negative. Scanned with my ol' Umax PowerColor 3000.

So nice there is no silicon present... neither in camera, nor...

Lovely tonal palette and simply beautiful elegance.

[HarperPhotos]

Hi Dick,

Its not always about resolution.

You have to take in to consideration that my team had to shoot twenty garment changes in one 8 hour day. In the days of film and polaroids this amount of shots would have been nearly imposable

This is why I used the Nikon/Sigma/Pocket Wizard set up.

The ability of this new flash system to shoot at any flash sync and free of cables opens up a lot of freedom for me.

Buy the way the Sigma 100-300mm F4 is a spectacular lens.

Cheers

Simon

[fredjeang]

This is from my series of nudes, shot on film. RZ67 - Ektar color negative. Scanned with my ol' Umax PowerColor 3000.

Very much pre-raphaelite path. Beautifully done and mastered.

[wolfnowl]

Really good work, Michael.  You should check out Michael Ezra's nude work as well.  Very different from yours but also powerfully done.  What is it about Michaels and nudes... ?  Hmmm...

Mike.

P.S.  Welcome to the list!

[Michael Nelson]

Hey Slobodan & Wolfnowl & Fredjeang,

THANK YOU for your kind words...

[Rob C]

Cooter

Girl with microphone and lashes (eye): bloody fantastic; didn't think anyone could knock that off with tungsten.

Rob C

[Dick Roadnight]

Thanks, Simon...

Hi Dick,

Its not always about resolution.

particularly if you know what you are going to do with the picture before you take it.

You have to take in to consideration that my team had to shoot twenty garment changes in one 8 hour day. In the days of film and polaroids this amount of shots would have been nearly imposable

This is why I used the Nikon/Sigma/Pocket Wizard set up.

The ability of this new flash system to shoot at any flash sync and free of cables opens up a lot of freedom for me.

eShutters sync up to 1/250... would that be fast enough for most situations you come across (with 50 ISO min)?
I hope to get eShutters for productive work with a view camera.

Buy the way the Sigma 100-300mm F4 is a spectacular lens.

Cheers

Simon

The new Phocus Mobile should be useful with my 4 head Metz system, but for many 300Mb files per day I would need a serious Mac Pro.

[Dick Roadnight]

Here's a few from a recent shoot.  Not the highest budget design, but I had fun.  

Hi, Joe...

How do you manage the DOF and get the view out of the window correctly exposed?

Dick

[JoeKitchen]

Hi, Joe...

How do you manage the DOF and get the view out of the window correctly exposed?

Dick

For DOF, I usually shoot at f/11-f/16, focus at an object a few feet away, and let the lens take care of the rest. 

For the exposure, I usually pick a speed that slightly over exposes the exterior; in this example the time was 0.6 seconds (it was very early in the morning).  I then build up the light to support what is present.  With that shot I used two strobes and three hot light; I also turned the room lights off very quickly after I hit the release. 

I usually try to get as much done in one shot as possible.  However with this project we did not have enough gels to gel the fluorescent room lights and, for this image, I corrected the ceiling separately. 

[ChristopherBarrett]

Cooter

Girl with microphone and lashes (eye): bloody fantastic; didn't think anyone could knock that off with tungsten.

Rob C

+1. Friggin Gorgeous.

[haefnerphoto]

I like tungsten.
It's pretty much wysiwyg. (modeling lamps simulate but it's not the same)
Sometimes it generates tears and the iris retraction is very easily correctable in pp so I don't see them as an issue.
The only real problem here in Spain is the Heat generated when you know that July here temp of the air is about 40-43 º Celcius...
But for the moment the only thing we have is cold (it snowed a few says ago!) so let's tungsten like crazy. We need some heat.

Fred, These are great!  Nice job!!  Jim

[fredjeang]

I was just assisting here, part of the machinery. Those are the Boss, that's why there good. But I'm learning I'm learning at a good school...Hope to post soon my own imagery here when I will have matured a little bit more. The thing I learn most with Pepe is the lightning and the sense of decor, like on those ones.
I posted them to share with you my current experience as an assistant and what kind of things we are doing. (I'm sort of allowed to do it as soon as I put the copyrights and keep size small) Cheers.

[bcooter]

I was just assisting here, part of the machinery. ...snip

Fred,

I know your kidding but good crew is not machinery.  In fact great crew are a large percentage of making a good photograph.

It's more than the 1's and 0's, more than the c-stands, rollers and silks, it's the attitude a crew brings to a project that keeps it going forward, give the talent a positive view and most importantly allows the photographer the luxury of thinking rather than fixing.

I won't say I've loved everyone I've hired, but the great ones, l'd marry. (Actually did).

Anyway back to tungsten.

I think tungsten is the savior of still digital capture and way overlooked, for key and fill.

I know everyone talks about the yucky blue channel, the heat, etc. but the things you can do with a Fresnel and some bent up barn doors with 1/2 stop of spun are pretty amazing.

There is a saying that you can't make a small light big, but you can make a big light small.  Well with a Fresnel you can pretty much make it anything you want.

Consider the costs and the fact the fixtures last about 4 lifestimes and it's somewhat amazing that 99% of everything isn't shot with tungsten.

On the Sony lot, I'm positive they have molepars from the Clark Gable days and the grip cart the model is resting on was originally used to move ammo casings during world war 1.
In fact the grip cart is so heavy, could we have moved it onto that fake sidewalk on the NY set it would have crushed the walkway.



This shot was lit with one HMI for the key, one 350 watt tungsten Frensel for the rim, one 650 watt Frensel for the door and another 650 watt Frensel for the wall.  The HMI costs more than all the tungsten combined.

Movie studios never throw anything away and I always say they are based on 1920's meat locker technology.

Anyway, these two images were both shot with tungsten (mainly)  and I love the feel of the light source being so constant and warm and I love the ability to move them every so slightly and get a very precise look.

I don't mind strobe, (though strobe is pretty much art aided by math) and though I've learned and purchased HMI I just never really believe that HMI gets the full value of a digital file. 


This image is from a contax and p31+ which really dials down well for tungsten.



This image is from a Canon 1ds2 which didn't dial down well to tungsten and took a little more work.  (The 1ds3 goes down further).

Now for the last (sorry for being boring)

This is flash.  Flash shows everything.  clients love flash.

IMO

BC

[fredjeang]

Well you hit the point.

A crew is key and a great crew is priceless.

I've also been learning that I rather work with a fixed reduced crew.

 A good and stable crew is priceless, specially now, but who's signs the cheques attitude is key too. She/He has to have faith regardless of the external factors. It's more important to invest in the right people than in the right gear.

Cheers.

[Rob C]

Fred, Pepe's stuff is beautiful. If he is having troubles, what hope for anyone else in the country?

I have given this sort of thing a lot of thought. Fortunately (but also unfortunately), my days of working have passed now, but I suspect that it isn't really a matter of the economy that's killing many people. I believe it is that supplier competition (too many shooters) is driving clients into pushing price downwards as far as they can make it go, not because they can't pay, but because they believe they have been tricked into higher prices in the past.

As far as I can tell, there is more cosmetics advertising on Spanish tv than any other kind. Lunchtime tv in the bars is full of cosmetics commercials and money must be flowing under the bathroom/bedroom doors like water.

But what else to do in photography? Architecture? You know only too well about all the empty estates all over the Costas. General advertising? Well, unless you stay in Madrid or Barcelona it's chicken feed and you have to import talent, and just drive costs up with travel and hotels. Stock? Yes, and compete with the rest of the world and his sister-in-law for ten cents to the dollar that it used to be. But it was going downhill even in the 70s when I decided that I'd have to concentrate on calendars and doing entire projects just to keep the cameras working: the advertising photography work I got hardly paid enough to put food on the table, never mind any wine. Money was there, all right, but it didn't move out of the ad agency bank accounts, and the three months it took to get paid meant the lower down the chain, the more one subsidised both agency and client. Maybe that's partly what's driving Cooter along into doing wider work: the more you control the more stays with you.

It's a bitch, today, just more vicious than she used to be, I gather.

Rob C

[Michael Nelson]

To add to bcooter's post about tungsten & fresnel lighting, I love using tungsten with fresnel lens! IMHO there is a 3D effect (almost...) and a 'ahh' quality with tungsten/fresnel combination...

I've attached a (recent) final image along with the documentation shots, showing the set-up. The 4x5 image was shot with Ektar color negative. Scanned with my (very old) Umax Powercolor 3000. The documentation was shot with my G10. 

This post shows the final image. The next post will show the set-up. (I hope double posting is OK...)

[Michael Nelson]

The set up...

[feppe]

To add to bcooter's post about tungsten & fresnel lighting, I love using tungsten with fresnel lens! IMHO there is a 3D effect (almost...) and a 'ahh' quality with tungsten/fresnel combination...

I've attached a (recent) final image along with the documentation shots, showing the set-up. The 4x5 image was shot with Ektar color negative. Scanned with my (very old) Umax Powercolor 3000. The documentation was shot with my G10. 

This post shows the final image. The next post will show the set-up. (I hope double posting is OK...)

Wow, that is a stunning shot! Love the earthy tones, and the opposing triangles of the gorgeous dress and the one formed by the outlines of her back is a nice touch. Thanks for the setup photos as well.

What lens are you using with the 4x5? Any particular reason why you chose negative over slide?

[Michael Nelson]

Hey feppe,

Glad you like the image & set up images!

A fujinon 210 lens.

There is more exposure latitude in negative film than the positive film (Kodak E-100) I was using. I did extensive (at least for me, extensive) testing of E-6 vs color negative and I had more details in the shadows with negative film. For me, it's much harder to scan but worth it!

[feppe]

Hey feppe,

Glad you like the image & set up images!

A fujinon 210 lens.

There is more exposure latitude in negative film than the positive film (Kodak E-100) I was using. I did extensive (at least for me, extensive) testing of E-6 vs color negative and I had more details in the shadows with negative film. For me, it's much harder to scan but worth it!

Thanks. While I don't shoot negatives at all so I have no first-hand experience, it's widely acknowledged they have wider dynamic range and latitude. Nevertheless, one can pull quite a bit of detail in shadows from slides with a good scanner. You might need to scan slides twice (once for shadows, once for rest) and it will probably not compete with negatives.

That lens was on my shortlist when I was shopping for a Gowlandflex - ended up with a 180mm Symmar-S Are the facials on your site taken with the same lens? The relatively long focal lengths are much better suited to portraits than 150mm or shorter - of course tastes vary.