Klyment.com - Journal - Studio

2008.04.07: Tidying the studio

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:54:21 -0400

There's no more room left to work in so I'm forced to clean up (finally).

These bins are going to help me transform -->

this mess into usable space.

2007.03.17: Edmonton Lighting Workshops!

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 06:09:29 -0400

2006.11.23: Peek into my studio

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 06:17:54 -0500

Photo of part of a single lighting setup from Thursday's shoot. Jonathan Puckrin, Evan Will, and I built this up. Special thanks to Iraleigh Anderson for dropping in and helping with the first build up of this setup earlier in the day.

This photo makes me very sad.

Waiting for the Epson 9600 to finish doing what it does . . .

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 04:29:00 -0500

Leanna's Christmas present to me and the studio. Each time I shoot another woman with this piece of furniture I feel guilty; I have yet to photograph the gifter with this piece and I still haven't given Leanna her Christmas gift.

I was waiting for a bunch of signs to print on the Epson 9600. My internet connection is having trouble so I refrained from playing my game.

Camera: Nikon D2X

Lens: 17-55/2.8 AF-S ED DX Nikkor

Light 1: Balcar Iris driven by Nexus A3200, Plume Wafer 140, Lighttools 30degree egg crate

Light 2: Balcar Iris focused at 50degrees and driven by AQ Pack S1200, FX60 reflector, Rosco light yellow gel. Light focusing capability in Balcar heads limit the need of having barn doors for backdrop lighting. Using the battery-powered AQ pack allowed me to have a light behind the piece without having to remove a cord in post process.

Raw processor: PhaseOne Capture One Pro 3.7.3. Originally processed to 16bit TIFF in ProPhoto RGB colour space. Later converted to 8bit web JPEG in sRGB color space in Photoshop CS2. No vignette was added in post process, no contrast was adjusted, 5% boost in colour saturation, some big creases removed from backdrop.

Roy's and Cherrie's Catalogue Shoot

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Mon, 09 May 2005 00:55:07 -0400

On April 16, 2005 Roy (link) and Cherrie booked my studio for a catalogue shoot with models Celia, Emanuela, and Reinalyn (sp?). The shoot was for Cherrie's new fashion line of which I can't remember the name. There were a variety of pieces ranging from casual and funky to very formal and extravagant. Some interesting fabrics and textures were used though my amateur eye for fashion told me that some of the black underlayers beneath some of the translucent fabrics may have given some of the pieces an unfinished look. Nevertheless, there were some good shots to be had. Emanuela went to my high school, Old Scona Academic. I believe she is a year or two younger than me. Roy was shooting with the Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D) w/ the kit lens and with a Sigma 28-300 and also the Olympus Camedia C-5060. Shots on the dSLR were taken in RAW recording mode and I believe the Olympus was recording to JPEGs. Most of the shots were taken on a seamless studio grey 9' wide paper backdrop which Roy had purchased for this shoot. Additional photos were shot on a black muslin backdrop which belongs to my studio.

This news is rather late as I was trying to finish a few overdue assignments for two of my university courses. Also, the black corners in the photo are shadows from the petals of my lens hood . . . I didn't fully lock it in when I took this photo.

Painting canvas backdrops for special projects

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 02:59:43 -0500

About two weeks ago I started painting this canvas square measuring roughly 5.5 x 5.5 feet. I need it to do a mockup hair ad for a marketing class at school. Michelle sold me the remains of her roll at a really, really good price and lent me some paints, brushes, and acrylic medium. Leanna's mother hemmed one edge to make a loop to drape over the crossbar of my backdrop stand. Though the photo shows it in an unfinished state, it's currently drying in my basement with some purple semi-regular cross-hatched pattern embedded with this gold interference stuff. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with it but it looks good . . . I took a test shot of it with fluorescent lighting and I was pleased with the results but I'm not going to post any photos of it until after I have a finished product.

More about the assignment - our class, arranged in groups of four or five students, is to develop an integrated marketing communications plan. I must admit that I haven't really been paying attention in class but I understand that this plan consists of a detailed identification and profiling of potential market segments for a product or service, analysis of a products current or desired placement within a competitive continuum (inexpensive --> expensive, negligible time expenditure --> time intensive, etc.), development of a proposed budget for promotions, and some sample advertising for the product or service. I likely won't be able to contribute much to the more theoretical parts of the project however I sense that I'll be useful when it comes to developing the actual ads for the product. In addition, our group has discussed repackaging of our product and, price permitting I might be able to get one of my good friends to build the new package.

Wow, that was weird . . .

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 02:15:43 -0500

I didn't think that all blogs would show up on the main page and not only in the categories I assigned them to. No matter . . .

And that's a lot of Asian people in that candid of the studio day . . . just happened that the web community everyone was from has a high proportion of oriental participants. Yes, it does look a bit funny . . .

First open studio day

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 02:08:08 -0500

On December 21, 2004, Michelle Poon, a local photographer, hosted a handful of amateur photographers from a web community in my studio. The idea was to allow people who would otherwise not have been able to experiment in-studio to try their hand at controlled lighting. A very broad range of backgrounds of the participants. Michelle is an industrial design and visual communications student at the U of A, Maurice is a makeup artist, and then three others who had backgrounds in finance and commerce and another person who was looking to get into some sort of graphic arts program. There was no cost to the participants. If there are any sessions like this in the future there will likely be a nominal fee and better screening of the candidates. Only two of the participating photographer's cameras were used . . . the rest had to resort to using my dSLR as they were either unable to get their camera to properly trigger the studio strobes or their gear wasn't suited for studio shooting. Furthermore, some candidates came without even basic knowledge of exposure and shutter speed! Good going, MICHELLE! =P

I'm guessing around $50 per person for a two hour block shared with another photographer next time. Ideally, makeup artists/stylists could be paired with more advanced amateurs to get some basic portfolio shooting done, too. I could have a printer on demand to make prints and included in the fee would be the use of a dSLR and an allowance of two 8 x 10 prints and then I could also catering. But most importantly, the nominal fee would (hopefully) help weed out those who are just toying from those who are serious and would benefit from studio time. Here's a list of current studio equipment that will be posted on klyment.com once I get the rest of the site up:

Balcar Concept P4 digital control unit (5stop range)
Balcar Concept Z2 lightweight flash heads (2)
Balcar PS Z4 focuseable flash heads (2)
Balcar opaque white vinyl 45" umbrellas (2)
Balcar diffusers for umbrellas (2, turns them into round soft boxes)
Balcar FX60 7" faceted reflectors (3)
Balcar LFX30 12" faceted reflector and intensifier
Balcar 65cm prismatic light box (2, can also be used as oblong softbox)
Balcar basic 7" spot grid set
Digital incident and reflective light meter
Many different 7" coloured gels
12' aluminium light stands/boom stands (2)
9' aluminium light stand
3"-2' aluminium backdrop stands (2)
Radio slave trigger
Backdrop support system
9' x 24' muslin backdrops (Black, white, and chromakey green)
Improvisional light table for small product photography

If you're interested in participating in a future open studio day please drop me a line or give me a call. It should go without saying but just in case . . . please come to the shoot knowing how aperture and shutter speed affect exposure! There are lots of books in the public library system to help you with photography and there are even a number of studio-specific books.