The Prince of Cheap

I’ve been hard at this for over 6 months! I’ve stalked and thought and though and thought long and hard! I’ve asked around. I looked high and low. Its time! I set out to do it and I’ve done it! I’ve created a creative inspirational magazine! CURVATURA! It’s the online magazine with balls! Its for the photographer! Its for the makeup artist! Its for the stylist! Its for dreams! “Curvatura” in Italian means “to bend”! Its the brainchild of rebellion of doing things the way everyone else does! Here you’ll find a magazine that specializes in the Eyegasm: climax of visual intrigue and inspiration and emotion (negative or positive)!

Curvatura comes to you every three months with eye smattering (yes – we mean smattering!) photography, storys of heart, fashion, style, and many other things. What makes Curvatura so different? Its an artist lead magazine! Its not made to control you! Its made to entertain you and teach you! Our core creative talents will bring you some of the wildest off-industry stuff ever seen!

Between every new release of Curvatura we will release info on how the images were created, stories were conceptualized and carried out, makeup, styling, how the clothing was designed, interviews with the main subjects and more! Curvatura! We swear to go places you have never gone too before and feared! Curvatura! We promise to be real – different! Curvatura! We promise to make this a movement when we’re done! Curvatura! The Italian word for “Bend”… CURVATURA – The Magazine… FINALLY RE-WRITTEN!

Release Date: December 9th, 2009
Online URL: www.studiolighting.net and www.davidgriffinphotography.com

Kevin Shannon of Chic Models

Its ramping up ya’ll! Bout to put a lot of stuff into this teaching! Stay tuned for lighting diagrams and workshop schedules!

INTRODUCING Jennifer Colli!
America The Beautiful!
She’s hot!
She’s fun!
She’s Bubbly!
She’s Smart!
She’s an Actress/Model!!!!

Jennifer Colli = Texas Hotstuff!

Okay, I can hear some of you saying it… Prince, Prince, how did you light this woman? How did you find her? Where can I get one? Okay here goes. How did I light her you ask? My cool cats over at Linco Inc makers/distributors of the Britek Lighting system have a tool called Cool Fluorescent Lighting. Its a daylight colored light. Its brighter than standard light bulbs, it runs cool to the touch, and its very bright. I used one of there strongest lights the PE9110 (a bit pricey at $500 but worth its weight… why? No light meter needed, plug n play, what you see is what you get, finnish a shoot in 10 minutes vs 30 minutes.) with (4) 240 watt bulbs and a 40×40 inch softbox. The light from these things is the best of all the Britek gear. Linco Inc should actually be congratulated for the fine job they’ve done in making such a useful and durable product. The only thing intimidating was the transport of this hulking system so I brought along my best assistant and soon to be best photog Larry Land. Besides the big 15lbs light, softbox and stand, I also brought along a smaller continuous fluorescent light  (CFL) the PE9060 (a more reasonable $150.00 or just $400 in a kit with two including stands and 32″ softboxes). I cross lit the scene and used the fastes lens I own – the old faithful 85mm F1.4 Minolta wonder portrait lens that fits my Sony Alpha A900… wanna see more including lighting setup photos? Go to www.studiolighting.net for my full lighting review soon!

Sugarlips!

B.A.P.S. II

Makeup By:

CANDACE MARPEL

Concept By:

DAVID GRIFFIN

Hair By:

MONICA JOHNSON

Photography By:

DAVID GRIFFIN

Chime in… what do you think?

Me, Tai Collins, Cyrina Yarbough and Candice Marpel got it in about 4hrs ago at my home studio! We held a fashion shoot showing off some of Collins’ designer clothing we did two looks. Since I had the time I visioned a creative beauty shoot (that may just very well be plain ole beauty). I went a little out of character… boring gray background, 48″ octa (which i NEVER use in such a small confined space a B800 to cover fill lighting and background lighting. I even cranked out the good ole ABR-800 for fill and softness when needed. Trust me people, I never work this confined. I’ll have a lighting article at www.studiolighting.net soon. Just getting it off my chest here first.

I lit it with my: Britek HS-2000, Alien Bee B800, (sometimes) ABR800.

Here’s a shot of Cyrina. Great pallet to start with. But the star of the shoot was the new hotshot makeup artist Candice Marpel. (Not that the clothing and hair were not spot on.) I saw something great in the new (self taught) MUA… OUTSTANDING FUNDAMENTALS! Her blending was nothing short of spectacular. The confidence and speed actually “threw me for a loop” because I am used to waiting for makeup work in 1hr increments. Having the makeup done in 5 minute increments was shockingly welcome!

When I work out of the Bat Cave as I like to call it, lighting gets to bounce all over and almost any light has a major influence on the overall image shadows. You must be careful as heck not to forget this. In delicate situations like this one must remember to feather the lights away from the background and to give the lighting some direction as your doing your work.

Transformations, don’t you just love em!!!

She calls herself cocaine??

This is actually more of an introduction… so without further or do… introducing CYRINA YARBOUGH!

Stylish Beauty

A Closeup

My favorite part of this is seeing her transform into Halle Berry from Baps as soon as she started Rocking that wig that was styled by Monica Johnson about a month ago!!!! Yes Monica, WE GOT IT IN!!!

Last nights class was impressive! The people who came out had to suffer the Shock and Awe of having not 1, not 2 but 3 teachers! Bill Schutt of Smash delivered his love for the tools, Dave delivered his 20+ years of experience, I delivered… uhhh… whatever it was everybody got it! As a teaching team we enjoyed answering all your questions! We covered so much material, answered so many questions, the photographers that wee there are sure to have a jump on there lighting! Participants rec’d a 50% off coupon to the studio! (That’s worth its weight in gold alone!)

Photographers… its going down and if you didn’t attend… I’m sorry cause you missed out! Dave Feiling the 30 year veteran showd some ULTRA BIG SECRET lighting setups that are the staple of his work! The best part, he did it with JUST ONE LIGHT!!! Classic – Killer – Effective! Get in next time! The next workshop? In two weeks of course… Mark your calendars and make the time – Lets get it in! (See you then Daniel B.!) 

Bill was awesome!

Dave was Killer!

I was… hmmmmmmm???

Next class: FOCUS ON STROBIST (only $20.00 at the door!)
Wednesday October 14th 7-9pm @

Smash Photo
2176 Pacific Ave. Long Beach CA 90806
Take the 405 and exit on Pacific and go south on Pacific (the only way it lets you go). 2176 will be on your left just past Hill St.

Jason "GQ" Soaris

I got a question in yesterday asking how I created the photo of Jason Soaris… They wanted more clarity for how I created it.

“The image was just crisp, stunning and a subtle sexy. The lighting was soft and just ohh soo pro… How do I light like that?” – J. Serra, Los Angeles

Here’s the answer J. Serra (who’s full name will be kept low of course): You start with a large soft light-source overhead. I used a 48″ octabox from eBay in a 440 watt Britek HS-2000 flash. Then I placed a second flash for the solid gray background next too it (on an overhead boom) aimed at the BG (background) using only a 7″ reflector. I finished it off with 2 4×8ft foamcore boards in front on both sides of the subject. (You can see the twin rectangles in the catch-lights of the subjects eyes as proof.)

Sony Alpha A900, David Griffin, Diagram, Jason Soaris

LIGHTING
(440 ws) Britek HS-2000
(400 ws) SL-400
(4ft x 8ft) Foamboard

CAMERA:
Sony Alpha A900
Minolta 85mm F1.4 Lens
Elinchrom Skyport System
F11, 1/200th, ISO100

By the way, I shoot with Jason from time to time. He commissioned me to create some images for him and his cousin that resembled GQ magazine (see previous post). Viola!!!

Yesterday I stopped by the New and Improved Smash Photo for a short session with the Incredible Jason Soaris. The shoot went well (a feature with David Griffin Photography;), but, what took it over the top was my decision to go out side and do some sun-over powering 1 light magic!The result was standard fantastic and I was especially happy because of my test subject… my son Xavier! The kid is hilarious. With a simple hood wife beater and a side slashed hat my son became the well known hood character Lil Cookie Bake!

The lighting setup wasn’t complicated at all. All I did was setup a 400 watt Clo-Wens flash with a 24×24 inch ebay softbox and grid with the inner baffle (for extra softness) at a 60 degree angle about 1.5ft over his head, 4 feet away and full and blasted him and the wall at half power to get f8 (to control the flashes intensity), 1/200th (to darken the overall ambient light), ISO100 (to get the best quality image with the least amount of digital noise). Now, that explains it. How bout a hand drawn diagram check the pics of course!

The overall goal was to establish a Lighting quality that was a mix between dramatic and soft. Soft explains my choice of light modifiers. Dramatic explains my choice using a grid, overpowering the sun and not using any fill light source. I felt that the best way for me to accentuate the character (garbage look) of the location was to shoot it rather harsh. Here’s a piece of irony. Because of where the light source was, it was soft on the subject but (because of the distance between the subject and the background) harsh on the background!

Speaking of the new and improved Smash Photo… they upgraded there sinage as well as installed some killer frosty new air conditioning! Here’s the new sign!

Don’t forget too look up!

People, get in on this workshop! All I can really say is that if my family over at Smash Photo area all over this… YOU SHOULD BE! Hurry! Booking is almost closed! Put it this way… If I wasn’t working on 400 projects at once… I’d be there! ITS GOOD! Here are the details! Best thing… its CHEAP! – The Prince

Lighting Workshop with Dave Feiling
STUDIO LIGHTING WORKSHOP

The Seminar will explore the “CONCEPT” of lighting. Our goal is to teach you the ability to “SEE” light. We will look at the many different approaches to lighting and how they all evolve from a sound understanding of what light is. We will look at the many different lighting and light shaping devices and will explain the features that make each one useful. You will leave with the knowledge of how to achieve a desired lighting effect under varying situations not just a diagram of a “one size fits all” lighting set-up

* Exposure: Understanding the difference between illumination and “Lighting” a subject. Determining the correct exposure and the factors that affect exposure variations. How to achieve a desired lighting ratios.
* Color Temperature: A basic explanation of Color temperature and considerations to prevent color contamination.
* Type of light: Understanding the concept of the “Quality” of light and how to achieve a desired effect with the use of various light modifiers.
* Studio Equipment overview: Overview of various light modifiers the advantages and disadvantages of different modifiers.
* Lighting Setups: Will demonstrate how a 3 dimensional portrait can be achieved with just one light then build on the basic setup with the addition of lights

WORKSHOP TAUGHT BY DAVE FEILING

LightWriting.com | OMP
Dave is an advertising photographer specializing in environmental portraits. He has been supplying photography to advertising and corporate clients for over twenty years. A Southern California based photographer, his work encompasses editorial, lifestyle, advertising, annual report, corporate, industrial, executives portraiture, health care and enjoys working with children. His commercial and fine art photography showcases his mastery of light and the ability to work well with people. Dave’s schooling at Brooks Institute and graduate work at Syracuse University has provided him with a solid background in the Visual Arts, Commercial Art, Photography, and Arts & Humanities.

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WHEN, WHERE, HOW MUCH

* Saturday, August 8, 2009, 11AM to 3PM
* Cost for this 4 hour workshop is $100 and is limited to the first 14 attendees.
HURRY AND RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW!
* Smash Photo Studio, 2176 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, 90806 [click for Google Map]
* Beverages and snacks provided, air conditioned and comfortable photography studio environment

RESERVATION & PAYMENT INFORMATION

* Call 310-807-5752 -or -
* Email info [at] smashphotolb [dot] com
* Payment methods: Visa, MC, AMEX, CASH, or Paypal
* WORKSHOP IS RESERVATION ONLY, no walkins on day of workshop.