I am working with a sculptor on some creating collateral and website materials. She didn’t have any good images of her working, so we put together a shoot schedule that brought me to her studio in Paradise Valley. I love going on location to shoot portraits and I pack a full compliment of gear when I don’t know what I am getting into. I also had a window of 2 hours to get the images, so I packed with gear that I knew I could get setup and shooting within that time frame.

Susan’s studio was a small building, separate from the main house and a wonderful, cluttered, fun place full of sketches, art, older works, and new works in various stages of completion. It also had a couple of windows with non-directional light filtering in to the space.

I had packed a couple of Profoto compacts, 4 speedlights, and 6 stands. As well, I had 3 5-in-one reflectors, a boom, and 4 2’x3′ fome core panels ($1 a piece at Dollar Tree, BTW). Adding my usual location kit full of clamps and tools and gaffer’s tape, the kit filled the back of my Santa Fe in a neat stack. I use the wonderful Standbaggers (www.standbagger.com) for my stands and such, and keeping all the loose items in bags makes moving them so much easier. Modifiers included a 60″ umbrella, two softboxes, a strip light, and a couple of grids.

I moved all the gear to a staging area near her studio door, and started my scouting and visualizing. I rarely start to set up anything until I have had some time to be in the space and make a few initial ‘sketching’ images. In the old days, I would shoot Polaroid Land film in these situations, but having digital makes it similar. In most cases, I change the camera preview to black and white. I can see more of what the scene is going to look like in a black and white image. Contrast, line, shape, edges, shadow… all in monochrome. It takes the distraction of color away and presents, to me, a ‘pure’ image.

I made some exposures, changed lenses a few times and made some decisions.

As I was working, so was Susan. She turned on the shop lights that she uses to sculpt and I instantly saw what I wanted. She was intently working on her piece, and the combination of the close in shop lights and the ambient darkness of the studio was perfect.

In the image above, I placed on fome core board on a stand and placed it behind her to add some fill to the small sculptures behind her. I selected my 50MM, f-1.4 lens and placed it on f-2. I wanted very limited DOF to place her in the line of focus, and to create a softer background. Using my Minolta IV meter, I took exposure readings from the shop lights, and the space behind her to find that there was indeed enough light to fill the ambient a bit.

We moved to the studio backyard for a different approach and I saw the fence with the hard water stains and thought it would be a perfect background for a natural looking work shot. I had her sit and work on the face she was doing, and immediately she got into actually working. I made a good number of shots, and found that I loved that linear direction of the slats. The soft, diffused light filtering through the trees gave me exactly what I wanted. The shot shows an artist at work, in an environment that plays against her black sculpting outfit very well.

This final shot was done with only the two lights. I had her sneak in between them and again, she went right to work. I wanted flare and I wanted the light to fill the frame. Her face, intently examining the clay sculpture in front of her gives the shot some of the intensity that she exudes when she is working on her art.

In the end, I brought a lot of lighting gear with me, and only ended up using a single fome core board. And that is OK – as experience tells me that if I had brought nothing but a few boards, I would have wanted the Profotos…

It is always better to be able to scout a location before the gig, but when that is not possible, I pack for the worst case scenario. It’s all good – the Standbaggers are easy to transport and each is kept packed even when they are at the studio.

I packed a lot of gear, but only ended up using what I needed to make the photographs that I wanted. I never want to think that I MUST use what I brought – just because I brought it. I like the feeling of the shots I got.

Well – that’s a little look at how I treated this portrait session. Hope you liked it.

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