Archetype Apparel (www.dresslikeasir.com) is back with new stuff for summer! And all of it looks pretty damn fine if you ask me. So we set up an outdoor shoot at Arena and advertised for a bunch of models with the plan of having really summery pictures although it is just mid-April. Anyway, as often happens in April, the weather took a turn for the worse and we had to move the shoot – luckily a location was found… unfortunately it was a cellar. With no light. And no space. But hey, this is where the fun happens, right? “Oh, by the way,” my good friends Tom and Dani say, “we still want the summery look, OK?”

Sure. Let’s do it. We’ll just ignore the fact that the motion-activated cellar light turns off every 10 minutes (not that it was much of a light anyway, just a single bulb). We’ll also ignore the fact that the actual space to work in is about 67 square centimetres. However, on the bright side (pun intended), there were 4 fixed lights there which we were able to use to at least provide a bit of ambient. Here is the setup taken on the phone as I was trying to work my (limited) magic:

So I set up a Speedlite shooting through the umbrella as my main light and then bounced an orange-gelled Speedlite off the ceiling and back wall trying to emulate evening sunlight. Finally I threw in a hairlight at the back, also gelled orange, just to give it a bit more flood.

The pics are actually edited minimally in Lightroom and then I threw a very light fog and glamour glow filter over them in Color Efex. I’m quite happy with the look - and more importantly so are Dani and Tom!

I was specifically told that we were going for more fun than the standard fashion pictures. I am also not really one to do fashion photography so that suited me just fine – especially since I got such positive feedback from the last couple of Archetype Apparel shoots. So here are a couple of the friendlier ones:

Once again my good friends at Archetype Apparel (www.dresslikeasir.com) have come up with an awesome shirt. In a strictly limited edition, this hommage to Breaking Bad is just so cool! A couple of pictures needed to be made and a very motivated model (Bernhard) volunteered for the shoot, bringing his own props with him. The whole thing was done quickly in my living room with a very standard light setup, just one key light shot through an umbrella and two lights blowing out the background. A bit of editing to go for the strung-out look and hey, presto!

Anyway, so we did a few more in different poses and the chemical suit came out. Eventually we just got some sitting down and then this one was shot. Now you may not necessarily be drawn in immediately to the repeated pattern in the crotch area. The repeating pattern right in the seam of the middle of the underpants is due to the cloning tool in Lightroom being needed to fix what turned out to be a hole. I didn't notice when initially editing the picture because a) it is not an area of focus for me usually and b) I was in a hurry. So the picture went to Archetype Apparel with an unwelcome visitor peeking out and it was then published quickly on Facebook. Luckily it was part of a three picture image so it is pretty small and not obvious.

However, some of Bernhard's friends did notice and it seems they made a little fun of him before he realized what had happened. I was notified and appropriately edited the picture. This is the kind of edit I don't want to have to do again. I guess I learned my lesson: ask models to check their underwear for holes before shooting. Oh well. Here's the corrected image. If you are so inclined, you can probably find the uncorrected image on Facebook.

My friends from Archetype Apparel (check out www.dresslikeasir.com!) have once again come up with some cool new stuff and so we did a quick shoot at home with Nana and Chris who had answered a facebook call for models. Since I didn't have much time and the clothes are the main subject, I decided for a simple white background and high-key look. Luckily the boys from Archetype are also fans of non-standard looking pictures so I gave them an extra soft portrait look. Here are a few shots that were used to build the preview banner:

And here's a shot that shows the white background set up in my living room, the hairlight in a softbox, my daughter's rocking horse which is hiding the background light on the floor and Nana wearing one of the new Kiwi sweatshirts.