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Tangents

photo session – vintage pinup style (on location)

August 23, 2011

vintage pinup photo session

photo session – vintage pinup style (on location)

When the hot-rod show which didn’t offer as much in terms of photography as I had hoped, Jill and I moved over to the pier in Brooklyn. Having a model in a retro sailor-suit type outfit … well, it just seemed to good an opportunity to waste. I thought of perhaps using the Ice Cream Factory there as a backdrop to a straight-forward pinup photo, but ultimately decided the Hudson River waterfront would work better as a setting for the photo.

Then we just had to add some simple but dynamic lighting, and give the final image a vintage flavor with the post-processing …

Here are the two starting images:


The first one with the camera settings so that I have correct ambient exposure. But the image looks bland. There’s no punch to it.  (1/200 @ f4 @ 400 ISO)
The next image was with the camera set to where I wanted the background exposure to be – darker and with more mood.  (1/250 @ f6.3 @ 400 ISO)

Why those final settings? Simply because I liked the way it looked on the back of my camera. Turns out to be 1.7 stops under the regular proper exposure. Sounds about right.

Then I had to add light. My setup was simplicity itself, resorting to my usual on-location lighting setup when working with an individual subject such as a model:
Lastolite EZYBOX Softbox Kit (24″x24″) (B&H), with the speedlight,
which is controlled by two PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceivers (B&H)

I used the flash in TTL mode, triggered via the TT5 units.

Here is the out-of-the-raw converter image on the left, with the final processed image on the right:

I wanted the look of the image to have a warm retro feel to it. For this, I stacked a few of the Totally Rad actions, using the RadLab filters. I used the RadLab filter set with the recent article on post-processing a photo – that summery feeling, but this time I used a different set of actions, at different opacities, with different settings, layered in a different way. Of course, I can save this as a recipe and re-use it at a later date.

And here it is again – the final image:

vintage pinup photo session

image settings:
1/250 @ f6.3 @ 400 ISO … TTL flash  (FEC not recorded)
Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (B&H) .. used at 70mm

Here is the pull-back shot to show the relative placement of the softbox.

You can order the RadLab or the Totally Rad action sets, via this affiliate link:
the discount code 1086NEILVN will save you 15%

equipment used during this photo session:

Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX Softbox Kit (24″x24″) (B&H)
Manfrotto 1004BAC light-stand (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
(2x) PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)

 

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