{ Image Blog by Marc Orbito }
{ Image Blog by Marc Orbito }
The learning never ends. I'm never satisfied with my photos and upon looking back at past work, I always seem to focus on what needs to be improved. That often gives me and excuse to go shopping. I ended up picking up more lights and have been reading up on how to produce more "commercial-like" looks.
Photo processing and vintage looks have their place, but in this shoot with Leah, I really wanted to keep the colors accurate and vibrant and keep the sky and background detail from being lost. To do that, I would have to properly expose both the background and subject.For these shots, I used an Apollo Wescott 28" softbox mounted on an Alien Bee B800 (camera left) with as fill for a 3pm sun (camera right, top corner) at +3 and a round silver reflector camera right.
I also wanted to keep the short depth of field that my viewers are familiar with. I rented a Sing-Ray variable neutral density filter from the folks at Hawaii Photo Rental, to limit light so I could still shoot wide open at f1.4 at 35mm, which I used in the shot above at about -4. I quickly removed it after seeing how soft it made the shot.
I stopped down to f9 in the next shot (as well as the first shot above). The background isn't as blurred out as I'd like, which gives me an excuse to go shop for a different ND filter. I probably add my circular polarizer in the mix next time for bluer skies. Overall, I'm quite happy with the results!
The housing management office staff of Forest City needed some professional photos taken so that residents coming in to visit would be able to recognize them and associate names with faces.
One of the joys of being a photographer is when my subjects see the images afterwards and react with amazement - they never expected to look that great!
Sometimes there's more beauty in the world than we know. I'm just glad that, as the one behind the camera, I am able to show people beauty the way The Hungry Eye sees it!
Special thanks to Ryan Araki and Troi Orias for assisting with this shoot!
I have to give myself a pat on the back. This is the first shoot I've ever styled and boy, was it a lot of work! I had gone to so many stores, trying to find the right things match that dress I had purchased off eBay. You know how hard it is to find gloves, locally? Yeesh. Anyway, I wanted a classical look on this. "Classical" meaning that there be a hint of vintage, yet, would pass for something more contemporary at the same time. Timeless, perhaps. That's probably why I went and color graded the photos in different ways. We've got your high-contrast Michael Bay shots with green sunlight, to faded, bright, high contrast almost platinum looking pics. A couple of them are processed after Deluxe Labs' color on "The Sound of Music."
This was a fun project. There were a ton of mosquitos and even more laughter on-site that day and I hope you enjoy the pics as much as we had making'em!
Model: Lauren
Hair/Makeup: Lauren
Lighting Assistant: @J_Scotty
Photographer/Wardrobe: Myself
To prep for our next shoot together, I opened up the photo catalog of Colleen from our shoot last year to study angles and what worked. I ended up taking a photo of one onscreen and instagraming it, to which I received a few requests to see more. So...here's a lil bit more. :)
Model: Colleen Leung
Styling: Colleen Leung, Krystal Parage and Marc Orbito
Hair/Makeup: Krystal Parages
The shoot style and processing here is inspired by Chiaroscuro, a painting technique which stormed Europe before the Renaissance. Channeling my inner Rembrandt, I chose to focus more on story and psychological intensity as opposed to technics. I used one source of overpowering light (mostly the sun, or when the clouds came, one hidden Speedlight flash) and contrasted it with the shadows and abrasions of the ruins. It's the contrast and shadows, I feel, that make this set more foreboding. Things that I would normally remove, like bags under the eyes, remain in to stay true to style. And without a real fill light, we achieve a flatness authentic to pre-Renaissance art.
DISCLAIMER: Now, the dark and light contrast doesn't work in ALL of the photos, and I'll be the first to admit the deviation. Or...evolution, as I should call it. (Google "chiaroscuro" for the real thing) If you want real Either way, I hope you like what's posted here. :)
Thanks goes out to my model, Kayla (with makeup by her) and my assistant Troi. Great job, folks!
Check out this cool montage, shot and edited by Mike Orbito. It gives you a tiny peek into into what our session with Tasha Johnson was like.
The Hungry Eye with Tasha Johnson from Mike Orbito on Vimeo.
Howdy! My name is Marc Orbito. I'm a general photographer in the state of Hawaii who enjoys photographing people!
I'm also a father, husband, Apple geekboy, writer, Disney junkie, Miami Heat basketball fan and washed-out cinephile.
I invite you to look around. Hopefully you'll like what you see and and maybe even hire me!
Contact me for rates at marc @ orbito.net
