Dice

It's very nice (and rare) when assignments slide neatly into the open dates on your schedule, which was the case last week on a 4-day shoot for Lufthansa Exclusive up in Orlando. The handful of jobs I've shot for the European airline's in-flight publication have all been a real treat and very open to my interpretation, usually resulting in a good clip from their smart design team (knock on wood). Not to mention Zita and Michael are great to work with; so thanks guys!

As is always the case when you have a portrait series you are putting together, I spent the boring drive up to Orlando trying to figure out my strategy for lighting the portraits to give them a common thread and feel in the magazine (if only I had some cocktail napkins, that would have been sweet). Moving ahead with the lighting I've been trying to fine tune lately, I settled on a couple of simple ideas that would be flexible and wide enough to handle any of the environments I was likely to find on the shoot (knowing that I wanted scale). The basic set-up (I think of it as Dan Winters-lite) was a gridded snoot up high and slightly off camera access as key, with an on-camera ring light fill, and silver reflector catch opposite the snoot. From there I was either adding on or stripping away additional lights and elements as needed depending on set, number of people, etc.

I almost never talk about lights in any real way on the blog because I truly don't feel that I have any depth of experience that would bring anything to the table. But as I've push deeper into the labyrinth that is location lighting things have began to click for me and I'm feeling more comfortable in my understanding of not only the gear but also the theory of how I want to use light. These days I think a lot about using light to try to do nothing more than heighten the subject and tone of an image, while not making the image about the light itself.

To do this well I've learned that in most situations and locations you need a hell of a lot of light in order remove the presence of the light as a wall between the viewer and photograph. I already mentioned Dan Winter's work (holy crap he's amazing), and his portraits hit the idea home for me. They are obviously lit, with a lot of effort and technical skill, but the feeling your get when you look at the images is immediate and focused on the subject, not the making of the sausage. More is (in this case at least) less; or at least it could be if you use it well. This brand of "more" means that you have to be rocking at least 2 packs (he uses at least 3 I guess), because the ratios between key and fill/ring are ultra critical in creating the right "glow." Honestly it all seems to change each time I bring it out for a client, and ND gels and filters (it's very hard to get the ring low enough that you aren't banging away like a fashion shoot circa 1992) can be critical. But when done right they effect removes that "4th wall" that is present in so much editorial work.

Anyway, the Orlando shoots offered a great canvas to use some of these ideas and most of all of the locations had tons of potential. Only 1 fell flat on its face and really had nothing of use to make a great image, but even then I was able to call an audible and work it all out. Many thanks to the talented Jimmy DeFlippo for his help all week, and to the subjects in Orlando for their time and enthusiasm.

After 4 days the Lufthansa gig ended with a long drive back home, some laundry, and then a long flight west to Vegas for a wedding and some cash pissed away at the tables (all in the name of good fun). We had a great, great time and congrats to Mom & Steve!! Back in Miami after a wicked red-eye, I sent the official announcement this afternoon that the new JohnLoomis.com is now live and open for business, a few days before I'll be heading up to NYC next week for meetings and pints. Or is it pints and meetings? Hmm. This week will be used fine tuning the new portfolio, confirming meetings with editors, printing leave behind cards, doing a shoot or two, and, well, more laundry. I'll be back with a mid-trip update.

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