My team and I are working to get my book project started. A lot of work is required for the project to start so its taking a little while longer than i expected. Of course, with temperatures rising every day, constant power shut downs and bombs going off doesn’t help at all. Anyways while I am trying to get everything sorted, i figured i should do a few posts before i start posting images from my upcoming project.

I shot Justine back in March, while i was in Dubai. We were supposed to do a fashion shoot that day but the rising temperatures forced us indoors. We didn’t want to waste the day since everything was ready so we decided to do a beauty shoot instead. Justine was brilliant in every way. One of the most telented models i have ever had the pleasure of shooting.


This image was shot with one AB800 (Alien Bee) with a Large Paul C. Buff Octa/Grid – Camera Left & a Large Softbox/Grid on Camera right. The power on the strobes was set to 1/8. The flash was about 4 feet high, aimed towards the model at about 45 degrees on camera left & right . The background is a carpet, Yes.. its a carpet. I was using a D700 with a 70-200 f/2.8. Shutter 1/250, F/7, ISO 200. Everything was triggered by Paul C Buff Cyber Commander. I can’t even begin to tell you what amazing system this is. I feel its light years ahead of anything thats on the market right now. You have complete control over every aspect of your light source, The power, modeling lamps, ratios, define groups, and what makes this setup shine is the ability to save your current setups so you can quickly come back to them on your next shoot.. How great is that???

I used F/7 cause i wanted most of the image in focus, but i wanted to blur the carpet on the background, and a little on the foreground.

The 47″ Octa with an AB800 is beautiful huge light source, that wraps around the subject.. but shooting with it in tight spaces is an absolute nightmare. I had to be extremely careful while i set up the lights as i was getting a lot of bouncing around the room. The obvious solution was to equip my Octa & Softbox with Grids (Also made by Paul C Buff), so i did. It didn’t help a whole lot so i tweaked the position and angle of the strobes (Thank God for modeling lamps!!)

I try to adjust the light ratios and position while i shoot the model so i have to spend less time photoshopping the images. I think it makes you a better photographer at the end of the day. The only post i did on this image was adjusting the contrast, and the obvious beauty touchups.

More to come later…..


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