Craig VanDerSchaegen » lighting

Sally J delivers the goods!

Craig — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:25:38 +0000

A couple of months ago I did an all day shoot for local singer Sally J and today she stopped by my studio with a copy of her new CD! I dig what her designer did with my photos and think her recording sounds great.

The week before doing this shoot I watched Zack Arias’ One Light dvd and thought this was the perfect excuse to do most of my shooting with a single strobe.

The first two shots were done with a Canon 580 EX II, bounced into a silver umbrella. I tried an Elinchrom strobe, but it was just way too powerful for what I wanted.

The following two shots were done with a Ray Flash, which I bought specifically for this shoot because the local rental place didn’t have a ring flash available. Wish I would’ve thought to call Flashlight. I’m sure they could have hooked me up.

Let me know what you think. I’m pretty happy with the results.

Shooting another model

Craig — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:06:04 +0000

Here’s another photo I did recently with a lighting setup that I’m currently obsessed with. She’s not technically a model, but she’s a former Miss Minnesota. That’s good enough in my book and I’m pretty happy with the results.

For you photographers, the lighting setup was really simple: Two fluorescent work lights in front and one strobe behind her, camera right. I also used a couple of foamcore boards to keep light from hitting the background, but that was about it.

Shooting models

Craig — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:11:45 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks I started shooting with some models to build up a new portfolio. While my website represents me fairly well, I want to expand it to show that my studio work consists of more than simple headshots.

This shot came from a session I did with a model named Kari. She was great and I hope to work with her again.

The lighting was simple: An Elinchrom 600RX with a 17″ reflector/”beauty dish” and a couple of 8′ x 4′ pieces of black foam core to keep light from spilling onto the background.

Stay tuned for more model photos. I’ve got a few in the retouching queue and have more shoots lined up over the next couple of weeks.