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 p.3 #14 · My first HUGE assignment--FINISHED! | |
Ok guys, I promised to share everything in detail, and here we are, the moment of truth, and the aftermath.
Let's start with the weekend. On Sunday afternoon, I played around some more with lights (I don't have any of the practice pics to show for that day, since I accidentally deleted them all), trying to see what kind of settings were optimal for capturing computer monitors and still get the lighting looking right, without having to ask the subjects to stay still for too long. Typical monitors have their refresh rates set to 70~85 Hertz, and you'd think you could get away with 1/60 second exposures. It turned out that in order to get optimal clarity and brightness of what's on the computer monitor, I'd need to expose for as long as one second--and I didn't like that one bit. Luckily, the strobes can pretty much freeze the subject in place. I'd get a little bit of blur if someone moved, but I figured I'd just ask the subjects to remain as still as possible for one second.
Sunday night, Elena suggested that we bring both of our laptops, because I envisioned a shot in the meeting room to be filled with laptops, but she predicted that the company probably won't have enough laptops for the look I wanted. This ended up making a big difference in the meeting room shot. I had explained before why I don't want to shoot tethered to the laptop, so even though I had two of them with me, I didn't use them except as props.
On early Monday morning, I stayed up until 3 AM working on exposure notes, lighting placement diagrams, shooting angle alternatives..etc. Having taken pictures of the location days before was the best thing I could've done, because it gave me a solid point of reference when designing the lighting placement. Here are the notes for those of you that enjoy looking at scribbles and doodles.
At 10:15 AM, Two guys from the company (the place is called Jia Shi Visual Studio) came in a taxi. I had already packed up all the lights, light stands, lighting accesories, camera/lenses..etc the night before, so I just let them grab all the heavy stuff. With 4 lights packed in a box, it took both of them to lift it and carry it down 7 floors (in China, the real estate companies are not required to put in elevators unless there are 8 floors or more). Then they made a second trip to get the light stands and accesories.
At 10:30 AM, we arrive at the office. I knew that the odds were against me in an oppressive way, since all you experienced photogs with decades of experience told me that there's no way I can shoot it all in one day, and not to even think about it. But I only had one day, and there was no way in hell I was going to try to convince them to shoot a second day, especially when they are not really paying me--it's just a favor for a friend. I had no idea if I could do it all in one day, but I sure the hell was going to try. There's a huge part of my personality that would never accept defeat or giveup--it's a curse and my life is definitely a lot harder because of it, but I've also accomplished some pretty cool things due to that ambition and tenacity.
There were changes in the schedule, so I started with the post production department. I immediately began to setup the lights, asked for 3~4 guys to be my assistants. I explained how the monolights worked, how to adjust them, how to use the light stands..etc, and then I began setting up the lights. After I had all the lights in place, I stationed one assistant per light, and began taking test shots. If I needed the lights to be adjusted, I'll just say something like, "You on the right, take the power down to 25%, and you over there, bring the light up to 70%"..etc. I couldn't really rely on the assistants if I needed to change the position/angle of the lights, since they were kinda clumsy and were too slow. If I needed to adjust anything other than power, I'd have to run over and do it myself. Elena was my lighting accesory assitant. If I need to swap out colored gels, or put on honeycomb grids/snoots, she'd be the one I relied on.
These are the photos I took of the post production department:
For this shot, I had a red light placed on the very left, and a yellow right next to it, then a blue one to the right of the picture, just out of the shot. Every single shot I took on that day that had computer monitors required me to expose at 1 second. There was no way around it if I wanted absolute clarity and brightness of the monitors' contents.
This shot had the same lighting, but different camera placment. I had to shuffle some guys forward and backward so they don't hide each other in the shot.
I wanted a shot that expressed the camaraderie and the "joys" of late night editing sessions. I asked an employee to take two empty mugs and pretend that she was offering a cup of coffee to a fellow co-worker. Of course, the employees and I had a little discussion about whether it should be a guy handing the coffee or a girl. Knowing the way China is, I said girl, because it's more acceptable to them that a woman serves a man. If I had a guy offer the coffee, people would immediately think that he's hitting on her. Anyway, that's just Asian mentality. I know the culture well and took it into consideration.Can't remember the lighting setup for this one.
This shot was the last one in the post production room. I had envisioned a shot like this for the 3D department, but they wanted it in the editing room. This shot was rather painless, except for the ugly dirt and grime on the equipment. I can't remember the lighting setup for this one.
After the editing room, it was lunchtime. Elena and I ate takeouts in the boss's office alone. Turned out the boss didn't even make it to work that day. He absolutely refuses to be in pictures. Whatever. Right after gobbling down lunch, I immediately began setting up lights for the next session, which was the 3D department. They told me there's an one hour break for lunch, and I wanted to set up while the employees are still on break. I told the creative director that we should shoot the rooms that has the most people, so in case we run late, we only need to keep fewer people around.
The 3D department was hard as hell to light, because it was cluttered and very long shaped. The windows had all kinds of crap around it. I asked them to remove all the crap on the windows, and to straighten all the blinds so they look neater. I took more test shots in the 3D department than all the other locations because it was so difficult to light. I did not want to use the available window light or use big softboxes for normal looking lights. I knew the walls and floors and the computers were way too filthy, and the only way I could get away with it is if I used colors creatively. (Actually, that philosophy applied to the whole day of shooting--there wasn't one single clean room in the entire place except for the receptionist's desk.) Some of the employees were a bit irritated by the constant flashing of me testing lights. I was starting to feel the pressure cooking, and finally, after too many test shots and moving lights, changing colored gels..etc later, I got these following shots:
This shot is one of my least favorites, because the color and the direction of light just doesn't do anything for me. But it sure looks much better than if I were to have shot it with normal colors and brighter. Therewas one orange light to the left pointing to the ceiling, a blue light to the left pointing along the windows, a large rectangle softbox in the middle pointing down the room, and a yellow light at the far end to the left pointing to the right.
Ok, now I have to rant about this dirt and grime crap. I told them days and days ago that they need to clean up and beautify the place. They didn't do a single damn thing. I ended up spending most of my post processing time cleaning up their dirty equipment with the cloning tool in Photoshop. Here's an example of some of the crap I had to clean up.
Mind you, there were crap like that in EVERY SINGLE shot I took.
The next shot I wanted to do the "streaking ghost" thing that one of the FM'er suggested. I explained that I needed 3~4 guys to walk backwards on my command. I picked a girl that looked kinda pretty and also professional. She didn't object at all, so that was nice (truth is, all pretty girls like that attention of a camera. This is a secret that all photogs know and use to our advantage). I took about 4 different shots that I was happy with because I knew I'd have to layer them in Photoshop and play with the motion blur tool to get the look I want. This shot had one blue light on the right pointing left, one orange light on the left pointing right, and a softbox cutdown to a monitor's size just to the right of the shot for the girl's face.
For this shot, I explained that I wanted everyone to look confident, but also happy at the same time. I knew that Asians love to use the V sign when facing a camera, and it's a really cheezy thing. Originally, the Japanese picked it up from the American soldiers stationed in Japan during the war, and as all Asians know, the Chinese and Koreans look up to Japan and copy everything they do, so the V sign gets adopted by them as well. I told them to vary their signs a bit--use OKs and thumbs up--mix it up a bit. One guy was creative enough to pump his fist, but unfortunately a few uncoorporative people ruined that particular shot. Even in this shot I picked, the damn girl in the front didn't even look at the camera. Seriously, this group was totally uncoorporative and uncreative. Complete cogs in the machine. I had one giant softbox on the right, a blue light on the right pointing left, and an orange light on the left pointing right.
This next shot was a request by the creative director. He explained what he wanted, and I setup for it. Blue light and orange light again.
The creative director then requested a shot in the hallway of a company rep explaining something to a client. The guy playing the client was totally macking on the girl, saying cheezy things like, "I think you look great in a skirt." The way he said it just made him sound like a total psycho stalker. I tried not to laugh. He also tried to impress the girl (who's just a trainee there) by telling her that he works in the planning department. Like that really works. This shot had a softbox pointing at the middle, a purple ligh on the left, and a yellow light on the right.
The creative director wanted a group shot. He had no idea where we should take the shot. I told them the best thing is to have them in their actual department. I hate it when group shots are posed outside on some steps or in front of a building because it takes you out of the working enviroment. After shuffling some people around, I took this shot.
That one guy in the front left has his bottom half of the face cut off in every single shot I took. No matter how I tried to get people to pay attention to who's blocking who, he still manages to have his face blocked. *sigh*
This next set is my favorite of the whole day. Cute girls in the cleanest part of the company (receptionist's desk)--what can I say? I had one softbox to the right, a purple light to my right and pointing low at the desk, a yellow light to the left, and a honeycomb grid to my left pointing at the girl's face. I had the purple light hitting the metal plate thing on the left, but in the end, I changed it in post to have the purple on the laptop instead, and changed the metal plate back to neutral color.
Here's what it looks like before post processing:
This shot is probably the best shot of the whole day. Same lighting, except the purple light hits the laptop instead of the metal plate on the left. I had Elena give the girl in the black top my business card, so if she ever wanted to have her photos taken, she'd know where to find me.
Before post processing:
This next shot took a while to setup, because they had to fumble around to get the projector to work. I asked them to gather all the laptops they could find, and they came up with only three. Luckily, Elena's suggestion helped and having five laptops total didn't look too bad in the shot. I also asked them to put out one clean sheet of paper, one pen, and one glass of water per person. The guy in front of the TV is the friend that I did this favor for. He's a film director, and currently a supervising director at that company. MAN OH MAN he owes me BIG for this favor. This shot had one snoot on my friend's face, a blue light on the right pointing at the TV area, and one yellow light on the left pointing at the wall on the right.
Before post processing:
Upon learning that I did my homework until 3 AM, and after observing the way I worked, my friend shook his head with amazement and said, "So THAT'S why the Americans kick ass at everything they do. You guys take your work very seriously and work very hard. What you have done today here is to have set an example for our employees of how a person SHOULD work. I need to rally up our employees and criticize them and tell them to learn from your example." 
This last set in the boss's office is my least favorite, maybe because it was already supper time, I was hungry, and I was worn out like a dog. Anyway, I explained to them what I wanted, and they took their place while I tested out the lighting. I wanted to make sure the desk lamps' lights showed up in the shot, so even though there were no computer monitors in the shot, I still exposed for about a second or so. There were one puple light on the left, one yellow light on the right, and a snoot on my friend's face. Notice that he's holding a pipe. For some reason, that's his idea of sophistication.
Before post processing:
This last shot is the worst one of the whole day, I didn't realize I totally blew it until I got home and downloaded all the images.I had forgotten to expose longer to get the desk lamps!!! On top of that, I ran out of lights (I had a noot on my friend, a snoot on the woman with the green sweater (the boss's wife), a honeycomb grid on the remaining three at the right, and a yellow light for the overall coloring. I really wished I had more than 4 lights just then, because the shot sorely needed another color in it). OMIGOD I totally panicked when I saw what I had done. After some creative thinking. I decided to go really really deep into the post processing and editing to salvage what I could. You can see for yourselves how extensive the rescue work was. What I had done with the cityscape in the window really worked, so I use the same trick on the other shot as well.
Before post processing:
I'll explain all the stuff I did in this shot, to give you guys an idea of how extensive the editing was.
1) I color corrected what I could, and what I couldn't correct, I just added a color layer in Photoshop and painted in colors that I wanted. All the purples, blues, and pinks you see on the walls and carpet are painted in.
2) All five people had been brightened, and to simulate the light from the desk lamp which I failed to expose for, I brightened areas on the girl's arm and face, added illumination on areas around the lamp..etc.
3) The cityscape outside the window is a picture I took while in Shanghai. I first tried to clone all the crap reflected in the window out, but it didn't look very good, so I put the cityscape in.
4) Removed some dirt and grime from the carpet and wall.
So anyway, it took me from 10:30 AM till 6:30 PM to shoot all 6 locations. Although I could've done better, it's already a miracle that I did it all in 8 hours--I was afraid I'd be shooting late into the night. Words cannot express how happy, relieved and proud I was when I wrapped up and still was able to have dinner by 7 PM. I guess I broke some kind of a record?
Statistics for the day:
Locations shot: 6
Shots fired: 246
Shots finalized and used: 15
It was the most grueling thing I had done in a very long time. I was barely able to walk by the end of the day. I was so exhausted that I couldn't even sleep--my mind kept replaying the lighting setups and exposure ideas. The post processing took two days. I'm so glad it's over.
I think more than anything, I agreed to do this favor for my friend because I wanted to put myself to the test. I wanted to know if I had what it takes to be a professional photographer--whether I choose to make it a career is irrelevant, I only needed to find out if I had the right stuff.
Truth is, I wouldn't want to do this for a living. It's too grueling. !!!
Big thanks to all of you that gave me suggestions, and I hope this entire ordeal has helped some of you as much as it has helped me grow as a photographer--and more importantly, proved to myself that passion, tenacity, ambition, and thorough planning can overcome overwhelming odds.
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..... ...but we are anxiously waiting to find out how the shoot went.