How To Catch A Hokage Photographer

     Photo by: http://www.shootfactory.co.uk/if-you-want-to-make-it-as-a-photographer/

Wow it's been quite a while since my last post and I'm sorry. I know I should be posting more often but with my work barely gives me enough time to sleep BUT for you guys, I will try and post regularly. Now, let's start.

With the wide availability of digital cameras any person can now buy a DSLR, take a bunch of photos and call himself a photographer. Personally, I don't have any problems with that considering that I started my passion quite the same way -- there was a sale on cameras in the mall, I bought one and the rest was history. However, what I want to talk about today is about those people who picks up a camera, poses themselves as photographers in order to get the ladies and take advantage of them. We call these photographers "HOKAGE".

Now, this topic is not something new in the industry that I am in but considering that I've seen a lot of these instances recently and known some models who got themselves in the same predicament I just want to share a few of my thoughts and tips to professional and aspiring models to counter the "Hāremu no Jutsu" attacks of these hokages.

If you are a model and you have been invited to a shoot, here are 10 red flags that you need to be wary of:

1. When the photographer asks you for sexy even nude photos or selfies.
2. When the photographer starts talking about anything sexual.
3. When the photographer constantly texts/calls you with topics no longer related to the shoot.
4. When the photographer insists that you be alone with him in a shoot for "privacy" reasons.
5. When the photographer touches you unnecessarily without your permission during the shoot.
6. When the photographer starts calling you pet names such as "babe", "love", "darling", etc.
7. When the photographer gives you a vague description of the concept or just plainly describes it as "sexy shoot" or "glamour shoot"
8. When the photographer is more concerned of having a selfie with you rather than doing the actual shoot
9. When during the shoot the photographer leads you to remove pieces of your clothing without proper setting of expectations.
10. When the photographer doesn't have a legitimate portfolio.

Here are 5 tips to make sure that you will have a fun and professional experience in your shoots:

1. Ask for specific details about the shoot such as the concept, the venue or location, who the make-up artist and/or stylist is and how much the talent fee is.
2. If the photographer is someone you barely know, insist in bringing a companion someone you can trust and be comfortable with during the shoot.
3. A professional photographer knows that it's a definite NO to touch models during the shoot. If you need adjustment with your pose, wardrobe, make-up, or hair, ask the Make-Up artist or stylist to help you with it.
4. Don't be afraid to speak out if there's something that you are not comfortable with.
5. Ask your photographer for his portfolio. Save on of his photos in you PC or smartphone and search it in Google Images to check if the photo is truly the photographer's work.

I hope that you've learned something in this entry and if you have any more red flags or tips please share it to us in the comments below.

Of Strobes and Natural Light

I got a message from a good model of mine a couple of days ago saying that she wanted to do a "comeback" shoot. We've been talking about it for quite sometime but our schedules never really allowed us to set up a session until last week. As it was impromptu, she said she was just going to bring whatever she has in her closet. It was almost  3 PM when she got to my studio. It was a good thing that she knew how to do her own make up which made it easier for us to set up everything on that day. 

While she was doing her make up, I went over the outfits she had brought and came up with three different looks with three different lighting setups. As the sun was still very high in the sky, I wanted our first look with natural light. Since my studio doesn't have lots of big windows to accommodate natural light I was left with a challenge to work on such limited background. However, we were able to capture some nice back light and natural flare:

Here's the lighting diagram for our natural light look:

When the sun was finally low and we weren't able to get some good natural highlights, we decided to move on to the second look that we had planned. For this one, Jabee wanted a sexy yet grungy style. She kept the top she wore on our first setup but changed her underwear to black and donned a red bandana for that 'gangsta' style. 

For this setup, I decided to go with my DIY gridspot. A gridspot (or grid) is a studio accessory that you can attach to your flash. When the flash fires through the grid, the spread of the light rays is limited. The effect you get is very similar to the effect achieved by a snoot, but light more controlled and really hits a small surface. This modifier gave me the contrast I needed for the sexy-grungy look that we wanted:

Because the gridspot produces hard light, I placed a reflector at the bottom in a clamshell-like setup in order to soften the hard shadows that it was creating. Here is the lighting diagram for this look:

For the final look of the night, Jabee wanted to do something simple and sexy. And what's sexier and simpler than a black outfit. Here's out final look for this session:

I went with my usual portrait lighting setup for this look which is a clamshell lighting setup and finished off with a vintage treatment using Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Here's the lighting diagram for this look:

It was already 8 PM when we were able to finish the third look for this session however we still had a fourth and final look but I'll save that for another time and another entry. For more photos of Jabee, you can checkout her portfolio in my Facebook page. You can also follow us in Instagram @iamgirome and @jadylove1990.

If you have questions or comments, please don't hesitate to leave them at the comments section below.

My Summer Luau Photobooth

Three days ago I had the opportunity to shoot Wipro-Delta's 1st Summer Luau. Unlike other event shoots I had before, I had a photo booth setup for this one. This was the first photo booth setup that I had using the NKRemote program. The NKRemote enables the professional photographer to control a camera from a PC and run a photo booth automatically, take a sequence of photos and print them out. For the party though, we agreed not to have prints but I'll have all the photos uploaded in our Facebook page.

A photo booth is fairly simple to do all you need is a light source, a camera tethered to a laptop with an NKRemote program installed. You can download a full licensed version of NKRemote from Breeze Systems for only $175 just click this link. A printer is optional but if you do want to have one I suggest something that is fast and economical such as HiTi 510L. These printers might be a little bit pricey but if you're planning to make a business out of your photo booth, fast printers will also  make sure that you get your return of investment fast. If you want to check the best photo booth printers that will fit your budget, check out this link.

For my setup I used a Yongnuo YN-460II flash in a Phottix shoot-through umbrella remotely triggered by Yongnuo RF603N transceivers. I had the Nikkor 18-55mm VR kitlens attached to my ever reliable Nikon D7000 tethered to my laptop. The advantage of shooting tethered is that it allows you to use live view on your computer which will make shooting easier.

Setting up the NKRemote might be a little bit tricky specially to the technically challenge (such as myself) but don't sweat there're a lot of Youtube tutorials that can help you start up. The Breeze Systems website also has some tutorials on how you can set up your photo booth. 

Here's a diagram of my setup:

Here are some of the photos (straight out of the camera) that were taken during the event:

If you want to see more of these photos, please don't forget to visit and like our Facebook page at Girome Medio Photography. If you have any questions or if you want to share your photo booth experience, please leave your comments on the comments section below. Click away!

Clamshell Lighting: You Make Do With What You Have

"Clamshell lighting is when the photographer uses two frontal light sources to illuminate the subject, helping to minimize shadows and often giving a glowing effect. Though usually achieved by using studio strobes, it can also be achieved using constant studio lights. Think of your two light sources as the shells, and your subject is the happy clam in the middle." - http://layersmagazine.com/

I have only been using the Clamshell lighting setup for head shots but lately I have been using it for all kinds of shoot as well. What I like about this lighting setup is the quality of light that it gives out which is flattering to the model giving him/her a youthful appearance (which they love!). 

A simple Clamshell lighting set-up is achieve by placing a main key light above the lens, centered over your camera and placing a lower fill light, directly under your lens, centered below camera. The gap, or “window” between the two modifiers, should just be large enough to fit your lens’ angle-of-view through the opening, while still being able to frame your subject. The main light and fill light can be two umbrellas, two softboxes, one umbrella and a softbox, or one umbrella or softbox and a reflector.

Personally, I'm using the Umbrella-Softbox combination since I just make do of what I have. I'm also using two Yongnuo hotshoe flashes triggered by Yongnuo RF-603Ns. The key to a good Clamshell Lighting setup is determining the perfect output ratio of your key and fill light. I normally start off with a half power on my key light and a quarter power on my fill light but you can play around with this setting depending on your taste. My usual camera settings on my Nikon D7000 for head shots are ISO 100, f/2-2.8, 1/200 sec at 50mm and for all other shots it usually is at ISO 100-200, f/5.6-6.3, 1/200sec still at 50mm.

Here are some of the shots I've taken with this lighting setup:

For more photos, please visit my Facebook page by clicking the link HERE and don't forget to LIKE! :) I hope you've learned something about today's entry and if you have your own Clamshell Lighting setup please share them on the comments section below.

Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole

A couple of months ago, Xiaoyu, an old friend of mine sent me a message via Facebook and asked if I was interested in shooting her in a lingerie. Now, I've known Xiaoyu for a little over 5 years and this is the first time that she actually proactively asked me for a shoot so obviously I had to say yes. While she was sending me photos of the outfit she was going to wear on the shoot, she kept on hinting that this was going to be "my last opportunity" to get her in front of my camera. I wasn't able to get that until she finally said that the shoot was actually a video shoot for her upcoming wedding!

Now came the day of the shoot and I was impressed with the props and set (she prepared by hand). I then found out that the theme of the video (which matches the theme of the wedding) was "Alice in Wonderland". Now, when Xiaoyu was preparing her outfit on location I could not stop but wonder "Where's the lingerie?". I then started to think that maybe Xiaoyu, conniving as she is, lured me to believe that she was actually going to wear something sexy on the shoot!  Haha!

Nevertheless, everything went well during the shoot. I was only able to take a few shots since I didn't want to disrupt the video shoot. I took advantage of natural light on this shoot as I didn't have the luxury of setting up my own equipment on location.

Here are some of my shots. Let me know what you think on the comments section below.

Jana's Baby Bump

Jana, as some of you might already know, is a very good friend of mine, my right hand woman, and my on-call make up artist at times. So when she asked me if I could do her baby bump shots who am I to say no. And like the celebrity that she is, she wanted to announce her prenancy Doutzen Kroes style:

Here are our shots and let us know if we were able to justice on the concept:

This was a one-light setup with my Nikon D7000 with 50mm 1.8D. I positioned a reflective umbrella in front of Jana leaning in a 45 degree angle. I also had a circular reflector under the umbrella to add some fill light. I used a Yongnuo RF603N II flash triggers to fire the flash remotely. Here's the diagram of the entire setup.

So which one do you like best? Were we able to replicate the shot? Let us know what you think and leave your comments below.

Shoot with Lexi

A photographer friend found this model online offering free photo shoots for a period of time. He contacted me and asked if I can accompany him on the shoot and of course I said yes. We agreed on the location and at first I was skeptical of the place. Along with the makeup artist, we arrived at the place first. When I was inside I saw how spacious it was and thought I could make it work besides we have agreed to do a boudoir session. A few minutes later Lexi came in with her boyfriend and she was really friendly and professional. After the make up, we started on the ground floor and worked our way upstairs. The shoot was really fun and we were able to get a lot of good shots. Here are some of them:

For the most part of the shoot I used a 2 light setup with reflective umbrellas. For tight shots I used my Nikon D7000 with 50mm 1.8D at the fastest aperture while for body shots I had my Fujifilm X100s with a fixed 24mm f2 lens. All my flashes were triggered remotely by Yongnuo RF-603N II which are also compatible with the Fuji camera.

An Objective Eye on #LazyNurses

Local TV Host Nicole Abas Dayatan is currently the talk of the town following her #lazynurses rant in Facebook.

On September 20, Nicole said she was "pissed" with the medical staff and the doctor attending her niece who was admitted Friday due to high fever. She mentioned Madonna and Child Hospital and called it a "hospital that had no respect for her (niece's) well-being and humanity." According to a reliable source, her niece was later transferred to another hospital. Nicole complained that they were "kept getting passed back and forth" by the nurse on duty, whom she described as "way batasan" which means ill-mannered in vernacular. The name-calling came after they were apparently told to give the kid a sponge bath to cool down her fever.

Now, I understand where all the hostilities are coming from being a registered nurse myself. However, I would hate for this to completely blow up and become another "Amalayer" incident. So let's just take a couple steps back and try to see the situation objectively.

Considering the situation at the ER, I assume that Nicole's niece went through the Triage (Triage is the process of determining the priority of patients' treatments based on the severity of their condition). And with high temperature (fever) being the primary symptom, I would assume Nicole's niece could have been classified as a Green (They will require a doctor's care in several hours or days but not immediately) or a Yellow (Their condition is stable for the moment but requires watching by trained persons and frequent re-triage, will need hospital care (and would receive immediate priority care under "normal" circumstances) which would explain how the nurses handled the situation.

Now, was this properly explained to Nicole and her niece? Were the expectations set correctly by the medical staff involved? Or were they really just given the "Don't worry, we're texting with the him" comment?

I would agree that this matter could have been handled by Ms. Dayatan more discreetly and professionally. However, remember the Cotabato incident and take a step back for a moment and put yourself in her shoes -- helpless with a sick loved one on your arms -- can you really blame her for what she did?

I know we all love a good ol' stone throwing as much as the next guy, especially if the recipient is a media personality and this one is no exception.

A Day with Yassi

I had the chance to work with one of the most successful car model slash FHM babe a couple of months back and it was a privilege to do so. I think the most notable thing working with a professional model is the ease of work in the photographers part. Yassi Benitez already knew how to work the camera having been in front of the lens for quite some time now.

For this shoot I used 2 cameras, my ol' dependable work horse Nikon D7000 with the 50mm 1.8D and my Fuji X100s. Continuous LED lighting was used the entire time sponsored by Macy's Camera Shop. The position of the LED lights were numerously changed throughout the shoot but for most of the time they were used as main and back lights. Here's how it was setup:

For this shoot, it was my Fuji X100s who took the spotlight. It's amazing picture quality and dynamic range were amazing that my SOOC (Straight-Out-Of-Camera) images needed less-to-none post processing. Here are the takes on that shoot and you can be the judge: 

 

And here are some of the post-processed ones:

And this one was taken with the Nikon D7000 with a 50mm 1.8

For more photos of Yassi, please check out my website at Girome Medio Photography

Apple: A Woman We Love

I've know Apple for quite some time now. We have been working together for about a year and a half and I've always thought that she'd look awesome in front of the camera. Well, we finally got a chance to collaborate and I'd like you guys to be the judge.

For this shoot, I mainly used my Nikon D7000 with a 50mm 1.8D. The reason being that I needed to get those close up shots while keeping my distance from the model. Even though the Fuji X100s could have also done the job equally, it's fixed Fujinon 23mm F2 would have me shoot Apple at arms length which would have blocked the light bouncing off the wall behind me.

This was a one-light setup shot using only a shoot through umbrella bouncing off a white wall. Here's how the shoot was set up:

And here are some of the shots from that shoot:

For more photos of Apple, check out my Facebook page at Girome Medio Photography