Shot with natural light coming in the window.

This was also the first actual shoot I’ve done with the Nikon D3x. As compared with the D3 (a fine camera in its own right), the images I’m getting from this camera are simply stunning; the detail is amazing (24.5MP), and the contrast and color qualities, while hard to describe, are by far the best of any Nikon camera I’ve used. The files (at base ISO) are amazingly noise-free – you really have to see them to believe it. And all that combined with the handling characteristics of the D3, makes for an excellent combination for fashion shooting either in studio or on location…much more convenient, IMHO, than medium format rigs, if the 75MB (8 bit) or 150MB (16 bit) files are sufficient.

Model Melissa, makeup by Heathyrre.

I thought it might be fun to show some shots of how the plate-breaking part of all this actually went. :-)

I shot the plates in a studio; the setup looked something like this:

The plate was suspended from two A-clamps, which were hanging from a overhead bar, going diagonally across the set. There’s a black v-flat behind the plate, and also one to the left (in the direction of impact); the former to provide a near-black background, and the latter to stop the pieces of the plate from flying too far around the studio.

For lighting, I used two Nikon SB-800s; one on a stand you can see on the left, peeking over the black flat, and then another over to camera right. Both were positioned to mimic the direction and ratio of the lighting used for the model, already shot in a kitchen. I used pocket wizards for triggering them. I shot a single frame per plate, using a Nikon D3.

This shot shows the detail of how the plate was hit:

My assistant used the flat head of a hammer to strike the plate, and had his arm covered with a black towel.

There were laser and sound triggers available, but I started out clicking the shutter manually. The whole process turned out to be highly addictive (can’t tell you how much fun it is to break plates like this!), so I never ended up stopping to set up an automatic trigger. In retrospect, I probably should have, but in the end I ended up with a shot I could use. Out of the 14 plates, I missed one completely, and the rest you can see below (click for larger):

I had a total of 14 plates; 10 fairly heavy dinner plates from a restaurant supply house (top 3 rows in pic below), and 4 cheap Correlle plates from Walmart (bottom rows). As you can see, they broke in very different ways.

The Correlle plates took me off guard – both because I happened to catch two shots where the plate has just shattered but still in the shape of a plate, and also because of how violently they shatter. The mess in the studio was pretty well contained at first, but once we got to these last 4 plates, we had little shards of plate everywhere!

All the shots were at 70mm (to match perspective with the shot of the model), at f/11. It was even one of those rare moments when I used a protective filter on my lens, hoping to protect it from flying pieces of plate. :-)

Anyway, hope this is interesting for some folks!

(note – some of you reading this via RSS may have seen this post before the referenced photo was posted…sorry about that, WordPress user error. :-)

I’m planning on a follow-up post in the next few days with a behind the scenes look at the making of this shot.

Model Andrea, styling by Anita.

A quick shout out to those involved…first, the model Karli – she was amazing, fun, professional, and a pleasure to work with. Zoe did a fantastic job on the makeup, which not only helps set the mood for the shoot, but makes retouching go so much quicker. Kelly from Off Broadway Styles did a great job turning my very rough ideas into an actual hair style, despite my use of adjectives that could mean just about anything. :-) Thanks to Wendy at Swank for wardrobe…and of course a big thanks to my assistant for the shoot Jeff, who makes everything possible.

Take a look!

I don’t really even notice during the shoot…when the energy is flowing, and the shots are working, the time just flies by. I’m totally focused on what’s going on, and for the most part, it’s just me and the model.  I mean, there are other people there involved with the shoot, but when things are clicking, we both tune everything else out.

But after the shoot, when everything is unloaded, whew – what a crash. I grabbed some taco bell, and plopped down on the couch – finally realizing how exhausted I was. Shooting usually isn’t physically demanding (well, unless you count a 5-pound camera/lens combination as demanding – lol), but it’s mentally exhausting. But I don’t notice until I get back home!

One thing I’ve learned is never, ever, edit the shots the night after a shoot. I’ve found I’m hyper-critical at that point, and I would discard great shots just because I’m tired. I always try to wait until the next day – or at very least wait a few hours.

I also shot tethered for the first time in quite a while – I have mixed feelings about shooting this way. Maybe I’ll write a bit about this later.

And I’ll post the shots from this weekend in the next couple of days – check back soon!