How I Shot This: Laurie Brown Fashion
Concept
Published: Chang, Ian. “Laurie Brown.” Pump Magazine - Black & White Issue, June 2020, vol. 1, Jun. 2020, pp. 40-43.
Featured: Chang, Ian. “Through the Clouds.” Fstoppers Photo of the Day, 22 Jun. 2020, https://fstoppers.com/photo/494541
I love working with Laurie Brown - an absolutely gifted fashion designer who was in Saskatoon the same time I was during my undergraduate studies. Her innovative use of textures, textiles, and technology are at a global scale, and my hope is that my photography does her art justice. Over the years we’ve had the opportunity to collaborate, both with myself as photographer and model - walking in her 2017 closing show for Saskatchewan Fashion Week. As a human being and professional, Laurie’s light remains a beacon for the kind of creative I want to be.
The concept is simple: use black and white photography and wide angle lenses to emphasize the lines and textures of Laurie Brown’s work.
I want the wide focal length (24mm) to stretch and distort limbs unnaturally. As such, my direction to the models are to move and pose with arms/legs coming towards the camera - these become my leading lines. Besides pressing the shutter, I’m mindful of cutting body parts out of frame (note: Chinena’s severed toes are the byproduct of the publication’s discretion and not my artistic decision).
Knowing that the processing is ultimately black and white, my lighting is set to be directional and ‘harsh’. Creating this contrast, soft boxes are gridded for increased directionality with fill lights just strong enough to prevent clipping shadows. Blowing out the white backdrop is acceptable as long as the bounce doesn’t hit the model - thus isolating our subject on a clean slate.
Gear
Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark I
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Tripod: Sirui BSRM-3204X
Tripod head: Manfrotto MH055M8-Q5
After so many years, I know that Canon files provide a lot of flexibility in the shadows, but underperform in retrieving highlights. The tipping point from ‘highlights’ to ‘blown out’ is so steep that I’ve suffered ‘learning moments’ on endless occasions. When shooting Canon, my eyes are always on the highlights.
Lighting
Key: Profoto B1 + Profoto RFi 4’ x 6’ Softbox + Grid
Strip: Profoto B1 + Profoto RFi 1’ x 6’ Softbox + Grid
Fill: Profoto B1 + Mola Demi 22” White Beauty Dish + Mola Opal Diffusion Glass + Diffuser
Backdrop: 2 Profoto B1s + Elinchrom 14” x 39” Rotalux Stripboxes + Diffusion
Below: Key only > Add strip > Add fill > Add background > SOOC
Editing
The entire shoot is tethered to Adobe Lightroom via a TetherPro cable, allowing the team to preview images as they’re taken. Laurie makes styling adjustments while hair and makeup keep close eyes on their fields of expertise - everyone offers creative input. Converting the first image to B&W and applying minor adjustments, this quick preset is applied to all subsequent shots, further illustrating how the final product may appear. Tethering is a wonderful asset, but can be difficult when outside a studio setting.
Post processing is straight forward, starting with a black and white conversion in Lightroom. As planned, most of the cyclorama is blown out - but not to the point where “halo-ing” occurs. In Photoshop, the remaining elements are painted out (studio, lights, etc), basic retouching, followed by selective dodge and burn. Personally, the most difficult step is extending the white background around the hair, because I’m not great with “refine edge” tools and generally mediocre at Photoshop. So yeah, that takes some time.
EXIF/SOOC
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/250s
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 400
Closing
I encourage everyone to try shooting fashion wide and low to the ground. Because of the expansive field of view, containing the model within the confines of the cyclorama is challenging - I can only go so low before it becomes an editing nightmare.
Things to do differently next time:
More flowing designs and experiment with movement
Larger studio space with taller cyclorama
Go even WIDER?
What are you still doing here?
Get a wide lens and start shooting some fashion!
The Team
Photographer: Ian Chang Photography
Designer: Laurie Brown
MUA: Anh Pham
Hair: Lisa Tucker, Maggie Lam
Models: Hannah, Chinena, Camille
Publication: Pump Magazine