Andriy Zolotoiy Photography Blog

Wishing everybody all the best in the New Year, let all your dreams come true!

It’s cold and windy outside, so shooting some swimsuit action is always welcome during long Canadian winter. Very simple setup here with one light in octabox about 12 feet away from the model for more defined shadows.

Next image is lit from back-right, light is fairly low to scrape the surface of the body.

Model: Charmaine San Pedro
Makeup: Delia Lupan

Observation note: When I’m using my Nikon D700 with Cybersync transmitter and my set of Alien Bees I can safely sync at 1/250 sec. But sometimes I rent the studio that has Pocket Wizards and Speedotron lights; in this case I can go only to 1/200 sec., after that darkening appears in the frame. Go figure why cheaper hardware works better in my situation.

On the side note, it is possible to exceed maximum sync speed of the camera even with studio strobes. The trick is to put camera into high-speed sync mode by attaching Nikon/Canon flash to the hot shoe and trigger strobes (I tried Bees only) by optical sensor. When you go over 1/1000 sec. you’ll need to pump a lot of power into the strobe but at least it works.

When I’m doing creatives I always like to experiment with different lighting setups to see the effect I can achieve with particular combo. Recently I did two photoshoots with hair stylists from Dat Salon and make-up artist Delia Lupan.

For the first shoot we also invited young stylist Jennifer Keen to accessorize our models. I wanted to combine standard portrait technique and my own style to create edgy but classic looks. I used 2 Alien Bees AB800 strobes, one with 22” white beauty dish and sock as key, another with 24” shoot-through umbrella for fill. Dish is placed on a boom and positioned above model’s face while fill was on either side of the camera depending on the angle we chose to work with.

Our model Lexy worked some classic portrait poses that matched the mood I wanted to create.

Jen gave us combination of edgier look and personality, all working very well together.

For our second shoot we focused on some cool extra large eyelashes. I used large softbox angled at 45 degrees down as a key, shoot-through umbrella on the back for kicker light and silver reflector under model’s face.

Dalia brought some Twiggy-like looks to the table. Catchlights in the eyes show you light sources shapes and positions.

Cait with her stunning bone structure gave us amazing beauty shots borderlining with grotesque imagery.

Red haired Kirsten brought out her sexy signature looks to round up our photoshoot.