I had this idea for a couple of days but didn't get around to it until the last minute. And you know what happens when you wait until the last minute...
I had originally planned for a natural light shot, being too lazy to set up my lights. And the backdrop was all tucked away, because I was too lazy to roll it out. So I set up my 750 with the remote and lay on my side and did some test shots to see if my concept was even doable. Basically it was, the lighting was a bit weak, but adequate.
Then I get into this wig (it's 80 degrees in L.A., and I don't have the a/c on because I want the smoke as still as possible), and have to put on this wig because my hair isn't long enough for this effect. It's like putting a polar bear on my head. I'm sweating already, and I put on a cool shirt because I like the texture. But it's really a very warm shirt...
Now I just needed to light the cigarette.
If you know me, you know there are few things in the world I despise more than cigarettes... But the shot won't work without the cigarette, so I sacrifice... I have these leftover cigs from a shoot from forever ago, and a box of matches. And the matches don't work. Seriously. How do matches not work. It's friction for goodness sake!! So I go rummaging around for another box of matches, in my polar bear headpiece, and I'm sweating but finally find another box. Having never lit a cigarette, I figure it should be easy, and.... yes, it was.
Finally, I lie down and start shooting. I have to keep puffing to keep the thread of smoke going. GGGAAACKKKK!! Truly, the most disgusting thing ever... I get up to peek at the LCD to see if everything is in frame, and on the LCD it looks like it is, but I cannot tell if I'm getting smoke. So I take the card out, trudge down the hall to my office with my polar bear still on my head, go to my computer, load up the images, and nope. Not a single bit of smoke to be seen. The light is neither strong enough nor in the right place. And the floor is showing in the shot and there's no way to crop to get the effect I want. And the shirt I chose looked like crap.
Everything is crap. I have to shoot more. And set up my lights. And roll out the backdrop. And light and "smoke" another cigarette....
So, using the lights and backdrop means I have to move everything out of the way. And if you've ever seen my studio, there's no place to move anything to....
Mind you, I'm still wearing the polar bear as I'm moving everything, so I'm a sweaty mess.
I roll out the backdrop. I set up the light, I change my shirt... but wait! I cannot both trigger the camera and the lights at the same time with my 750. The old trigger used to plug into a thing that this camera no longer has, and the new trigger goes in the shoe where the PW goes. I can trigger the lights with PW and the camera with the remote, but there's no way in heck I can do it synchronously... I'm sure there's a way, but I haven't figured it out.
So I get back up, go get my 700, switch out the lens, pop on the PW, plug in the remote, set it up on the camera, etc., etc. And I light another cigarette.
After a couple of test shots, I get up to look at the camera and the lighting is perfect. And I can clearly see the smoke. I shoot off a few more shots just to get the right smoke shape, and I'm done.
Pp'g was just rotating, cropping, SEP2, glamour glow, ta da!
Gosh, I'm beginning to sound like Wendy...
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Thank you for putting this silliness on the front page. I was pressed for time and it wasn't until after the fact that I saw how grainy and imperfect this is. I've fixed it and posted elsewhere, and although I sometimes like grain, this was a bit much :)
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Congrats on the HM, Johanna. Great dedication and creativity and a wow result. Thanks for the notes. I love reading notes like this! I hope you got rid of the taste. Next time maybe get yourself a model who smokes? (Says me, who can rarely get a model at all.)
Isn't it crazy what we are willing to go through for some of these challenges? Isn't it wonderful when it gives you enough of a creative push to produce something you end up happy with and that connects with people. Thanks for the lesson in both creativity and persistence, and congrats on the nice finish.
One thing that would have helped you hugely is an eye-fi card. You could set it to automatically upload to your laptop/iPad/phone, and place it where you can easily see it. Then you just have to wait for a few seconds for the photo to show up instead of trudging down the hall.
Goodness, do more like these, wigs or not - this is fabulous!
Hmmm, just read the whole story to get some knowledge of how you did it and My mind cannot take more than the basics: wig, heat, smoke, again, crap, good, voila....
Very well executed. Logically, it only makes sense that she's laying on her side, but it makes you think at first. For those not used to dissecting how images are created, they might think you're magic!
Cool image, not sure how it will score considering you don't see her face. Is she laying on the floor holing herself up with one shoulder? If so, then I hope for the model's sake that you did not have to do many shots. Holding your body up like that is hard :)
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