Intimate Manila

Model Portfolio: Nika (c/o Intimate Manila)

Another collaboration with the great folks at Intimate Manila.com, this time with the lovely Nika Madrid in front of the lens.

I took on the basic three-point formation and turned it around its head. This formation basically has a key, fill and backlight (highlight). Now, what if we rotate the positions of the lights, essentially altering their roles?

Source: Wikipedia

This is my modified setup, rotating their positions and functions.

I would still have one key light, but I drop the fill and gain two (2) backlights in the process. This gives me that rim lighting on both sides of the model. The key light is then positioned by personal preference depending on how much shadow you want on the model. To get some light back, I positioned a reflector on the opposite flank of the key light. If you notice on some images, the key light and reflector are switched around, but the effect is technically the same.

I also wanted a softer highlight, so I changed the typical reflectors on those backlights and replaced them with strip soft boxes so I could control the fallout of the light. This also made the highlights softer and smoother in transition.

My main light was my trusty Photek Softlighter II (a diffused double bounce umbrella / brolly box) flanked either left or right of Nika depending on which part of the room we were shooting in.

As for my camera settings, I wanted to capture the ambient lighting of the room so I bumped up to 400 ISO and shot with a 2.8 opening. This meant having to power down the lights to their bare settings. Even that resulted in partial over exposures with some of the takes. But such a big opening made it possible to capture the light bulbs that would normally be dark if I just go about my regular settings of F8.0 or 11.

Given the hotel rooms were also large, it was quite fun playing with depth. The stuff toy tigers were a cute addition to the set.

I didn’t realize the curtain was that thin. My mini stripbox was seen through the red much to my frustration.

Production Credits:

Make-up: Charlie Manapat
Styling: Hannah Kim
Produced by Vince Golangco (When In Manila / Intimate Manila)
Special Thanks to Victoria Court Pasig

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Model Portfolio: Sheila Snow (c/o Intimate Manila)

Thanks to friends at IntimateManila.com, I had the chance to work with the lovely Sheila Snow for an afternoon at the Penthouse Studio. Worked around with some strobes using the Phottix Indra.

The first shot was lit with a no-brainer setup of a beauty dish connected to an Indra placed on the camera left flank. It was just on a regular light stand — nothing fancy. As for the 2nd shot on the right, this was a combination of ambient light coming from the make-up table, boosted with an Indra and stripbox. There’s a tall piece of styrofoam reflector on the camera left to act as reflector.

As for these next four (4) images, I only worked on natural light. If you want intentional flare in your image, the lens you are using matters. Prime lenses give off a stronger flare compared to zooms. A common favorite is the el cheapo nifty fifty (50mm). It has a hipster artsy vibe that no L-lens could actually replicate. L-lenses were designed to lessen the lens flare effect since it is technically a light aberration. I used several styroboards reflecting the backlight so I could get details on Sheila. I didn’t care for much about background light measurement either, and expecting it to be over exposed anyway. What’s important here is the measurement on the model. The background would just follow.

Working with available light all boils down to time. It’s very crucial when you plan your shoot since the sun shifts, and how the light refracts around the area is dependent on this. You also have to deal with color temperature — as the light goes into the afternoon, the warmer the light it gets.

There is a this burnout on her lower back, which could’ve been solved with a gobo, but I didn’t have the luxury of space in the bathroom, nor the man power.

Light in this corridor is only good during morning until noon. Later than that, you wouldn’t get much of it coming through the passageway. So this was assisted with the Indras again. Now, my main goal here is to replicate natural light, and not replace it with strobes. I’m still relying my overall measurements based on what my camera tells me, but I have an allowance for a slightly under exposed measurement, assuming the Indras would fill up that remaining gap in the lighting.

This is particularly noticeable in the left full body shot. The shadows produced by her legs and feet is sharper than what natural light would usually produce in this area. The two right images (they’re just the same, I did a B/W treatment on the other) had an interesting setup. It’s practically identical to the full body shot, but if you would notice the shadows on Sheila are inverted. In the half body shot, she has moved to the other side of the door frame avoiding most of the natural light (and strobe). To solve this, I placed a silver reflector on the camera left to bounce that light back to her. The result was something softer, but I lost about half a stop in the process.

This was in the other bathroom with pinkish tiles. Same principle, just a reversed light source.

The last two (2) images is your regular back-lit reversal using a styroboard.

Awesome thanks to Vince Golangco of Intimate Manila for setting this up for me with Sheila. Hope to work with more of their lovely featured ladies soon.

You can find more of Sheila on her FB and IG pages: iamsheilasnow.

Check out my youtube channel for your regular glimpse behind the scenes! While you’re at it, drop buy the online store and get goodies from your favorite models!

For those interested in my commercial work, check out pointblankstudios.net and follow us at @pointblankmnl in IG.

Model Portfolio: Mae (Intimate Manila)

Model Portfolio: Janka (Intimate Manila)

Model Portfolio: Nika (c/o Intimate Manila)

Model Portfolio: Sheila Snow (c/o Intimate Manila)