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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 2:20 pm 
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I am doing a maternity shoot on Sunday and my client has just forwarded me this shot.

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She's got an umbrella but this isn't something I've done before. Any suggestions on how they did it? Simple flash behind mommy? Has anyone done something similar? Maybe it's easier than I think...

THANKS!
Ashley


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:10 pm 
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Blown out white background with a flash pointing against the background behind mommy and a "filler" just to the left of the camera, on a lower setting. Reason I say that is coz the hotspot behind mommy is noticeable around the upper area of the photo. This also helps to blow out the background. Then a strobe was needed to completely blow out the rest of the white background.

I say a filler 'coz you can see a catchlight on the spokes of the umbrella on the left side.

So...3 lights...sorta like this?

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Untitled by JFrancisco Photography, on Flickr


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:40 am 
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utsc2006 wrote:
I am doing a maternity shoot on Sunday and my client has just forwarded me this shot.

Image

She's got an umbrella but this isn't something I've done before. Any suggestions on how they did it? Simple flash behind mommy? Has anyone done something similar? Maybe it's easier than I think...

THANKS!
Ashley


This is an interesting shot and 'client knows best because they pay', but I find this shot awkward.

First of all I don't know whats the subject because it should be the woman but the umbrella is lit brighter and its detail show - for example the trees in umbrella are placed in an awkward position and it seems as if they grow out of the woman's bottom.

Perhaps if the umbrella was underexposed and also the background light is a window or something, not to mention the woman behind is naked, then it would be a far more interesting shot -IMO.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:21 am 
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A little OT, but, I find the wrinkles on the umbrella, especially on the areas over the woman's body very distracting.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:30 am 
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Wow, thanks for the info Toolz. Much appreciated. And I agree with the comments about it being a little awkward so I'm hoping to take the shot as an idea and make it my own. Her umbrella is plain so we don't have to worry about things growing out of her bum! I'm going to try a test tonight with the set up of lights and see what happens...trying my best to lose a bit of the detail in the umbrella, maybe concentrating on getting a nice solid silhouette.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:39 am 
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Also her head is cropped for some reason which makes no sense. And also cropped from the neck - a big NO.

The crop should be from the top of the forehead until the curve of her bottom - on the lower side.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:48 am 
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this looks to me like a 2 light set up.

one directly behind the woman, could've been a large softbox and because of the highlights on the umbrella, another one set up high to the left.
that's about it.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:52 am 
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Gerardo wrote:
this looks to me like a 2 light set up.

one directly behind the woman, could've been a large softbox and because of the highlights on the umbrella, another one set up high to the left.
that's about it.


I thought about that too. I just can't picture a big enough softbox to encompass the entire image above. Could be PP'ed. :)


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 11:54 am 
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For maternity shots a lot of people like lighting through horizontal blinds, so it emphasizes the curves but you can still see the person. In the past I've used a digital projector for that since you can have a horizontal blind image (of course the rest of the set has to be dark for this to work).

You can also use the high-key (backlit) effect without the front light and the umbrella, or maybe just a little front light or a reflector for a soft light effect.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:02 pm 
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The watermark in the photo:

Hey Cupcake!
Pin-up Photography



So this is not technically a maternity shot, this photos is for guys who like umbrellas and pregnant women... Why? I couldn't speculate, that is just too messed up.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:13 pm 
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wpf1s9 wrote:
The watermark in the photo:

Hey Cupcake!
Pin-up Photography



So this is not technically a maternity shot, this photos is for guys who like umbrellas and pregnant women... Why? I couldn't speculate, that is just too messed up.


It is what it is. I'm not debating my clients taste. They say they'd like to try it and I'm up for trying something new. It IS a maternity shot. pregnant woman = maternity.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:20 pm 
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mikefellh wrote:
For maternity shots a lot of people like lighting through horizontal blinds, so it emphasizes the curves but you can still see the person. In the past I've used a digital projector for that since you can have a horizontal blind image (of course the rest of the set has to be dark for this to work).

You can also use the high-key (backlit) effect without the front light and the umbrella, or maybe just a little front light or a reflector for a soft light effect.


Also an oversize window will work (backlit) and then fill with a flash, that could very easy.
PS the white on the edges and off you go. give it a try at home, I'm positive it could work. :P


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:23 pm 
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utsc2006 wrote:
wpf1s9 wrote:
The watermark in the photo:

Hey Cupcake!
Pin-up Photography



So this is not technically a maternity shot, this photos is for guys who like umbrellas and pregnant women... Why? I couldn't speculate, that is just too messed up.


It is what it is. I'm not debating my clients taste. They say they'd like to try it and I'm up for trying something new. It IS a maternity shot. pregnant woman = maternity.


That is the price of selling one's 'art'. You have to compromise all the time - even if it means objectifying pregnant women with umbrellas...

But if the pregnant women wants to be objectified with an umbrella then there is not much you can do really... so yeah... money talks, broke artists walk.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:48 pm 
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wpf1s9, don't cross the line. This post was meant to ask the help of TPMG members to constructively help another member. I thank those that have commented with useful posts.

If you have a comment on a personal view, keep it to yourself. I'm not interested in hearing your negative opinion. If you want to start another thread about your Tamil photo's I'm game to make my personal opinions on that.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:50 pm 
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utsc2006 wrote:
wpf1s9, don't cross the line. This post was meant to ask the help of TPMG members to constructively help another member. I thank those that have commented with useful posts.

If you have a comment on a personal view, keep it to yourself. I'm not interested in hearing your negative opinion. If you want to start another thread about your Tamil photo's I'm game to make my personal opinions on that.


Administration agrees. Further posts off topic and inappropriate will be deleted.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:52 pm 
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Fair enough.

I don't know how I got mixed up with a maternity shot... lol

I blame the heatwave.


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:59 pm 
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You could do it as a 2 shot composite (a separate shot for both the woman and the parasol) Put them together in post.

Also it might be interesting to try it with a Zeiss softar filter. The softar effect is difficult but not impossible to duplicate in post.


Last edited by Metrix on Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:01 pm 
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The heat does strange things. :)


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:05 pm 
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Indeed. Heat make photos look washed out and overexposed... While it makes street photographers, maternity photographers...

Ok, no more jokes...


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:09 pm 
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wpf1s9 wrote:
Indeed. Heat make photos look washed out and overexposed... While it makes street photographers, maternity photographers...

Ok, no more jokes...


:shock: whut?


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 2:03 pm 
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Toolz wrote:
wpf1s9 wrote:
Indeed. Heat make photos look washed out and overexposed... While it makes street photographers, maternity photographers...

Ok, no more jokes...


:shock: whut?


Hi. :oops:


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:00 pm 
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wpf1s9 wrote:
utsc2006 wrote:
wpf1s9 wrote:
The watermark in the photo:

Hey Cupcake!
Pin-up Photography



So this is not technically a maternity shot, this photos is for guys who like umbrellas and pregnant women... Why? I couldn't speculate, that is just too messed up.


It is what it is. I'm not debating my clients taste. They say they'd like to try it and I'm up for trying something new. It IS a maternity shot. pregnant woman = maternity.


That is the price of selling one's 'art'. You have to compromise all the time - even if it means objectifying pregnant women with umbrellas...

But if the pregnant women wants to be objectified with an umbrella then there is not much you can do really... so yeah... money talks, broke artists walk.


Why is it so hard to hypothesize that maybe the photographer while specializing in pin-up photography will also do maternity if asked. If the name of their business implies pin up but they also shoot outside that specialty... so what? That to me sounds much more plausible than hypothesizing that the maternity shot is a pin-up shot.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 11:34 am 
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qualdoth wrote:
Why is it so hard to hypothesize that maybe the photographer while specializing in pin-up photography will also do maternity if asked. If the name of their business implies pin up but they also shoot outside that specialty... so what? That to me sounds much more plausible than hypothesizing that the maternity shot is a pin-up shot.


To be honest, I didn't knew there was a genre of photography called maternity until this thread... :oops:


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:39 am 
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Gerardo wrote:
this looks to me like a 2 light set up.

one directly behind the woman, could've been a large softbox and because of the highlights on the umbrella, another one set up high to the left.
that's about it.


This is exactly it, as the washed out details in the umbrella where the woman's shadow isn't blocking the light from behind gives it away. Logic would say the reason the woman's head is missing is because the shot is about just having the shadow. You can tell that light is bounced off a white surface (wall or paper) as the bottom right corner is less bright than the rest of the scene.

I would do this shot with the woman standing directly in front of a large light diffuser bigger than the umbrella (56" or bigger), and shoot the camera through a ringlight flash at at least 50mm.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:45 am 
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Thanks Itsaphoto & Gerardo. I think I have a good idea now how to proceed. Unfortunately mom and her daughter were both sick so the shoot has been postponed for now. Hopefully in the next week or so I'll get to give this a run!


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:27 pm 
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WELL.... Here you go guys. My take on the baby bump shadow shot. I was asked to do this without the red tint which was much easier since her umbrella was white :) I had her stand about 4 feet from a white wall... then there was a bare flash about 8 inches from her tummy (between her and the wall) There was a large window camera right to fill in any shadows. Honestly the hardest part was trying to hide the umbrella handle as it was quite long. Trick was to have her hold it with her right hand and angle it so the handle went behind her body...otherwise we ended up with an arm or hand sticking out of her tummy which looked quite strange! So either a very short handle to get a straight on shot of the umbrella ..or like we opted...slightly angled umbrella with straight on tummy. I could have also used a second light in front to flash the details of the umbrella..but since it wasn't floral like the example..we didn't miss too much. The pegs of the umbrella were covered in white paper as well.

I'm quite happy with the results for a first try. I think I more colourful umbrella and maybe playing around with some gels in the future might make for some interesting looks. So ya.....there ya go :)

Image
BumpBW-1 by (Ashley), on Flickr


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:30 pm 
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congrats utsc2006 nice shot.


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PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 11:56 pm 
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Neat transformation from idea, example and original interpretation. Moved to the techniques thread.


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 28, 2012 6:01 pm 
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There is a serious magnifying effect on the lady's maternity bump. It looks HUGE.


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PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:31 pm 
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qualdoth wrote:
There is a serious magnifying effect on the lady's maternity bump. It looks HUGE.


Ya,.....well besides the fact that she WAS huge( but totally glowing and lovely)...it is magnified. I'm guessing because she wasn't right up against the umbrella it cast a bigger shadow. In my opinion it doesn't detract from the image, as you can tell her head peaking out the top does not translate to her body size. But I get it, and thanks for the comment.


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