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Lurking Musings

~ Musings of a newly published writer

Lurking Musings

Tag Archives: Onryo

Photoshoot in a windy woodland

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Autumn colours, Edvard Vermogen, Fantasy photoshoot, Japanese undead, Location photography, models, Onryo, Onryo Empress, Photoshoot, Prestwich, Prestwich Clough, Realm, Realm Fantasy Wargame, Undead Fiends, Wizards


You may remember that over the last year or so I have been collabomartial artsrating with the team at Quattrofoto to produce a series of photographs themed around the background I wrote for the Fantasy Wargame Realm. We did the first two shoots in the studio where we met the Onryo Empress and her court, the druid Edvard Vermogen and the Vaetari Audenti – especially the Imperatrix Sanguinia. Both of these shoots were successful in achieving some awesome images. However, since shoot two was originally planned to be in a woodland and the weather scuppered our plans, we decided to get together in October 2013 to take those woodland shots.

Thankfully, it did not rain this time. However it was still October and that meant the Autumn chills were upon us. Our poor models (especially Jessica and Alex in their kimonos) were somewhat cold. Actually, all of us were cold, even those of us who had thick layers of wool or coats to wear. However, we persevered through the keeping warmhardships and produced what I hope will be some wonderful shots once they are edited. We also had tea in a flask, thick woollen cloaks and good company to keep us warm as can be seen in the photo to the right. It is unfortunately one of the disadvantages of an outdoor location shoot that we were exposed to the weather, whatever it chose to throw at us. That included a very cold and strong wind. But at least the threatened rain did not appear so we did not need the bin bags that were packed to use as emergency waterproofing for the equipment.

Note that the photos in this blog post are my shots taken on the day, mainly of things happening in set up. Samples of the official Quattrofoto shots will be posted here later, as soon as they are ready.

the backdropWe decided to set up our outdoor studio in a little clearing in the middle of Prestwich Clough which had a rather interesting looking earth mound in it that was covered in trees. This proved to be a quite impressive backdrop, especially with the bright autumn colours to create a nice contrast. It was, of course, gloomy due to the tree cover but that was not a problem. Thanks to the portable lighting rig that was brought along it was possible to create any lighting conditions we desired. Compared to the extensive kit available in the studio this set up was rather basic, only two flashes linked to the camera by a remote control. However, this simple set up could create a vast number of effects and was more than adequate for our needs.

Jess as the Empress of Onryo demonstrating the benefits of having a real wind on location.

Jess as the Empress of Onryo demonstrating the benefits of having a real wind on location.

I mentioned that the disadvantages of being out of the studio were that we were exposed to the weather. However, this was one of very few disadvantages (lugging the kit to and from the location was another…). For the most part there were many advantages. For example, that exposure to the weather also meant that we could do some floaty robe effects without thrusting a very cold fan right into the model’s face because there was a natural breeze that did that job for us perfectly. We even attempted to get some shots of the Empress and her entourage surrounded by floating leaves by having some people (the photographer’s partner and daughter) stand behind the light rig and throw leaves into the wind. This rather cool concept did not quite work, mainly because the timing of the leaves flying and the shutter activating were off by just too much. Maybe if we had persevered for a few more tries, practised the co-ordination between the models, the camera operator and the leaf throwers we may have achieved this. However, we decided to progress onto other ideas. It was, however, great fun watching the volunteer leaf throwers hurling leaves at the two models. And leaf hurler seems to be the perfect job for a young child on a photoshoot.

The leaf throwers prepare to do their duty

The leaf throwers prepare to do their duty

Space is another thing we had more of than in the studio. In the studio, with the lights in place, space was very limited and therefore shots with more than one model were difficult. Especially if you are trying to tell a story that involves two groups of characters in conflict. You don’t want to have any photographs showing backs of heads so the arrangement of your models has to avoid that.  In the open air there is a lot more space in which to spread out and get good vignettes where every character’s face is visible, even if they are apparently facing each other.

set up2Another difference between the studio and location, at least in this instance, was the time. The studio set up required a lot of time to get ready for use and a lot of faffing with settings on all the lights to get it all working the way the photographer visualised it. Here the light set up was limited – two lights – and there was an added bonus of the photographer having acquired a device which let him adjust the settings of both lights from the control system of his camera. This meant less wandering around to each light in turn to adjust them, taking a photo, doing all the adjustments again and so on. Therefore the turn around on shots was a lot quicker – we sometimes got what the photographer considered a perfect shot in a couple of minutes rather than the twenty or thirty minutes as was the case before. Initial set up was also a lot quicker. I had planned in my schedule a lot of time for this and was therefore surprised to find them all ready to go and waiting around bored when I came back from guiding some of the models to the location.

My role on the day was ostensibly ‘shoot director’ as usual as well as generally trying to get everything organised – location scouting, making sure everyone knew what was happening, sorting out the basic logistics. However, myself and Lucy (who you may remember mentioned in the previous photoshoot blogs) also had another very important role. You see, another issue with a location shoot is uneven ground and so while you might be able to leave a light stand on a smooth studio floor and expect it toa lightstands view stay standing, this is not the case on location. Especially when there is a strong wind blowing and your lights have reflector umbrellas on them. So, two able volunteers who were not taking photographs, being models or throwing leaves around had to stand next to the light stands and hold them in place. Most of the time that was me and Lucy. I like to think we performed ably as inanimate pieces of photography equipment. Certainly no lightstands fell over in the wind, though the strength of some of the gusts we experienced almost caused them to take a tumble a couple of times. This did however mean I could use my own camera, albeit one handed as one hand was always holding the lightstand, and take photos of my own from quite close to the action – literally a lightstand’s view of the models. In the photo above, you can see one such shot which includes the reflector in the top left hand corner.

Playing around with colour settings. The blurry shadow effect is a camera artefact that I decided worked for the scene being shot.

Playing around with colour settings. The blurry shadow effect is a camera artefact that I decided worked for the scene being shot.

We took two basic scenes on the day. First of all we went to the top of the mound and took some shots of Jess and Alex as the Empress and one of her sorcerer courtiers. Then, as the quite spectacular light we were getting through the trees on top of the mound faded, we moved to the base of the mound to make use of the interesting scenery there – old logs and gnarled trees and lots of undergrowth – to take some shots of our two undead fiends chasing a single wizard, played by Andy Mason. There were also individual shots of each of the characters alone. By the time we finished all that, it was getting on to sunset and so we headed home to let everyone warm up and find food. We even got a chance to preview some of the shots as they were uploaded to a tablet. Hopefully soon there will be properly edited shots with photo-shopped special effects to marvel at. Until then, please accept my efforts as a poor substitute.

An action shot my camera was too slow to catch properly so there is a lot of blurring

An action shot my camera was too slow to catch properly so there is a lot of blurring

Photoshoot II: Attack of the texting Zombies (with Romans)

02 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Photos

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

climate, elves, gaming, Onryo, Photography, Realm, Realm Fantasy Wargame, Romans, Secret Project, unpredictable weather, Vaetari, Zombies


For a lazy and disorganised person like myself, being a shoot director is HARD. You have so many things to think about – models, costumes, make up, timings of the shoot, positions, locations… There is a lot to organise.

Onryo Necromancer played by Wednesday

Thankfully, as a lazy and disorganised person I have over the years spent much time developing an invaluable skill – delegation. Using this extremely useful ability I was able to fob off all the difficult bits to other people, not least onto the head of Jessica Newey who so ably performed duties as model for the Empress at the previous shoot and was now serving as Make Up Director, Warderobe Mistress and general maintainer of sanity …

However, one issue I could not solve was the weather.

I seem to talk about the weather a lot on this blog, most recently in my Fire and Ice entry where I talk about the extreme storm we had. The reason is because the UK and Manchester in particular is known for its chaotic and unpredictable weather patterns. In the case of this photoshoot, the weather was doubly critical because we intended to go outside and shoot in a local woodland.

So, with everything planned and prepared to meticulous detail, our only wild card factor was whether the rain would stop play.With models coming vast distances (well, vast in UK terms, ‘just down the road’ in American terms and ‘from next door’ in Australian) we needed to make a call to cancel as soon as possible to avoid unecessary trips. However, the weather reports were sketchy and unreliable and we oscillated between joy at a reasonably clear report and despair at one which showed storms. With photography equipment costing something up to the budget of a small South American state at risk we realised we would have to cancel.

The Minidress hits Elf botiques this autumn… Alex poses with half her costume

But then PLAN B was mooted! There was a suggestion from the photographer that as everyone was already free that weekend, no one seemed to be free for any other weekend in the near future and the studio we used last time was free we could shift plans and do it in the studio where rain was not an issue. It only took a minor bit of plan jiggling and suddenly we were on again!

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny. Yes, the predicted rain and storms were not to be seen, the skies were clear. Cursing whichever deities or Meteorologists were to blame for the inconsistancies in weather reporting, we headed into deepest, darkest Yorkshire. All the way there I kept wondering if we should have reverted to plan A because the weather was fine but at that point we had already gone too far.

Luckily, we were justified in sticking to plan B because midway through the day there was a massive rainstrom that took everyone by surprise…

Look… no rain. Or trees… Rich in the studio

Now, the studio, with its convenient roof, solved the pressing issue of the equipment getting wet… However, the plan was to shoot in a woodland and the shots were arranged to suit this. Generally speaking, you rarely find trees or other woodland foliage inside a studio. I had assumed that the photographer was planning to repeat what we did before – single shots of characters against a black backdrop. However, I was wrong. His plans were far more ambitious.

His idea was to do some compositing. Essentially, take photos of all the models in costume against a white background and then superimpose them onto the backdrop of our choice. It requires a lot more editing work than simply doing it in a real woodland but it was our only choice at present and, besides, I think he relished the technical challenge. More to the point, while the layout of the shots I had planned called for two or three figures in each one, his plan was to shoot each figure individually against the white background and work from that to get the required vingettes.

Personally, I have doubts as to whether this will work or not. However, I am willing to wait and see what the final results look like. Past results where I have doubted have been awesome.

There were two vingettes I wanted to see. One, possibly the simplest technically, was an image of the three Vaetari Audenti – the historic leaders of the elven race in Realm. This required two female models and one male dressed in the Roman style costume. This required little make up other than a pair of latex elf ears each. The second was to represent the Onryo – the cursed undead race with a distinct Japanese theme. This involved a significant amount of make up.

Injuries

While Jess fussed around with costume and make up, creating some wonderfully realistic wounds, the photographer worked on the lighting. This took even longer than it did for the previous shoot as he needed to get a completely white background without shadows. This was not as easy as you might think and probably needed at least one more light to properly drench the area but after a lot of faffing he finally achieved it.

There was then the same process there had been last time of posing and taking shots, critically appraising them and suggesting changes. However, because we had a lot more figures to shoot, this process had to be more condensed to allow time for all the subjects to be covered. There was also the added complication of pondering how the figures would eventually be placed in the final vingette.

While the models were waiting for their turn in front of the camera, there were a number of activities to keep them amused. Some read, some slept, some played with mobile phones and some posed for joke shots as 1960’s style elves…

21st Century Zombies all have smart phones

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted but left the studio with a sense that we had created something great in our time there. Now it is just a question of waiting for the shots to be edited…. Once that has happened, I will post more on the subject.

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