What Chuck Does

Nail the shot. Rob a bank.

When you nail the shot, it feels like you got away with robbing  a bank.

I went to a small pub yesterday with my brother and his friends. They were shooting a music video for the release of his newest song. I went to go check it out.

At the end of their shoot, I wanted to take a few pictures of MIchelle who was already in makeup and wardrobe for the shoot. This was about 5:50PM and they had only rented the place until 6PM. I set up a few lights and with the exception of some technical difficulties pretty much nailed the shot from frame 1. I was done in less than 20 minutes and got 3 different lighting setups and mini “sets” in that amount of time.

What were the winning factors?

• Hair, makeup, wardobe
• Scene (the pub)
• Experienced model
• Proper lighting (contrast!)
• Proper post-processing

Speaking of post-processing. Very little had to be done. That’s the mark of a winning shot. You don’t need to because it’s pretty much all there. See for yourself:

Strobist info: Strobe shooting into 42” Westcott silver umbrella camera right with warming gel. Bare strobe camera front left for rim lighting.

Strobist info: Single strobe shooting into 42” Westcott silver umbrella camera upper back with warming gel.

The significance of the shoot is much more than just the results to me. Primarily this shoot shows that I’m batting a higher average now and my understanding of lighting is improving. I wouldn’t dare say that I’m a pro now and can replicate these results every time. But I will say that I’m getting better at this stuff.