Category Archives: Graphics

“DEADLY DINNER” by Aurum Light Studio

November 15, 2010 – 13:26

I hope everyone had “interesting” Halloween this year!

We had scheduled a test shoot with a great bunch of models, MUAs and photogs organised by great Folks from London Strobist Meetup Flickr Group,
So… we decided to take advantage of the mood at that time…

Instead of typical portraits we asked the models to act a little bit for us.
We are always looking for great individuals for upcoming projects and I thought this could be a great exercise to check we can work together and are on the same wavelength…

OK, the idea was simple, but there were a few obstacles…

First – the shoot wasn’t at our studio – no problem – we took the gear and the props with us…
Second – because we couldn’t check the location I couldn’t predict what type/size of space were going to find there.
Third – we had to shoot with people we never worked before i.e models/MUAs so we couldn’t actually select the wardrobe and styling – but we wanted to make a consistent set of images… I know it is piling up…

Fourth, and the most difficult was that we couldn’t get all the models at the same time for the shoot because there were a few other togs doing their shoots in different rooms and settings…

Solution – we came up with the idea of a few concepts and if we needed more than one “actor” on the set – we were shooting Composites.

Because of that, we setup the camera on the tripod, fixed the lights, the props and we started from there…

It’s funny when you need to explain to someone how to act and there is a vampire next to you…

Here are the results of this hectic shoot, we hope you like it!


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P.S. No Models Were Harmed During This Shoot !

Please watch this space there is more to come!
Jaroslav

By Aurum Light | Also posted in Conceptual, Editorial, Location, Models, Test Shoot | Comments (6)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST…

September 7, 2010 – 17:16

I had an idea for that shoot for a while now bouncing in my had.
Actually I think it was way too long lying in my drawer with the rest of my sketches…

A few months ago I had a chance to meet Marta Gut amazing model, great person and a true professional in all aspects.
I explained to her what I had on my mind – that is the moment when even your rough sketches are handy to have by – and she politely agreed to pose for me.

I literally had few minutes to shoot her on black BG – and believe or not I took only 4 frames!

This project was one of very few when I had to shoot the talent before I really had time to work out what is going to happen on the final image.
Usually when I am working with composites like this – I am photographing the model with ready-made backgrounds. This time because of the sequence I needed to work backwords. So…

…here almost straight from  the camera shot of Marta on black…

The next thing was to quickly paint the concept in colour – and that was the moment were Bartek Repetowski a great concept designer and graphic artist – came up with the concept of the monstrous colossus.
With that speedpainted concept I started to work on the textures and the actual figure of the monster and how it could be mixed with the Marta’s image.

Everything that is on the final image was painted by me in Photoshop – it took a great deal of time. Here you can see the mask of it:

When the figure was ready I moved to the fur where I referred to gorillas – one quick trip with your camera to the zoo and you are full of reference points how to paint the texture.

Here is the final figure of the Beast:

Great Photographer and one of my mentors Drew Gardner told me to always use
your resourser, and engage as many people as you need to make things happen – never be afraid to ask and listen to the critics!

At this point I contacted Daniel Zagorski – fantastic polish artist with extraordinary experience and a critics point of view on the concept.
What he told me was – try to keep things simple – the old and simple schemes are clear and known by everyone –  therefore sometimes more
striking than a overcooked complicated “meal”

From there was just one more step to finish things in PS and here you have the final image:

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST…

Original size  8000pix on the long edge…

Hope you enjoyed!

Stay tuned … more to come!
Jaroslav

By Aurum Light | Also posted in Conceptual, Editorial, Models | Comments (2)

LIGHT BOUNCER (ALMOST) WIFE ;-)

January 16, 2010 – 16:31

Hey Guys!

We are engaged!! :-)

Yes, it’s true and we are both very excited! I was so excited that I decided to use it to my advantage and shoot another Poster for fun! Any excuse I know!

Today we deconstruct the lighting for this Poster:

It worked out pretty well with just three lights – two stripboxes for the rim on the sides and back and one small sofbox from the front

The photo was taken on seamless, for the BG we used a bunch of Christmas lights which were added in the postproduction .
Here is the original

… I have a few more posters already in the pipeline – this is fun !

Cheers
Jaroslav

By Aurum Light | Also posted in Conceptual, Editorial, Movie Posters Variations, Portrait | Comments (2)

“SAVE THE CHEERLEADER… SAVE THE WORLD!”

July 22, 2009 – 18:09

For the next instalment of the Movie posters Variations  series I thought I will go for superhero theme :-]
At the moment I am watching “Heroes” TV series  so I will give it a go :-]

She’s a Bad-Ass

For energy balls I shoot few [quite a lot actually] soap bubbles bursts.
Shots below were taken with 1/400s, 1/800, 1/1000 of a second – using all this Hi-Speed WooDoo ;-D.

Then I moved to the subject ; -) my favourite part!

Plus dramatic sky – which is not a  problem here in London ; -D


Then some mixing in Potatoshop ; -) and voilà:

Hope you guys like it.

To Be continued…
J

By Aurum Light | Also posted in Conceptual, Editorial, Liquids, Movie Posters Variations, Portrait | Comments (0)

“DON’T FORGET TO TAKE YOUR MEDICINE…”

June 6, 2009 – 17:53

Being a big fan of cinema since I was a child, I was always collecting movie posters of my favourite films.

So these days when I can really appreciate the work that both photographers and graphic editors put in to create fantastic artwork to advertise motion pictures, I am starting this series as a tribute to all those artist who for years have stimulated my imagination.
This is also going  to be my quasi mental therapy to keep me sane after hours of everyday stuff I am doing to pay the bills.

Today we will kick off and start with simple work but which is very  important for me.

“Don’t forget to take your medicine…”

Inspired by amazing comic book artist Frank Miller – from his work my favourite has to be Sin City! Years before the movie I was reading this series like crazy :-] and Aaron Nace who who is a very talented photographer and came out with the idea which was used for the reference picture.

I was so relieved when it was made into a  movie which was nearly as good as the book!

Cheers
J


By Aurum Light | Also posted in Conceptual, Editorial, Movie Posters Variations, Portrait | Comments (0)