Natalia in Emperor Shaohao's Gold
This is not the first shoot I did in Bangkok, but I am going to describe it first anyway.
In the backwater where I spent most of my life, I never once ran into a model. Unless I had arranged to meet her beforehand. On the other side of the world, it happened within my first few days. What is more, she was from... Poland. It started with a grandfather asking me, 'Where are you from?'. 'Poland!? Oooh she's too'. And "she" was eating lunch at the table next to mine. Her name was Natalia, she was with Moss Models agency, and in Bangkok she was under the wing of Apple Model Mangament. A moment later, it was clear that a shoot was in the works.
Before the shoot happened, I accidentally came across a shop where some rather unusual outfits were made and sold. We used one of them for this shoot.
Nikon D700 | Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX DG HSM | F/6.3 | 1/200 | ISO 200
Studio
I built the "studio" in my apartment—the living room was filled with photography gear supplied by Fripers.pl. They sent me everything by courier: stands, 2.7 m backgrounds, modifiers, adapters, and lights.
I will write about all of it in more detail another time, but here is the short version: the whole setup is based on Jinbei gear. I wrote a long time ago that I wanted to test their DPsIII lights, but other things kept landing in my hands. In Poland, I had a chance to shoot with this light during the "Fire and Water" shoot, just a moment before leaving the country. It performed well, so there was no reason not to use it for the next several months. As usual, I chose 300 Ws units for the additional lights. I went with the Jinbei DM2. I could easily have taken more powerful ones because their adjustment goes all the way down to 1/64 of maximum power. Weight and size mattered to me too, however, and I almost never need more than 300 Ws from additional lights (my camera has a native ISO of 200).
Fashion
We did two setups—one for fashion and the other for beauty. First, the fashion setup.
Nikon D700 | Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX DG HSM | F/6.3 | 1/200 | ISO 200
The main light was the previously mentioned Jinbei DPsIII 800 Ws, shining through an Aurora Firefly 90 cm softbox with a grid. I will not write everything about it again; I will only remind you that this is the contraption I love, among other reasons, because it can be converted into a beauty dish. This time, however, it was not used as a dish but as a standard octagonal softbox. It was the first time I had used it this way. I positioned the softbox next to the model, parallel to the background. Natalia therefore cast a shadow along the floor rather than onto the background, which was lit only minimally.
Nikon D700 | Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX DG HSM | F/6.3 | 1/200 | ISO 200
As you can see, there is one more light—a rim light made with a 22 × 90 cm Jinbei stripbox (fitted with the Jinbei DMII 300 Ws already mentioned). Naturally, this stripbox also had a grid; otherwise the light would have illuminated my background and ruined the entire mood.
Nikon D700 | Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX DG HSM | F/6.3 | 1/200 | ISO 200
Beauty
The beauty setup was fairly standard. I replaced the Firefly softbox with a regular 70 cm beauty dish with a grid, though a different one from the dish I used to own. My current beauty dish is the Freepower 70 cm—it is lighter, the grid stays on more securely, and the interior is silver instead of white. I once insisted on white; now I have no idea which one I would choose again. I would have to take the same photo with both to see the difference. I will not do that because I sold my old one before moving (it was too large to bring with me anyway).
Nikon D700 | Nikkor 135mm 2D DC | F/6.3 | 1/200 | ISO 200
There was also a rim light from the same stripbox as before. I added one more light aimed at the background (which was grey—smokey grey, specifically). That light illuminated only the part of the background in front of the face; the rest was lit by whatever reached it from the beauty dish. The umbrella visible in the backstage photos was switched off for this shot.
Backstage
There was still some unnecessary furniture lying around during this shoot, and the arrangement of what remained wasted space for no good reason. It is much more spacious now, but there was enough room to take these photos.
Summary
My earlier assumption that I would focus on Asian girls made no sense. There are so many great models here from all over the world that there is no reason to limit myself—I need to do as many shoots as possible. So far, models from Poland, Japan, Kazakhstan, and the Netherlands have been in front of my lens. I will probably photograph Natalia again soon, and I will think about working with Thai models because I have already picked out several.
The studio equipment was supplied by Fripers.pl. In February, I am running retouching workshops all over Poland, and participants will receive a discount, including on purchases from Fripers.