Belt Craft Studio Shoot with Alexandra

This was a shoot I did a little while ago, but only got round to write about it.  The inspiration for it same from a set of images I saw of Keira Knightley in Marie Claire magazine.  I kept a set of those images in my file for future shoots.  All I need was a location that resembles that of those photos.  When I saw photos of Belt Craft Studio, I just knew that was place.

I contacted Alexandra, a model I shot with before, because she would be perfect for this.  Fortunately, she was keen to do it as well.  Crystal Edwards completed the team to do makeup and hair.  On the day, it all come together and we got a great set of images.

This behind the scene time lapse video sums up the day shooting.


Photo Shoot at Belt Craft Studio - Behind the Scene from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

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Flower Theme Beauty Shoot with Donna and Jade

I did a fruit theme beauty shoot earlier this year which was inspired by images I saw of Rankin.  This was a follow on from the original theme, except this time I wanted to shoot with flowers and plants.  Before I selected the models and studio, I asked Robyn Skinner if she would like to do the hair and makeup.  She is a MUA I’ve worked with before and very happy with her work.  She was very enthusiastic came up with a number of options for the makeup and hair.  Once Robyn was on board this project, I asked Donna and Jade, a couple of models I’ve worked with before and they were also keen to do this.

I shot all the images as Dock Road Studio, in Brentford London.  With beauty shoot, lighting is so important, shooting in a studio I can precisely control the lights.  The key light was a large beauty dish, a snoot for the background and a softbox/gridded beauty dish was used for hair light from behind.  Nothing fancy but precisely controlled.  It would be difficult to do on location.

This is a short time lapse video showing the makeup and lighting set up for Donna.

Beauty Shoot with Donna Time Lapse from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

With beauty shoots, when you have models that can give you the looks you want, most of the work is actually done by the makeup artist and hair stylist.  In this case, Robyn did a great job with both hair and make for Donna and Jade.

This is a short time lapse video showing the makeup and lighting for Jade.

Beauty Shoot with Jade Time Lapse from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Like all photo shoots, more time was spent in planning and post processing than the actual shooting the images.  It really helps when you work with professional people who can deliver during a shoot.  I really like the results I achieved with this beauty shoot and want to do more.  All I need is a little more time and a theme.

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Continuous Focus Performance of Olympus E-PM2

Personally, I always thought the continuous focus of the micro four thirds cameras to be poor and have not use it at all.  At the weekend I attended the Red Bull Soapbox Race in London.  For the first time I used the continuous focus on moving objects.  The soapboxes were travelling reasonably fast, and they were coming towards me.  I shot at Sequential Low at 3.5 FPS so the camera can focus between shots.  The focus mode I used was C-AF+TR (continuous auto focus with tracking) and to my surprise, it got more photos in focus than out of focus.  All images were shot with the Olympus 40-150mm IIR MSC lens.

Rather than talking about it, here are a few sequences.  The first sequence shows a VW camper van which is in focus through out.

This sequence was slightly less successful, but most of the images were in focus.  A couple of frames were under exposed.

Slightly out of focus

Much better but ever slightly out of focus

All good from here

Totally out of focus here

Out of focus and under exposed

Then it is good from here

Finally, here is another sequence that is in focus and well exposed.  This soapbox was travelling very fast towards me.

I was delighted to capture these sequences of images from this event.  The focus system exceeded my expectation and will be using my camera in more sports events in future.

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Red Bull Soap Box Race

The moment before impact!

I spent a very enjoyable day at the Red Bull Soap Box Race.  I used my Olympus E-PM2 with the 40-150mm IIR lens shooting the soap boxes coming down the 400m long course.   Mirrorless cameras are not known for their continuous tracking ability but I decided to use this event to try out C-FA+TR focus mode.  Here is a sequence of a crash in focus.

I stationed myself at the finish ramp at the bottom for most of the day and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of images in focus.  The soap boxes were traveling at about 30mph (50kph) by the time they hit the ramp at the finish.  As long as I got the first image in focus, it was able to track focus most of the time.

There were a number of crashes and some people needed to visit the hospital for broken hand, missing tooth and broken nose.  The race organiser had to alter the course to slow the soap box down with a chicane and then reduce the angle of the ramp at the end.

It was a great day out and would definitely go to a future event.  Here are some of the great images captured during the day.

All images taken with Olympus E-PM2 and 40-150mm IIR lens. © Yat Tang


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