Portraits: Deluka – Test Shoot

Band Promo Portrait: Deluka, Test Shoot

Sometimes before a full-fledged shoot, I’ll do a test shoot with a band as an introduction and to develop a rapport with the client. Such was the case when I met up with the British band Deluka on their new turf in Brooklyn earlier this month.

For this “test” shoot, the goal was to work with the band to quickly develop a few different looks and generally just spend some time with the band. This was all in prep for returning two weeks later for the full, styled shoot. We had a blast, and any photo shoot that ends in mojitos is alright by me.

Photographer’s Notes:

One aesthetic the label was interested for this shoot was isolation of the singer, Ellie, which I achieved through shooting with a wide aperture for a very shallow depth of field. In this shot, the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 shot at f/2 worked beautifully.

Portrait Lighting:

For lighting, since we were keeping a very mobile setup (and shot in almost half a dozen locations, including the middle of the street), I rocked Nikon speedlights for this set. The keylight was the Nikon SB-900, which I used in your favorite DIY beauty Dish, triggered via Pocketwizards.

We shot around sunset, and the ability to massively dial down the power of the speedlights was perfect for shooting in the waning light.

Gear Used:

End Notes:

Big thanks to the lovely folks of Deluka for being great subjects – I had a blast. Thanks to Matt Eisman and Rachel Kanner for assisting.

Stay tuned for the full set of official promos with Deluka, coming up soon, where we traded Profoto for the speedlights.

You can see behind-the-scenes shots from Matt and my brother Chris here:

Behind The Scenes With Deluka (Chris)
Behind-the-scenes with Todd Owyoung (Matt)

About the author: Todd Owyoung is an internationally published music photographer specializing in concert photography and band portraits. He also grills a mean steak.

Contact Todd for image licensing and assignments wherever the rock show lives. You can also get in touch with Todd via Twitter.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 8:20 am and is filed under Music Photography and tagged with band promo, beauty dish, CLS, deluka, flash, nikon, portrait, promo, strobe, studio. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.