On many occasions I have photographed alongside commercial shoots for ad campaigns, especially when a celebrity or athlete is involved. The most recent campaign I photographed for Phiten, of Carmelo Anthony, is no exception. One thing I have learned on projects like this is that time is sparse, concepts can be fluid, and lighting must be perfect.
For this project, having great assistants and an accurate stand-in proved invaluable. Using a simple 9 light setup, we lit broad, but subtly directional, keeping the contrast ratio midway, about 1.5 stops between key and counter key. Knowing that the stand-in’s skin tone was nearly identical to Carmelo’s, we were able to color balance accurately and dial in the speculars with gels. From there it was all about getting Melo to the expression needed in as short a time as possible. In total we photographed five outfits at about five minutes each.
Most of what you see is out of camera. While on set my agent asked to see how things were going, so I snapped a pic of the LCD on my D3x (with my camera phone) and sent it his way. I have attached the pic so you can see how they looked on set.
Wow, those look stellar. It really goes to show how important planning and preparation are. Thanks for sharing Blair!
Woow, I now have a new inspiration. Thanks man, I’m a new fan of your work.