White: The new experiment!

A few weeks back, I picked up two new tools for my photographic arsenal of DOOM! One was a white muslin which I needed for a photo shoot. The second was a Nikon D300. Like chocolate and peanut butter, I've discovered that these are just two great tastes that taste great together.

There was a bit of a learning curve with both the camera and the muslin, but I'm slowly getting in the groove of things. I absolutely love the feel of the D300. It's entirely different from the D40 I started out with. It feels better in my hands, fits better, and I'm finally able to properly play with my 50mm f1.8 (which wouldn't autofocus on the D40).

I wasn't sure about the muslin when I got it. I tend to steer towards the dark side when it comes to my photography. I like it low key, lots of shadow, lots of room to hide in. But man, after seeing how well some of these photos came out, I'm thinking I found a new toy to play with more often. The downside to the white muslin is that I still haven't figured out how to deal with ripples in the fabric on the floor. If I can't figure out how to get those blown out (without having to photoshop), I'll have to pick up a few pieces of tile board to hide them.

But, if I keep the photo limited to a 3/4 shot and ignore the floor? Man, it's just sexy how the light works so well. All of these photos were done with a pair of AB-800's pointed into the muslin at 1/2 power. There was also an AB-800 shooting through a gridded softbox off to camera right at about 45 degrees off of center. Just enough to light the model and let there be some depth in the photo with the shadow and falloff.

The models for this shoot were fabulous. Definitely going to be shooting with them again I think.

Oh, and stay tuned! I'll have some teaser photos later this week from the Austin Music Awards on Wednesday. I'm definitely excited about that!

And now, for more photos!