Milk Workshops Australia 2011 – Summary

So we did a splash in Oz !

What a great finish to 2011, indeed!
After a couple of weeks of preparation, and Jeff’s great effort at the other end we managed to organise two amazing events in Melbourne and Sydney.

We left cloudy London and was welcomed by sunny Melbourne and around 20 degrees more generous weather than in Europe at the time.
My sneaky plan to cheat the jet lag was almost 100% successful, almost screwed by Singapore a plane incident but even with that delay I adjusted so quickly that I didn’t feel that time difference almost at all!

 

Australia!
Man if that would be a Travel Photo Blog I would have plenty of great stories to tell, but it is not, so I will just quickly mention the amazing people and unique nature really making that part of the world special.

Getting back to the main topic – regular readers know the drill, though!
I always run two full demo shoots and then participants are taking over!

We explored the same technic used for Alena’s Milky illustration and we dressed Susana in the Milky Corset… and then…
[Click to Enlarge]

 

… using approach from our Silver Angel Illustration, we undressed Kaye from the Milky Gown!

 

So how was it:

Day 1 – Lots of Milk throwing, crazy concepts , hyped participants, two awesome models and great crew!
8h hours of pure creativity and hard work, there was as always a lot of one-2-one time and as usual we were finishing before the scheduled time.
You might expect that when you are done, you will get quite a lot of questions, chit chats etc..
But I tell you this – after all that, everyone was excited but tired as a racing horse…

So very outnumbered we went for a cool dinner and then we took off to prepare DVD’s with the materials for the equally intense Day 2!

Day 2 – Those who had 8hours sleep were the lucky ones as that was a mind bending day!

I always stress about the different conceptual part of the workshop from the know-how bit!
You are always forced to work hard while working with the liquid – using or not our workflow and formulas… but what I always hope is that I managed to send the info across the room that the special magic is happening before you entered the studio!

I showed how I work, I was transparent as possible on how I develop my concepts and working with my team!
But foremost I trust I was inspiring!

 

Last but not least I would love to thank those few who made all that possible:

To Jeff Paine from Shutterclass Studio – who put in all that a lot hours of great work and organised the whole Australia venture!
If you are around Victoria and you are after a great studio Jeff is your man! Cheers for all that.

To Colin Smith and the team at Paul C Buff Australia – for providing great gear for both events with my favourites Einsteins E640 and for great discount vouchers to all participants for all PCB equipment! Much appreciated!

To our great models and makeup artist – it wouldn’t be possible without your extra effort.
To all participants for your amazing attitude an willingness to make cool stuff!

And last but not least to Ola who made my whole trip run so smooth – organising all the flights and connections so I was never late and fully equipped!
I would go astray without you! For sure!

 

We have also some BTS material to show you – Melbourne + Sydney:

 

 

 

 

[Photos by Jeff Paine - Click to Enlarge]

 

MILK WORKSHOPS 2012

…if you are still reading you might be interested in what is coming soon!

2011 was a real roller coaster for us and I am sure that 2012 will bring more exciting stuff!
As soon I finish that post We are coming back to the final stage of Awakening Photo Quest, as we are not far from the shooting day!

So for starters I am very pleased to announce our Milk Workshops plans for 2012!
If you happen to be in one of the cities listed below and you were thinking about attending our workshops please email us at workshops@aurumlight.com and put the name of the city in the title line.
As soon as we secure the date you will receive a newsletter with all the booking info:

Beijing, China
London, UK
Frankfurt, Germany,
Rome, Italy
Los Angeles, USA

…and it looks like we will finish the year again in the sunny Oz visiting:
Melbourne
Sydney
and Brisbane!

Hope to see you there!
Jaroslav

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You might also like:

Playing with water: THE SILVER ANGEL !
The Milky Nun !
MILK WORKSHOP – June Edition SUMMARY
MILK WORKSHOP in London

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THE TRIAL – How was it done?

After publishing photographs from The Trial, my recent conceptual shoot, I’ve received a ton of emails asking ”How was it done?” and “How on earth we managed to convince over 50 girls to take part in the project!”

I will be more than happy to answer, but first I would like to thank you all for your messages and kind words, I really appreciate them all!

OK, So let’s get straight to the point!

Working around your limitation is what photography is all about really.

“Do you need a big budget to do big things..?”
- I don’t think so!

What matters is thinking outside the box and always willing to go the extra mile!

The Courtroom scene was the most challenging illustration.
We had no budget to hire over 50 models or the full house of lighting gear…

So instead I decided to Shoot in Sections.

I have prepared a little animation to give you a full understanding of what this involved:

 

 
The camera – Phase One!

For this kind of work, you want to have something which will justify the scale of your project.
And I knew I wanted the best possible output!

I decided to try the Phase One camera system, and to say that I am thrilled with the quality of the final images is not enough.
I worked with P65+ Digital Back  and I think that the resolution, quality and level of noise is just superb.
When your focus is in place you will get an extraordinary level of details and – to paraphrase my friend Drew – “the Angels sing!”

And that illustration when printed at almost 2m wide paper is just breathtaking!

[To Enlarge please click on the photo]

 
Now with the introduction of the new model – Phase One IQ180 Digital Back with over 80MP, and extraordinary quality and detail – they just rewrite the standards!

I hope to put my hands on the beast soon enough to shoot with it my new project – Awakening!

 
The Setup: Gitzo + Manfrotto

If you can manage to keep your camera locked dead tight on the tripod and keep the lighting consistent – it allows you to multiply not only models but also the lighting setups!

When working with such a camera – and the medium format is not a small body – and large groups of talents + team on the day , there are so many things around you that the least important thing to worry about is to secure the consistent output – you want to be sure that the rig keeps the frames identical.
For that you need to go for the sturdiest tripod which you can get.

We worked with Gitzo GT5660SCT Giant Tripod with a fantastic Manfrotto 405 Geared Head which allows for an absolute fine detail camera position adjustments.

To make sure you will not move anything while shooting – we tethered and operated the camera from a laptop via Phase One, Capture One software.

 
After all that… it is just as simple as layering final frames in Photoshop!

And other than that, there was almost no postproduction on the images.
You gotta love it, when it is all done in Camera!

Oh, and if you missed my previous post here is the complete Behind The Scenes Video from The Trial and the final photographs you can find here [click]:

 

Cheers
Jaroslav
www.AurumLight.com

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THE TRIAL by AurumLight Studio

 

AWAKENING – PART I – Finding Your Anchor Point

 

When working on a new concept, especially at the early stage I always look for something what will drive my idea, something that will provide ‘the Grip’, or what I call The Anchor Point.

It is not necessarily the most important part of the story, but it is a prominent enough element of the puzzle to give you a reference to work around it!

In some cases it might be your model, sometimes it is the location, but this time it is a prop – a part of our future set…

But let’s start where we left the Quest last time.

What we have managed to collect was a pile of pallets and a trampoline. Plus I’ve thrown in a few hard boards.

I know that it is not clear for you to see where we are going with this, and it’s because you haven’t seen the storyboard yet!

We will get to that too, but you don’t want to know the ending just yet… do you?

To build something, we had to dismantle all the elements…

… and this is how we made it happen.

This is what I had in mind:

… and that is what we came up with:

Obviously the pod is not finished yet. We will add more detail, but what we got is our ‘Anchor Point’!

Now when we have our central object – we know what size / kind of the space (indoor location) we need to find / prepare for the shoot.

From proportions and those references we can easily work out rest of the elements, look for props and move to another stage!

But more about that in the near future!

Please stay tuned, there is a lot more to come!

Cheers

Jaroslav

www.AurumLight.com

AWAKENING – PART I – Finding Your Anchor Point

AWAKENING – PROLOGUE – Seeing beyond the obvious…

AWAKENING – THE PHOTO-QUEST with AurumLight Team

Halloween: Trick or Treat !

so… Trick it is!

The Ghost:

It’s been a while since I last shared some of the Photoshop tricks and this is a great occasion to do that!

Here is the image I shot last year, the concept was a Deadly Dinner, and we have made a series of illustrations, the one below is one of them.
You can find the full story Here.

Let me take you through the Ghost Effect I used above.

First note is that like in case of our Liquid Illustrations all the elements were photographed on the same day with the same lighting, and camera locked on tripod.

This is essential to keep the right perspective and values when working on composite.

First step was to pick the right frame with Olya (on the left), Deona (on the right) and desaturate it.
The second step is a simple treatment of that layer with the GLOWING EDGES photoshop Filter.
Depends on your base frame sometimes it is good to bring back some of the details to our ghost figure!
I did that by adding the mask with a smoke pattern on it:

The final step is to add more smoke layers to create convincing fading effect.
I used simple black and white smoke photographs and placed them above our composite in SCREEN blending mode. To match your smoke layer and the ghost figure you will have to play a bit with the LIQUIFY filter or WARP transformation tool, and voila!

The Blood:

One of the downsides of this test shoot was that even though we had a fake blood we couldn’t use it on the day. So all the blood had to be done in postproduction.
So… how?

Here is the final frame of the Vampire:

and here is the Before and After:

We photographed the blood afterwards and just layered those frames over the original illustration using the MULTIPLY blending mode.
This example should help to understand the general idea:

;-)

The MULTIPLY blending mode helps you to match the different skin tones – you can always lift or tone down the brightness using the LEVELS in photoshop, then it is a simple matter of masking out the unwanted portion of the blood layer.

And here you can see a few more illustrations where I used the same technique:

Cheers
Jaroslav
www.AurumLight.com

AurumLight featured on Strobist.com

I am very pleased to let you know that, recently we have been featured on Strobist.com where I shared the story behind The Silver Angel illustration which become an Advert for PaulBuff Einstein E640!

If you haven’t seen the post already, you can find it here.

I would like to say hello and thanks to all who came along via David’s Blog and visited us here!
I hope you have found something for yourself and I assure you that there is more exciting stuff to come!

Last but not least, I was fortunate to meet David a few times and like everyone who had a chance to spend some time with him I was always inspired and encouraged to work even harder!
If you ever have a chance to go to one of his seminars just do it, you will love his approach and attitude!

… oh, and “click” ;-]

Cheers
Jaroslav
www.AurumLight.com

AWAKENING – PROLOGUE – Seeing beyond the obvious…

I always have in my sketchbook a minimum of three complete storyboards to choose from for my personal work or to show to a potential clients.
This time I decided that we once again will try to take things to another level and instead on just working on location within the location potential – we are going to build the whole set!

The theme is a Sci-Fi and it is going to be my tribute to all those creative individuals like Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron, Jodorowsky & Gimenes, Mamoru Oshii or Enki Bilal who were for years feeding my brain with all those amazing Sci Fi stories…

So you think… “yeah, big budget…” but my point is that the great things happen from great ideas, not necessarily from big money… and you may be surprised that “TheTrial” was made with a very small budget…
I tell you this – clients love it when you can build stuff out of literally “nothing” with almost “no budget”!

So…
In that moment when I am pressing the button and starting the creative process I see things differently and looking beyond the obvious… like in Wachowskis Brothers – Matrix…

And believe it or not – today we will start our Sci-Fi concept with a bunch of pallets and a garden trampoline that someone threw away and I found on my way home…
For most people they are rubbish for me it will become a main part of the whole photo-jigsaw! And I hope you will see that soon too ;-]

Please stay Tuned – More to come NEXT WEEK!
And feel free to hit us in the comment section to let us know WHAT YOU can actually see in the above photographs…

Remember > Free your mind… and the rest will follow !

Matrix: Seeing beyond the obvious…

Cheers
Jaroslav
www.AurumLight.com

AWAKENING – THE PHOTO-QUEST with AurumLight Team

Hi there,

I would like to thank everyone for such the great feedback on “TheTrial” concept shoot!
I wanted to let you know that if you think that we need some time to recover… I am more than happy to disappoint you Guys!

We are gearing up for my new SCI-FI concept - AWAKENING - and this time we have something Special for You!

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We would like to take you on a Photographic QUEST and give you a sneak preview from start to finish!
You will have a chance to jump on board and be a part of making one of our biggest shoot to-date happen.

You will not only follow the whole process, but you are more than welcome to give us instant feedback and have an influence on the final effect!

Please subscribe to the Blog, and lets start THE PHOTO-QUEST together!

P.S. There is a ‘subscribe to blog’ option below the comments under each post.
Just tick the box: “Notify me of new posts via email”

Cheers
Jaroslav

AurumLight Milk Workshop in Australia 2011

In collaboration with Jeff Paine from www.ShutterClass.com
we are bringing the Milk Workshop for the first time to Australia!
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We have put a lot of time and effort to make all things work and I would like to especially thank Jeff for the invitation and for his time to deal with all the details on the other end!
After receiving my Australian Business Visa we can finally announce the dates!

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1st Edition – Melbourne – 16-17th – As I am writing this the first edition is already Sold Out.
2nd Edition – Sydney – 26-27th – Sold Out
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Milk Workshops Agenda:

DAY 1:
Open with an overview, covering “know how”, tools, lighting, approach and a deconstruction of previous images; Demonstration shoot, showing how to get the results, work with the models and assistants; Working in pairs, shoot two sets of your own milk source shots (one shoots, one throws, and swap!), with assistance from the AurumLight Team

Day 2:
Work through the post-production of the previous days shoots. Although intense in places, the pace is set based on the group, so no-one is left behind!
Attendees also get access to the recipes, tips and techniques for bringing the whole shoot together – including access to materials and PSD supporting content!
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FAQ :
Who should attend? Anyone interested in having a hugely fun time, creating amazing images. [max 8 Spots]

What should I bring? You’ll need your camera. You’ll also need your laptop with Photoshop on it, since Day 2 is all about editing the images. If you are OK with creating/using masks, you’ll be fine for this workshop. Lunch is not provided, but there are plenty of good food options nearby, and at least 4 coffee shops to choose from!

When is it? It’s on 16/17 November Melbourne, which are weekdays! A second workshop is due to be announced on a weekend, once the details are finalised.

Where is it? The workshop is being held at ShutterClass Studios in Melbourne, details here

Price? $490 covers both days working with the AurumLight Team, materials and instruction. Lunch is not provided, and attendees must bring their own laptops with Photoshop installed. Registration and payment details can be found here
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We’d like to thank:

The team at Paul C Buff Australia for providing the lighting for the event. If you want to see more, check out their site or this article that talks about lighting on our Silver Angel!

More Information/Enquiries
Need more info? Got a question? Please drop us a line on the email below and we’ll get right back to you:
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milk@shutterclass.com
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I hope to see you there!

P.S. Last but not Least!
I would like to say thank you to all who sent us an email from US and are interested in possible workshops there.
We will do what we can to bring the Milk Workshop to you next year! So see you in 2012… Hopefully ;-]

Cheers
Jaroslav
www.AurumLight.com

THE TRIAL by AurumLight Studio

AurumLight Team goes Epic … and Naughty !

We strongly believe that if you are driven by your passion, willing to work hard and always go the Extra Mile you can make your dreams comes true!
This shoot is one of those dream assignments and we really enjoyed working to make it all happen.

“THE TRIAL” is one of our recent conceptual photoshoots which we accomplished here in London and will become a limited calendar which will contain 12 final frames.
We are posting just part of the work here and the complete calendar will be available only in a very limited print.

It’s great to work on a big budget shoot, but the real challenge is to use all your assets and work every frame to a minimum cost!
Because of that I have decided to share a Behind-The-Scenes Video, showing you every detail of our work, from the initial sketch to the final photographs from the day.

“THE TRIAL” – Behind The Scenes video:

This video was made to show you that if you are willing to do all of that – anything is possible – and the only one limitation is in your head… your own imagination!

That shoot differences from our other projects because it is actually the first one which was from day one planned as Black & White and we finally had the pleasure to work on a Phase One camera with P65+ Digital Back, and I absolutely love it!
It is a game changer for me, but I will write more about that on a different occasion.

Last but not least!
The outcome is a result of a very hard work from everyone in the AurumLight Team, and I am really fortunate to work with such passionate and hyped individuals!

I hope you will enjoy the pictures!
[To Enlarge please click on the photo]
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“THE TRIAL” by AurumLight Studio

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Thanks for checking this out and I hope you enjoyed watching how we made our dreams a reality!

Cheers Guys!
Jaroslav
www.AurumLight.com

The Silver Angel Redux – PaulCBuff Einstein E640 Ad

The Silver Angel has landed on my desk today!!

I really believe that if you are passionate about something, doing and giving everything while working hard on your ideas… that’s when good things will happen!

Our Silver Angel illustration was spotted by an absolutely amazing guy… An inventor, constructor, not least an inspiration – Paul Buff.

I am so honoured that he has decided that this artwork is going to be a new advert for the latest Pauls creation, “a light of genius” EINSTEIN E640.

Our images and the story from that post are also featured inside the front cover of Shutterbug magazine!

How cool is that?!

For Paul Buff Einstein™ E640 Advertisements [click here]

The Silver Angel [Click Image to Enlarge]

Cheers
Jaroslav