VIDEO: Moshe Zusman and Profoto D1
Moshe Zusman started working with Profoto gear in 2011. He immediately fell in love with the D1 series. He recently let us put together a video about a shoot he did with the help of the nonprofit organization Madison House.
“The video really captures the shoot, and walks viewers through the day, from beginning to end,” says Zusman. “Having good-looking models and a killer photography team made it very easy. Doing this shoot with the D1 kits was very easy because of the simplicity of using the tools. It really was as easy as it looks. What you see is what you get. The lighting is reliable. Nothing was altered in post-production for the video.”
The same holds true for the still images the shoot produced. “I hope the video illustrates how easy and reliable the tools are. How easy we shot it—that’s how easy it is. We didn’t have to ‘Photoshop’ anything in post-processing.”
In discussion with Zusman regarding the bride in white dress with the three light configuration, he had the following to say.
In this photo I used three lights setup with two softboxes, one as my main light and the second is my back light for fill and separation. The third light was a 10 degree grid as hair light for extra separation and hair highlight.
Three light setups are my basic and favorite configuration. I love using grids in my shoots because it creates a lot more focused and accurate light. All my studio lights are always gridded.
I like to feather my light sources to create a little more energy and higher contrast look in my images, especially when I do high-fashion portraits of couples and other fashion looks.
The entire setup is controlled with the Air Remote which enables me full control over all my lights without putting my camera down even once or having to reach for the lights. That’s a huge benefit when you’re working with real people who not always have the patience and attention span of models.
As far as power settings, I always start with minimal power: lowest settings and adjust and power up as needed. I like high contrast in my photos so I have no problem raising the power on my main light by 2-4 stops higher than my fill light.
I generally avoid using reflectors because the more control I have over my light sources, the more accurate the output is.
When discussing the bride in the black dress with the two light setup, Zusman said this:
In this photo I used the two light kit. It’s a very basic set up but very efficient. One main umbrella or beauty dish in 45° down creating very high contrast on the bride and groom, lighting them only from one side with minimal light spill.
The second light was an umbrella behind the couple which I used for two things. First, to separate them from the background, and second, because the room behind them was relatively dark. I feathered the umbrella towards the back and opened the shadows there as well.
Zusman was especially happy to be shooting at the Masison House location he was, and feels Madison House nonprofit organization does very important work for autistic young adults and their families.
The full video can be found on our site. You can see more of Moshe Zusman’s work on his site. His workshops can be found here.
All images and video in this post are ©Moshe Zusman, all rights reserved; story is ©Profoto. Please respect photographers’ rights. Feel free to link to this blog post, but please do not replicate or re-post elsewhere without written permission.
Tags: D1, Madison House, Moshe Zusman, Portrait Photography, Video
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Comments (9)
nick
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I’m a professional photographer and shoot lots of wedding with my wife. Our job is to capture the day with stunning images, we are not there to turn the day into a fashion shoot as the whole day is about the wedding and family. if our clients want a fashion shoot we do this as a pre wedding shoot and on the wedding day we concentrate solely on getting the right shots by using our photography skills and on camera flash with stofen or gary fong lightsphere to soften the shadows
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nick
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for some reason the comment loaded before i had finished typing – what i was going to say though is that if Moshe can get the couple to do a modelling shoot during the wedding then i take my hat off to him
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Andy
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Wedding clients are rarely models.
Mr Zusman’s lighting is bland and obvious…there is no creativity – everything looks false and certainly doesn’t represent the average weddings that I normally photograph. There is rarely time for a “Shoot”… 20 minutes with the couple alone is about normal. A set up is possible but natural light and reflectors on a non rainy day provide better memories than an ersatz studio set up.
On dull rainy days any good flash kit will do – I’d always have at least 3000J in case the wedding is in a baronial hall in the rain and the whole party needs photographing.
However a couple of powerful handhelds will usually do the trick with proper planning.
A soft box would be much kinder to a non model bride and retain much more detail in her pure white dress and the groom’s black suit..
Mr Zusman is a very good salesman and a mediocre photographer.
On the other hand … if the average wannabe digi amateur thinks this is the way to go…keep it up fellas!
Probably best to unsubscribe me now.
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Wayne Leone
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Real wedding day = 20-45 mins with couple = natural light + reflector + 1 small flash + a creative mind
Not sure where the above video fits in. I love the gear though.
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Patrick M.
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NO CREATIVITY ! NO EMOTION !
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Andy Kruczek
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I think the biggest problem is that this just comes across as a sales tool rather than something that’s creative and / or educational. Mr Zusman may as well be wearing a Profoto shirt. Photography is about passion and knowledge.
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Victor Tavares
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Uh, so you guys know that this is a gear video (D1 kits) on the manufacturer’s website, right?
I find it hilarious that everyone always feels the need to criticize creativity and emotion on what is obviously a marketing video. It’s about the lights and the technical specs and features.
I’m sure Mr Zusman is doing fine and doesn’t concern himself with your critiques of this video…
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Alice
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I would like to thanks to admin of Profoto because of Sharing beautiful Video. I love Your Blog. Can you please tell me what is the name of your Blog theme ? Thanks
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Fredrik Franzén
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Hi Alice,
The theme is called “Cloud”.
/Fredrik Franzén, Profoto
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