Saturday 19th March- Clear water Rehearsal studios Perth
So it was last Saturday I was out for this one and I apologise for the delay in the write up, but been a busy week. Our local punk band R.P.G. are releasing a 3 track CD and wanted a cover shot for it, so I arranged to meet them down at rehearsals studios to work my magic. I borrowed Ian to be my flash assistant and co-conspirator. When we got there they were already in full swing, rehearsing one of their new songs, so it was ear-plugs in (not that they are bad, their actually really quite good, just really loud in a small confined space) and we slipped in to the studio. They had seen recent photos on our flickr sites of us ghosting Darryl up glen Lednok and had liked this idea as they weren’t keen on having their faces on the cover. So we dragged them away from their instruments and out into the not so dark night.
Almost stil bodies and moving faces
It was the night of the extra big moon (no idea how that worked!) but it was hiding behind clouds, however the street lights supplied more than enough light. We started out in the urban wastelands at the back of the studio, which is a junk yard with mounds of random city rubbish and has the prison lit up in the back ground. With Ian running around behind them in the dark we used coloured gels over the flash guns to back light the band. The shutter speed was on manual so I was guessing at times probably just 30 secs or so to start with as we wanted to get some shots of them solid 1st to test lighting and such. We quickly realised that the mounds of rubbish and yellow lights coming in from the street and the prison or even the dark, obstacle littered ground were not the problem, the problem was getting the band to stand still long enough so they weren’t just blurs! Especially Bod, who may just be wee but he is a fast and never still man! Of course as we progressed for the ghosting shots, they needed to stay still longer as the shutter speed increased, which proved quite a challenge and ended up with Bod always looking up as focusing on something high seemed the only way to keep him still. Next time I’ll have to remember to bring the rope and tie him to a stake to keep him still!
Once all off the mounds and safe on almost litter free ground and the camera had had a min longer on to give the ghost image, we headed around the front. Unfortunately the light there was a lot brighter and the ghost effect became a lot harder, though did get a creepy shot when you can’t see them except in the windows like wraiths! So instead we used other tricks, one we got them staying as still as they can and only moving their heads, so they look faceless. Another we played around with the torch and wrote their name in front of them. By this time the were itching to get back to their instruments, so we let them go and did a few light effects without them and combined the shots in photoshop, taking the opacity down on the top layer so you can see the bottom photo through it. It doesn’t work as well as the long shutter ghosting, but does do the job.
Me and Ian then took a wee wander down shore road, which was rally quite quiet and turned out to be not very exciting, we found a wooden stage and a abandoned snack van and an interesting but not too exciting old building. Using a bit of imagination we got a few shots, but nothing fabulous, so after saying goodbye to the band (who were back in full swing and you could hear most of the way down Shore Road) we headed home for the night, passed a flock of youths, ranging from mid teen to mid twenties and rather drunk, congregating for some unknown reason in plain view at the entrance to the South Inch. I’m sure the police found them easily enough in the end and they really should try and hide better if they are going to illegally drink on the streets and fight!
Ghosted R.P.G, with bod almost still!
