Light Hackers Photography - Recent Portraiture Shoot

Just a quick update this time... as we've been very busy with TV shoots and moving projects forward from the back burners... (more to come soon)!!

This is a montage teaser from a recent commissioned stills shoot, shot on location around London.
(containing a mix of final processed images and others straight from the camera).

All portrait sessions have a bespoke video montage made  from the images taken as part of the package!

If you are interested in commissioning your own shoot, please get in touch:

info@lighthackers.com

Bye for now.

BBC 'Shakespeare's Stories' - 4 x Interactive Dramas

A while ago the BBC ran a 4 part series of modernised versions of 4 plays by the famous playwright Shakespeare. Cast with the crème of British talent this series was supported by a very innovative and advanced interactive tool that allowed it's viewers to watch the 4 plays then choose to explore the workings behind the plays... the 'glossary', the themes.. etc.

Our Director Of Photography Une Herzer, was brought in as Lighting Director and Technical Supervisor to the studio recordings of these BBC dramas as well as the menu option recordings that were hosted by actor David Oyelowo.

The plays featured were, 'Macbeth', Much Ado About Nothing', 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' and 'The Taming Of The Shrew'.

These interactive recordings were shot in the same minimalist space, devoid of theatrical trappings to give focus to the play in it's rawest form. The only difference was the creative input allowed to Une in translating the scene to 4 unique canvases through light alone. Further graphic enhancements were added to the 'glossary' choice in the interactive experience, to explain further explain the words Shakespeare penned in his plays. 

Widely acclaimed, this series of interactive experiences that supported the dramas aired on the BBC were nominated for both BAFTAs and BANFFs.

Macbeth:

This is the final drama piece for the 'Macbeth' play with the glossary graphics.

For the FULL interactive experience, you can view it online at the BBC website:

Shakespeares Stories - Macbeth

NOTE: Navigate by using your keyboard number keys and/or by selecting the numbers on the screen with your mouse when prompted.

Much Ado About Nothing:

This is the final drama piece for the 'Much Ado About Nothing' play with the glossary graphics.

For the FULL interactive experience, you can view it online at the BBC website:

Shakespeares Stories - Much Ado About Nothing

NOTE: Navigate by using your keyboard number keys and/or by selecting the numbers on the screen with your mouse when prompted.

A Midsummer Nights Dream:

This is the final drama piece for the 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' play with the VFX graphics.

For the FULL interactive experience, you can view it online at the BBC website:

Shakespeares Stories - A Midsummer Nights Dream

NOTE: Navigate by using your keyboard number keys and/or by selecting the numbers on the screen with your mouse when prompted.

The Taming Of The Shrew:

This is the final drama piece for the 'The Taming Of The Shrew' play with the glossary graphics.

For the FULL interactive experience, you can view it online at the BBC website:

Shakespeares Stories - The Taming Of The Shrew

NOTE: Navigate by using your keyboard number keys and/or by selecting the numbers on the screen with your mouse when prompted.

We hope you enjoyed this latest blog post and the exploration into the works of the greatest playwright.

Please feel free to let us know what you thought.

Until next time...

Light Hackers Photography - 'Lighting Deconstructed' 2

For the second lighting breakdown in this series we chose to deconstruct another favourite image, and one we waited to shoot till the end due to the mess this shot produced.

The image we produced, entitled 'Under Her Spell' was from the same portrait series with Deborah as the previous post in this 'Deconstructed' blog.

Greatly inspired by a series of images created by Montreal based photographer Von Wong, we wanted to try what he accomplished with an array of studio strobes, but with just 3 flashguns!!

Here is the image that inspired us:

We were very pleased with our results especially considering this was the very first attempt in shooting with flour, and the lighting design was something we had planned in advance, so it was a case of fine tuning the settings and A LOT of trial shots (9 to be exact) to produce 2 images from the shoot.

Here you can see a behind the scenes shot from the location.

As you can see, we were lucky to make use of a VERY large veranda... actually this was at the mansion house built for Captain Livingstone's return from exploring Africa.
I can't stress enough the mess that flour creates... in Von Wong's work they went so far as to use electric fans to disperse the flour... it took them hours to clean up the mess produced, and they were shooting in a vacant warehouse. We chose to lessen the required cleanup, and still it took ages to vacuum the walls and everything in sight... Be warned, only leave essentials you are using in the vicinity!

In this 'Lighting Diagram' the full lighting arrangement and settings are shown.

The lighting was something we created to work, and it did. The hardest part of this type of photography is that you can't meter the flour in the scene or compose for it exactly. It becomes a trial and error at first till you home in the lighting and the way to disperse the flour at the chosen moment.


We found that a third amount of flour was needed to be thrown in, and added to what Deborah was throwing out.That came from the camera assistant throwing in a handful, using a verbal countdown to be in sync with Deborah's throws. A technique in actually throwing the flour was needed so it spread out correctly... A lot of variables we hadn't considered till on the actual shoot.


We shot 2 further clean plates, just of flour being thrown in front of the lens, to be backup elements in Photoshop... a very necessary move!!!


The final 2 images were graded in Lightroom, and composited in Photoshop.


Here is the second finished image from this series titled 'In The Clouds'

Well that's a wrap for now, but keep checking in for more 'Behind the Scenes' write-ups from us at Light Hackers.

New BBC Trails just TX'ed

We shot new trails for BBC's 'National Treasures' a series that will tour Great Britain uncovering the history of these Isles.

Again commissioned for Red Bee Media, this was a ...'walk in the park' if you pardon the pun!

The shoot was with presenters Dan Snow and Sian Williams in the picturesque setting of Greenwich Naval College

We will be posting the final trail soon!

Light Hackers Blog... All Welcome!

We here at Light Hackers are just ironing out the final kinks in the new site.

Cross browser viewing is a nightmare... damn you Chrome and Internet Explorer, hail Firefox and the winner Safari!!

Still a few pages to design, like our 'Behind the Scenes' gallery, and page entries for our core personnel.

This blog will keep you up to date with our recent work and also a portal for training and general viewpoints from us to you.

Recent work like a new trailer for BBC's 'National Treasures' where on a beautiful sunny day at Greenwich's old Naval College, we shot Dan Snow and Sian Williams for the series that sees them touring the country and discovering what treasures it holds.