Tips For Shooting On Location - Lights, Cameras, And A Warrior Princess

The Slanted Lens recently posted a new behind the scenes video, explaining the process for a project that involves shooting photos of a warrior princess out by Vasquez Rocks. This video really dives in to considerations you have to make as a photographer when shooting on a remote location like this. From location scouting, to running power for lights, and even considering bathrooms for the crew, this insightful BTS video shows us how Jay P. Morgan approached this challenge. There are some really great tips in here. Jay plans around the sun's direction, and sets everything up in the light of day. Another trick is that he uses CTO on his key light in order to add more blue into the background (love that trick!) of the princess after the camera corrects for the color. Plenty more helpful videos can be seen at The Slanted Lens.

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Mike Wilkinson is an award-winning video director with his company Wilkinson Visual, currently based out of Lexington, Kentucky. Mike has been working in production for over 10 years as a shooter, editor, and producer. His passion lies in outdoor adventures, documentary filmmaking, photography, and locally-sourced food and beer.

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7 Comments

It could definatly just be me but every time "the slanted lens" does a behind the scenes I am blown away. They have the coolest locations, niftiest set-ups, and seem to have a huge budget to allow for assistants, models, and gear. It all is ruined (to me at least) every single time when they go and add their colored gels to the scene. They seem to do this all the time and it totally seems like it belongs in the 80's instead of today. If someone is putting this much effort into huge shoots like this, why are they ruining it with silly gel colors? If Von Wong were to do shoots this big (and I know he does this size and larger) then the final product would blow the slanted lens's shoots away. Just my 2 cents......and would love to understand if it is the clients that want the fake looking gels or if its simply their style.

I agree. I'm also interested in cars besides photography and it was very intersting to see the same Chevy car that I drive parked next to the canopy.; I love the HHR's cargo capacity and versatility. Of course, there were other support vehicles for the shoot.

Nice shots, but I am sure they could have been acquired with far less people and equipment involved.

The only thing I would add to this is how to get the permits/permission (any suggestions on how to do that) and insect repellent!

Very cool. The only thing I would add to the list is a high speed satellite link (for checking Facebook etc) and a Frappuccino bar to keep the moral high..

Very cool, great shots! Although I feel like someone should have shown her how to hold a bow properly :/

Way too costly for the average budget, I prefer to shoot back plates on location then simulate the same lighting in a nice comfortable studio with the model and a small crew and finally composite the two together. If you shoot video it would be far more difficult do the above but I don't see any problems when shooting stills.

As mentioned above The Slanted Lens does seem to have that 80's look in a lot of their shoots.

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