The Concept
For some time I have had an image in mind that I wanted to create. I envisioned a female rockstar on stage putting her “all” into the microphone. The view would be from the perspective of someone in the front row of the show. Finally, I wanted some colored light and smoke to provide some atmosphere. You can see below some inspiration images I grabbed from cosmos.so to send to those who I wanted to have on the team.
This sounds easy enough to shoot if I could actually be in the front row of a concert, with my camera, and just in the right spot. The reality is that this would be very expensive. It would also be very unlikely to be allowed to bring a camera into the venue much less be allowed as close as I wanted to be for the shot I want. And that’s honestly putting the challenges lightly compared to the reality of trying to do this in a real concert setting.
So what to do? Fake it, of course!
Inspiration images downloaded from cosmos.so
The Team
I already had in mind to ask Karina to be the model for this shoot. Not only does she have the right look, but played in rock bands in the past. When I suggested the idea to her she was an immediate “Yes!”. I asked her if she would have Yana Dragomir do her makeup since they have worked together before and I had already assisted a fellow photographer with a shoot where Yana was the model. I also was hoping that Yana would agree to also get in front of the camera as well.
Yana was also interested so now I had two models and makeup and hair covered. As a bonus when working with Karina, her husband Alex usually comes along and captures backstage videos and stills. He indeed was going to be there and it ended up that Yana’s boyfriend also came along to assist and shot some backstage. Of course Carmen joined us to assist with her primary responsibility being handling of the smoke machine.
Location
With the team sorted out, I needed to find a location. I had reached out to an artist group that had a location in Rusafa. I had visited there before and knew there was a small stage that might work for this. However, they didn’t end up being interested so on to plan B, which I thinnk ended up being a better choice.
There is a spot next to the archeological museum in the city center where we could put our rockstars in a position where I could shoot at an upward angle. The wall here would put Karina and Yana above me in a way I could be standing and get the angle on them I was looking for. This was great for my ability to move and position myself, but my back greatly appreciated not having to crouch or lie down on the ground.
Location next to the Archeological museum in Valencia
Clothes and Props
Wardrobe for Karina turned out to be an easy get as we had purchased the perfect out fit for her for a previous shoot. You can see her in the images below a in pair of black leather pants and jacket from that earlier session. As for Yana, she was just going to pick out her own I felt whatever she brought was going to be a bonus she Karina had been the focus of the shoot anyway. It urns out her outfit worked out very well as I’ll show later.
In addition to the wardrobe, we needed a microphone and stand. I purchased an inexpensive Behringer mic, stand, and cable. These weren’t high end items, but they were functional “real” items and not props. The last thing I needed was a smoke machine which I purchased from Ulanzi. We really pushed this little machine to its limits since it really is designed for small and/or indoor spaces. As such, the wind would clear the smoke pretty quickly.
Karina in our outfit from a previous shoot would be reused for the rockstar session. Also shown is the Ulanzi smoke machine we used for this shoot. (image from Ulanzi)
Day Becomes Night
In a similar fashion to my “Rainmaker” shoot, I planned on shooting in the evening an hour or two before sunset. This would give us plenty of light to work by and by using flashes, we could turn the daylight into night. In the video below you can see what it looked like in with the ambient light. As the video plays you see the actual photos as they appeared thanks to the flashes doing their job.
Carmen can be seen wrangling the smoke machine to give us some extra atmosphere. The smoke gets emphasized by the red gel over the flash placed high above our “stage”. For those interested in the technical aspects, the two flashes used are Godox AD300 pro‘s. The one below is being fired through a 24″ softbox while the other is placed high above with a Fresnel spot attached. Shutter speeds were varied from 1/250th down to 1/40 in order to provide some motion blur in certain cases. Apertures ranged from f 5.0 to F 9.0.
Video compiled from footage by Alex and Yana with final photos from the session. | Music: Mainstream Music 2025 vol. 7 Produced by Sascha Ende
The Goods
Below are some of my favorites from this session. While I am pleased with how these turned out technically, what I am most impressed with is the energy that Karina and Yana brought to the session. They both put on convincing performances which was especially tough considering they weren’t actually singing and there was no music playing. They just played their parts essentially in quiet. I know passersby had to be wondering what was going on, which makes me smile to myself :).
Thanks
I want to say thanks to all involved in the production of this shoot. Karina and Yana gave everything they had and more to provide the energy for these shots. It was cold and until they got to see the final edited images, I’m not sure they understood exactly how this was going to go. Alex and Yana’s boyfriend (I didn’t catch his name) did a great job helping and capturing lots of backstage images and videos so I could share them with you now.
And of course, my beloved Carmen was there not only to assist and handle the smoke machine, she always supports me in my projects. When I’m not sure how things are going to proceed, or start thinking I might be wasting the team’s time, she’s there to prop me up and remind me that i can do it.