So my idea once I got there was to get him in the booth. Theres no point to be at the studio and take pics up against a wall and they didnt have any giant mixers to sit him in front of to make it seem as her was the producer/engineer. He’s Young Chris. The Rapper. Get it?
So the studio has the basic foam padding to absorb any unwanted noise made in the studio. But its this nasty yellow like the padding from the cushion of your passenger seat.

Thats not saying anything close to “Chris-mas” I need some reds or greens. Lucky for me I brought along my colored gels. So I put 1 SB800 behing the microphone stand to illuminate the room. Yay I got Red!! Now i need to light Chris because I dont wast him red also. There was a little pedestal next to him that I was able to place a SB800 on without a gel. So now I have it. Perfect Mix for the Mix Tape. It took a couple test shots to get the lights right since I left my light meter at home. I also had problems focusing because I was shooting thru glass and the recording booth was completely dark.
Here it is without the red gel:

And with:

Nikon D80 with 50mm 1.4
1/125
f/6.3
50 mm

Much better
Last minute he asked me to add some quick text to see if he can get it to the company to press the mixtape covers up. In 1 hour this is what I came up with:


Not my best work but I only had an hour. Turns out they had submitted one for him already (it was soooo wack)

Couple months ago I got the opportunity to shoot a couple artists for Heatrock Ent. 3 Days. 3 Shoots. 3 Artists. One just happened to be Young Chris. He was working on a mixtape and needed some fresh pics.

This was shot with the Nikon D80 w/ 17-55mm f2.8 lens and the Alienbees ABR800 ringflash.

He was impressed with my turnaround time and quality of work so I got another call a month later for another mixtape that he was calling “Newprint” which is a dub of Jay-Z’s “Blueprint”
Jay-Z

My original Shot

My Blueprint Edit

Final Mixtape Cover

I had no control over the final output. I just take the pics and send to the Art Director. You can find more info on the album and download @ www.mickboogie.com