Use code "WORKSHOP15" for 15% off general admission ticket
Recently I was shooting with Allee-Sutton and Matt Smith to create some fun 20's and 30's themed photos so I wanted to break down how I shot the final image and show you a few tricks I used to get the look we were going for.
First off, Allee brought some bright red curtains to use as the background and I knew I wanted to create some depth on the background so I decided to build my lighting from the back forward, in order to get the background to look exactly how I wanted. Since there were really defined ripples in the background, I knew lighting the background from the front wouldn't add the effect I wanted. Since lighting from the front would create flatter light and reduce the shadow on the background, I knew I would need to create side light to really enhance the shadows on the curtains. I also knew that the light I used on the background would also double as a rim/hair light so I didn't want to have a light that was too harsh. I decided to use a 1x4 Profoto strip box on a B10 head. This gave me a nice contrast on the background and didn't create light that was too harsh on Allee.
My Key light for this shoot was another Profoto B10 with an optical snoot and the spotlight insert. This created a nice defined spotlight on the background. the combination of the two lights brought the image together, but there was something missing still. In my mind, I wanted a kind of glow to the image and I didn't want to have to rely on post production to get that look. To get the look I had envisioned, I put a layer of plastic wrap on my lens and sprayed it with a 50/50 mixture of glycerin and water. I probably could have just used water, but the glycerin helped the droplets stay in place and not run off. This should go without saying, but don't spray anything directly onto your lens element. That would be really bad!
Now that we had all the pieces, it was time to put them together and create some magic! Check out this video to see the whole BTS tutorial
See below for a list of gear used for this shoot.
Tether Gear Use code jeffcarpenter for 15% off
Model: Allee-Sutton
Hair: Matt Smith
Until next time!
-Jeff Carpenter
Comments