Portrait of young girl holding a white hare
Portrait of young girl holding a white hare
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Behind The Lens
Location
This portrait was taken in my home studio which is in my garden in Bournemouth.Time
Taken around 12:30pm.Lighting
The studio has two small windows and a some panes of glass in the door but is not sufficient lighting so I used two monoblocs with softboxes as my light source so there was plenty of time to work through the planned shots. I set one light as the key source to the left of the subject and the other as a fill light which is set approx 2 stops below (so a 1:4 ratio). Settings f7.1 / 125th ISO 100 so I metered on this to avoid any blown highlights.Equipment
I was using a Canon 5D RS mounted on a tripod with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 USM lens. Bowens Gemini flash with softboxes.Inspiration
One of the major influences in my portrait work is to achieve the painterly effect from the lighting used in classical and Pre-Raphaelite art. The shoot was primarily to create some 'painterly' portraits for the model's portfolio using classical style outfits. As the shoot was around Easter time I happened to suggest some props on a Spring theme - the white hare sprung to mind and it already had a ribbon tied on it form some time ago so fitted the bill perfectly!Editing
The original shot was on a plain midtone cotton background so I overlaid some texture to add to the painterly feel. I also fine tuned the white balance and fine tune tones with PS Levels.In my camera bag
I upgraded from the excellent Canon 6D to the superb Canon 5D RS which offers incredible levels of detail and dynamic range. Lenses are key and for portraits I tend to use the Canon prime 85mm f/1.2 lens along with the Canon 70-20mm f/2.8 L USM. Always have a basic meter which I find useful to avoid over exposed skin. Various light modifiers including home made gobos and I often like to fit a grid to the softbox for better targeting of the flash light.Feedback
For this style I would recommend careful choice of clothing - colours that work for the model and backgrounds that do not over-power the subject. I prefer a natural grey, black or white for portraits now which avoids clashing colours with the model. Try to keep an eye open for props that would work and bring a uniqueness to the portrait - they can be small or large but should help build the theme. The key is light control so work on the getting the key to fill light ratio right to avoid extreme contrast. Acquiring some PS skills for post-processing addition of background texture opens up a world of possibilities. Finally, I find looking at portrait paintings inspirational as it frequently triggers new themes to work on and technical challenges to overcome!