tomato1236
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Ballerinas And Dancers Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Black Out Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Isolate And Simplify Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Shades Of Gray Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Dancers Among Us Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Dancers Photo Contest
Featured
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Peer Award
Top Choice
Superior Skill
Exceptional Contrast
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Jaw Dropping
Genius
Top Class Lighting
One Of A Kind
Virtuoso
Love it
Top Ranks
akhtarkhan
April 21, 2014
Very acrobatic position, fantastic light, wonderful composition and amazing view point. Excellent B&W work. Congrats on the feature.
lanceprojects
April 26, 2014
This is really a remarkable picture - it deserves every possible kind of accolade. Well Done!
CrownAutofocusPhotography
May 13, 2014
im inlove with the lighting. great exposure of the muscle contours.
beyond_the_prism
August 01, 2014
Absolutely stunning! I love the soft light and tones on the skin. Great work here!
ghphotouk
March 11, 2015
WORK OF ART- stunning, even the finger placement is perfect, fantastic light, perfect crop, well done and thank you for sharing
ramon_santana_sanchez
January 06, 2020
Find my challenge The split, if you want to. I'll be glad if this photo will be on it.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this in the studio at the Utah Valley University where I graduated in 2012 with a degree in illustration.Time
I believe I shot this in the evening after classes and after work. I was using a lot of models then who would shoot for me for free, so it was critical to make the schedule convenient for them.Lighting
The whole exercise of this shoot was to experiment with dramatic light. Here I kept things pretty simple. She was sitting on the varnished concrete floor and in post-production I recognized that the floor was really not important. I loved the way the light was describing the forms on her foreshortened arms and wanted emphasis to remain there.Equipment
I used Profoto strobes and a Canon t3i. I almost never use a tripod and there wasn't any fill required since I wanted the shadows to go all the way to black.Inspiration
I invited this gymnast to the studio to get a certain editorial look that I had seen before. The main shot from this shoot was featured in Popular Photography a couple of years ago. After getting that shot, I wanted to play with the light and we did a number of poses with her demonstrating her skills. I moved the lights around several times to try different looks and when you have a great subject to shoot, the photos seem to always work out nicely.Editing
I believe that great photos happen (with exceptions of course) when a great image is captured in-camera, and great post-production is applied. The most drastic change I made in post was to black out the ground and the black paper I shot her on. I wanted to isolate the forms and let them pop out of the blackness.In my camera bag
I keep things simple. I've used all kinds of gear and I've found that if I just have a decent camera and a 50mm prime lens I'm good to go in most cases. I have a 17-40mm f4 for when I want to do environmental portraits. I have a radio trigger in there all the time so if I need to pull out some strobes I'm not hunting for the trigger. That's about it! I recently bought a Sony a7sii and while it took some time to get used to the quirks, it's a really powerful camera that makes crisp images with great dynamic range, and great low-light quality. I do some video work as well, and it's designed to perform for film. Most of the work on my website was shot on a t3i, or a 6D.Feedback
If you want to get this look, it's important to maximize the contrast between the light source and the shadow areas. The shiny quality on her skin is a result of using highly specular light--in other words, not diffused. Using bare strobes produces light that is highly directional, bouncing around much less in the environment, so you won't get as much unintentional spill and fill. The shadows become dark and crisp. Get yourself some talent that has a great look, a real skill and an excitement to have it photographed. One of the mistakes photographers make, in my opinion, is getting models who are really good-looking, and trying to get them to pretend to have a skill like gymnastics, or weightlifting, or horseback riding, etc. Real people with real skills bring something extra to the shoot, and it shows when a model doesn't really know how to do yoga, or archery, etc.