PRO

ComradeAmerica

Photo

Canon EOS RP

settings

Aperture f/7.1 ISO 100 Shutter 1/200 Focal Length 35/1

upload_date

Sep, 2023

Views

Likes

Awards

Top Pick 2023

Peer Award

Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken in my living room in Baltimore. I had a shoot cancel, so this was a last-minute pickup with a lot of firsts: first time working with historical garments, first time using an off-camera strobe, and so on.

Time

We had to wait until sundown because, even with the windows blacked out with heavy curtains, light was seeping into the living room. By 6 PM in November, however, it is almost completely dark outside. We took advantage of this by using a couple of phone lights to navigate the space and set up the poses. The dark outside really came in beneficial for this shoot!

Lighting

This was my first time working with a Neewer Vision4 off-camera strobe, and honestly it was a lot of trial-and-error. The strobe was positioned at 10 o'clock relative to the model and used at 1/16 refresh rate with the camera set to shutter speed of 1/200 and a depth of field at f/5.6. I wanted the lighting to reflect the chiaroscuro style of the paintings of Caravaggio and Vermeer.

Equipment

I used a Canon EOS RP camera with a Tamron SP35mm f/1.8 lens and a Neewer Vision4 off-camera strobe mounted on a boom arm.

Inspiration

This was part of my ongoing D'Aubigny project, in which I photograph non-white, non-cisgender models (e.g., Black, Asian, Native-American, LGBTQ+, disabled) in settings, roles, and costumes traditionally occupied by white cis-gender subjects. The lighting and setting inspiration came from two sources: the "Bridgerton" TV show and the works of Italian Renaissance painters (e.g., Caravaggio) and Dutch Golden Age artists such as Vermeer and Rembrandt.

Editing

The post-processing was primarily done in Lightroom Classic, using a mask to isolate the subject from the background, dimming the background's exposure and elevating its contrast until it achieved a flat black, and then boosting the color vibrance and saturation, texture, and highlights of the subject. The photo was originally taken in color, and subsequently adjusted for a black-and-white contest, but the concept remains virtually identical.

In my camera bag

My Canon EOS RP never leaves my bag unless I'm offloading photos onto my hard drive. Besides the camera, I keep four lenses on hand: the Canon EF50mm f/1.8, the Canon EF24mm f/2.4, the Meike EF85mm f/1.8 portrait lens, and the Old Reliable: the Tamron SP35mm f/1.8. Apart from that, being the ADHD-riddled weirdo that I am, I always bring a few extra triggers for my off-camera strobes, a large umbrella softbox, and various assorted batteries to power everything.

Feedback

Get a good model who is willing to be patient and flexible with the demands of a similar shoot. This will require a lot of trial and error to get the lighting and posing right, so there will be a lot of hurry-up-and-wait, which will almost certainly become a chore once the model is in full costume.

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ComradeAmerica

ComradeAmerica

Photo

Behind The Lens

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