Giu
Black and white portrait
Black and white portrait
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Aug, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was shot at my home, it's not a studio in itself but I try to use it as such whenever the light is good. So this was shot in my veranda - which is also the kitchen. Every shot is a great way to learn more about how light will fell on my subject.Time
The photo was taken in the beginning of the after-noon, I wanted to shoot in natural light, and Belgium isn't known for being the brightest country, so this was just the perfect amount of light needed.Lighting
I wanted this image to be very luminous and at the same time to convey some coldness, so I took this picture in the beginning in the afternoon, the light wasn't so harsh and I used a home-made reflector made out of a server and some aluminium and it worked perfectly good for what I had in mind.Equipment
After some tries with my Sony Alpha 65 and a Tomioka 55mm f/1.2, I wanted to try out my new Fuji X-M1 that I bought for street photography, so I decided to give it a go, it was equipped with the kit lens, which is the XC 16-50mm (used at 28mm f/4.5)... not the best lens ever, but I was so surprised by the result that I decided to use the one shot with the Fuji instead of the Sony! Both camera were used on a very basic tripod...Inspiration
To be honest I was inspired by the photo called "Frozen" from Ryan Pendleton. When I saw his photo, I fell in love with the atmosphere he created. So for this shot, I wanted a chapka (the Russian hat), a beautiful model, and I wanted a very contrasting result; so I asked my model to use a very white makeup for her skin, a very dark mascara and a deep red lipstick. I wanted to create a very cold ambiance with very intense black and white and I think I succeeded.Editing
Well normally I shoot in RAW so post-processing isn't an option; but as I said, for this shot, after all the RAWs taken with my Sony camera, I decided to give it a go with the Fuji, and I shot in JPEG. After importing it in Lightroom, I was stunned by the quality of the pictures! I just did some minor adjustments and then a black and white conversion with Nik's Silver Efex Pro 2 and that was it.In my camera bag
Well I have two main setups: when shooting the streets I use a Fujifilm X-M1 with a XF35mm f/1.4 and some batteries, I always carry a Gorilla pod and some some ND filters; when I go for a shooting (mainly photo reportage), I take my "good old" Sony Alpha 65 with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 ART, a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 and a Tamron 90mm f/2.8... also whenever possible I take my tripod, filters and 4-5 batteries.Feedback
The main advice I could give to capture a picture like this is really to "get ready". Think about everything, think about the location, the light that will be available (do some scouting beforehand), the gear you want to take, the light you will need to create and achieve what you have in mind. Also, for me, it's very important to discuss with the model about what you want to create and how you want her/him to embody your idea, if you need some props, think in advance, if she needs to makeup, you should tell her in advance... Over time I realized that preparation is key! Another key point, for me at least, is to shoot a lot: you took time creating the situation you needed, so take the best of it and shoot all your ideas, try different angles, different setups, change the lights, and in the end be sure to have the one shot you had pictured.
