Gold Skull
MUA-Model: www.fb.com-blueyesmakeup
Photo: www.fb.com-JacekWPhoto
Oct, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in my room which serves as a photo studio if needed.Time
In the afternoon after. We started shooting around 4p.m. but the makeup application has started over 2 hours before that.Lighting
The lighting was the most difficult part of the shoot. Combined with the vinyl printed backdrop which easily caught the light reflections, the gold shiny paint was not easy to deal with. I started with huge diffusion panel but it still spilled too much to the background. After realizing the light needs to be quite soft and symmetrical, I went with 28 inch apollo softbox on a boom from above to not have blown highlights. Also small speedlight softbox was added from below on minimal flash power just for catchlights and illuminating the eyes.Equipment
Nikon D300 with 50mm 1.8 lens at f/4.5 and two YN-560III speedlights controlled with the new YN-560TX controller allowing for remote manual power adjustments. Saves you the trouble of lowering the boom and opening the softbox for power adjustments!Inspiration
Halloween season mostly. We also had this raving for something more creative and extreme so the MUA and model (and my soon-to-be fiance ;) ) - Paulina from www.fb.com/blueyesmakeup, sat down for over 2 hours painting her face with online references for skull details. The main idea was based on Goldiestarling's 24 karat skull makeup popular on YT.Editing
Post processing was a significant part of the creative process for this shoot. From the very begging I knew I will have to use frequency separation for the skin. Having the color and texture separated was necessary, as the gold paint accentuated the skin pores and the frequency separation gave the most control over the post-production. Rest was just minor adjustments to brighten the eyes and global dodge and burning on 50% gray layer with soft-light blending mode.In my camera bag
The D300 with Tamron 17-50 2.8, Nikkor 50mm 1.8 and Nikkor 80-200 2.8 ED. Over my shoulder I usually also have the Fuji X100 with TCL-X100 teleconverter for backstage shoots and sometimes even to use as the main body. My second bag carries all the flashes with 2x YN-560II and 2x SB-600, with YN radio triggers. There is also third huge duffel bag for light stands and modifiers but that is one hot mess :)Feedback
Working with shiny body paint is not easy and choosing the right light modifier may be crucial for the overall look. The highlights cannot be blown to pure white, but at the same time there needs to be some contrast in the SOOC shot.
