The-Eyes-of-La-Muerta
Aug, 2013Views
130
Awards
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Great Shot
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Top Choice
Exceptional Contrast
Superb Composition
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This shot was taken as test, both for my photography and lighting and my wife's makeup skills. It was taken in our spare room, which doubles as my office and occasional testing studio.Time
It was on a day when our young daughter was staying with Grandparents, so we had plenty of time for my wife to get made up while I set up the lights and could shoot for as long as we wanted until I got a shot (or shots,) I was happy with. As anyone with small children knows, this was a rare treat!Lighting
The lighting was an unusual setup - I had one Elinchrom DLite monolight pointed at the back of her head, in a softbox but with no diffusion panel on the front, which is a favourite technique of mine for kicker/rim lights. The main light was another Elinchrom DLite in a larger softbox, about 2-3 feet away and at 45 degrees to the subject. My wife then held a large collapsible silver reflector at the other side of her face, about 45 degrees again, and had the great idea of bending it concave to bounce the light back in an interesting way. This was shot before I bought my PocketWizard triggers, so I used the camera's wireless sync feature, triggered by the internal flash unit. Even though that was powered right down, you can still see a pinprick of catchlight from it.Equipment
I used my Canon 7D, 50mm lens, 2 Elinchrom DLites and a large silver reflector, as well as a green muslin backdrop.Inspiration
My wife is a massive source of inspiration to me & usually has some brilliant and practical input to all my ideas. I'd said I'd love to do a Mexican style day of the dead shoot so she worked out the makeup and made the fake roses for her hair and modelled for me.Editing
Post processing was mostly done in Aperture. In general I like to sharpen my images and play around with tone and contrast, but with this image, colour was going to be more important than usual. I used Photoshop's selective colour tools to change the colour of the background to better suit the makeup and to selectively saturate the makeup colours. A favourite technique of mine is to desaturated the image slightly, but then add in either the same amount of vibrance, or sometimes double the vibrance for a specific look as I did here.In my camera bag
Normally my go-to setup is my Canon 7D with battery grip, 24-105 f/4 L lens and my Elinchrom DLites or a pair of Yong Nuo speedlites if I'm working outdoors. I also use 50mm f/1.8, a 16-35 f/2.8 L and a 70-200 f/4 L lenses, depending on the situation and look I'm trying to achieve.Feedback
I think this goes to show that you don't need a ton of equipment and space to create - we did it in a small spare bedroom with only a few feet either side of us and although I used my DLites, (which I bought used, and very cheap,) you could achieve the same effect with 2 speedlites, one bare at the back and one in a softbox. I always try to have a very definite idea of the sort of shot I want to achieve before the shoot, but I try to keep things fluid during shooting and I'm open to suggestions from the model as well as "happy accidents". For a shoot like this you'd need to find a good MUA, some of whom may be willing to work for TFP if they are allowed to use the shots for their own portfolio. I was just lucky enough to marry a very creative woman who worked in costume for theatre & TV and who is a dab hand with a makeup brush.
