ellie in red silk
Jan, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at an abandoned airfield near to where I live. It was an experimental shoot really.. playing about with a large sheet of red satin fabricTime
We arrived at the location sometime in the early afternoon.. primarily to take advantage of the super cloud formations that day. It was intermittently sunny and reasonably warm but almost as soon as we got there the wind picked up dramatically.. to the point where any thought of using lightstands was rendered impossible. in some ways this was beneficial as the wind worked really well with the fabric.. although at times it was awkward to shoot as the wind direction was unpredictableLighting
As the wind was so strong any static off camera lighting was not feasible.. even sand bags would have been useless. so I was forced to use what available light there was. this was ok when shooting wide but if I wanted to get in close to capture facial features through a barrel of silk I needed some extra light! we tried accomplishing this two ways.. first off I asked the model to hold a strobe herself and we experimented with this technique for a while with her bouncing the light off the material and also aiming the flash at her own face. this was very much trial and error as taking an accurate light reading wasn't really possible. I got some interesting results but I wasn't entirely happy and eventually I settled on hand holding a flash myself and dancing in and out of the flapping material taking shots with the camera in my other handEquipment
For this particular shot I used a Canon 5D mkII with a hand held 580EX flash gun.. that's it!Inspiration
The inspiration for this shot really came from reacting to the immediate circumstances.. I cannot claim to having had any prior intention to capture it! I did want to see what could be achieved using a model and this particular fabric and I could see before hand the potential for something exciting. really it was a case of looking and reacting when the image presented itself.. much of what makes a good photograph and indeed a good photographer, is recognising that moment. this is what makes photography such an accessible medium.. you don't really need all the best equipment to take a really great photo.. just a good eye!Editing
I didn't do a great deal of post-processing on this image to be honest. apart from a little tweaking with a few adjustment layers - curves and dodge and burn - and of course the B&W conversion.. that's it.In my camera bag
I usually travel light when it comes to equipment. This isn't necessarily through choice as there are many items I would like to have if I could afford them :) .. however, this is in no way a disadvantage as you are forced to work with what you have and I feel this is a good way to learn and understand not only your equipment but what can be achieved.. So basically all I carry is my MKII body, a 24-105 L series lens, two strobes and a couple yongnuo wireless triggers. occasionally ill also carry a stand or two and a modifier (usually a brolly).Feedback
The only advice I can really give is to experiment.. have a play and see what happens! in terms of specifics, especially with a shot like this, where a face is essentially your subject.. keep in mind shadows and where they fall. you need enough light to model your face but not too much that the planes, angles and curves are flattened
