Uncoloured
Feb, 2015Views
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Contest Finalist in Anything People Photo Contest
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was was taken in my living room.. It was a small living room at a rented apartment in a suburb called Ashfield in Sydney Australia.Time
It was a weekend, not quite sure if it was Saturday or Sunday but it was in the evening. Earlier that day, I had gone and bought some stuff that I needed for the shoot and then went and picked the model up from him place. I had planned for this shoot for more than a month and finally I was getting to do the shoot and it was quiet exciting.Lighting
This photo was shot using a two light setup. I had large octobox as the main light and had a small softbox as the accent light. I did not have a lot of space to shoot or to make the background dark (because i didn't have a backdrop and my off white wall of my living room was my background) so i requested the model to come close the main light. In that way, I was able to get the model as far away from the background and I managed to make the background dark. I was pretty surprised with the result considering the small space..Equipment
I shot this with a NikonD700 with a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens. For lighting I had two cheap Chinese lights which I had bought from ebay.Inspiration
This black and white is actually from my concept of a full body colour shoot.. haha.. The shoot was called "Midas Touched". Basically the idea of Midas the king who had wished for a the "Golden Touch". Anything he touched, turned to gold. He touches his son and his son turns to gold. My friends and I had painted the model's body with Gold Colour.. I was going for a sad moody theme. As I was editing my coloured photos, I basically just wanted to see what it would look like in b/w and i quite liked how the highlights and shadows were so dramatically playing on the subject. So, for this particular photo, i decided to keep it as black and white.Editing
This is not a heavily edited image. The black and white basically does most of the speaking for itself. I did do a little bit of dodge and burn and also played with contrast. A little bit of blur to smooth skin and remove blemishes and correcting patches on the body due to uneven painting and that's about it.In my camera bag
My fav lens is my Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens and I will use that lens most of the time I am willing to carry the extra weight of the lens even if I don't or may not have to use that lens for the shoot I am going for. It's a comfort factor to have that lens in my bag. Other than that, my Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens and my Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens is always in my bag. I also carry a Nikon SB910 in my bag just in case.. You never know when you will need a flash :) .. I also pack a lot of memory cards (i have a mix of 8,16 and 32 gb "lexar" cards) and a ND8 filter.Feedback
To do this kind of shoot, it is important to have a makeup artist (in this case my good friend Raktim Joshi) who can help you with body paint work. They know what type of body paint to buy, what's good body paint and how to apply body paint. I was lucky to have her assistance as makeup artists know best what's good paint and what's safe. Safety always comes first. When doing shoots with body paint, I believe it's good to have a theme or an concept or story which you will be telling through your image. A good communication is required for the entire team as to what the final result should look like so that everyone know what they are doing. It's always good to work with good lighting equipment but during this shoot I didn't use expensive stuff and I still managed to capture what i wanted so I guess, its more important to have a little knowledge about studio lighting before taking up a project like this to shoot. Your knowledge about how light behaves will dictate the outcome of your shoot. The end result may look extremely dramatic but at the end, it was a result of small efforts from individuals who made it possible. If you have an idea, just go do it.. It doesn't matter if you fail or succeed. With enough practice it's all doable.. :)
