portrait-of-a-singer-silent
Singer resting before his next song, glanced at me and i took this image
Singer resting before his next song, glanced at me and i took this image
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Jan, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken in my studio, where I used a black background cloth (non reflective) set 8 feet behind the subject. It was in the smaller studio no bigger than the average front room to a house. This studio is particularly good for product photography, but was used here to help the lighting as I wanted some light to bounce from the ceiling and floor. There are three walls which are white and a ceiling only 3 feet above the subject is also painted white.Time
This shot was an evening shot due to the singers commitments during the day, but doe to being indoors and no windows teh lighting was controlled by myself.Lighting
To get this shot right I had to really look at how the lighting was going to affect the subject. First set up was the beauty dish (18" in diameter) set high to my left which I perched myself under but slightly behind (approx 2 feet above and in front of the subject). I took a couple of shots as a single lighting set up to get the right flow of light across the face. Set behind the singer left and right were two equally distant flash heads set with equal 75% power with very small beauty dish heads on them. These were placed at the subjects eye level height to allow me to let the light flow around the head and not affect the shoulders or body. One off camera small standard flash set to 20% output was placed to my left (as you look at it) which was triggered by the camera and acted as master light. After several several shots of bringing in the flash closer to the subject it brought the desired effect. Why set it so low? Well i didn't want any bright spots on the face, eyes or hair and by controlling the light it gave me very subtle changes in light. Also it created the darker edges and depth I was looking for.Equipment
The trick to get the lighting to brought out the eye area was to have a small silver reflector placed low but in front of the singer on my right (as you look at it) To be honest it is just out of the camera shot. The wire frame within it was deliberately bent to give me a curved reflection, allowing me to really focus light in the eyes and if you look carefully you'll see the highlight in his eyes. The camera is my older Nikon 7000 set to F5.3, 1/200 sec on ISO 100. I went for the ISO 100 as I wanted as much black to appear as possible. Thus making me work harder with the lighting and making it more skillful with the tonal ranges. The camera was fixed to my Manfrotto tripod with remote flash trigger attached. I had a magnifier placed on the eye piece to be very sure the sharpness was concentrated on the eyes areas, other than that there was no other trick to the camera as this was all about the lighting. The Final shot you see has an umbrella attachment to the small flash, thus allowing a softer light and more spread for my approach.Inspiration
I was and I still am currently experimenting with lighting. I had a particular project on at that moment which involved old move style lighting results. This I found fascinating as the old masters really knew how to create some stunning black and white imagery. At the time I stumbled upon Noire styles and wanted to try out some lighting effects. Luckily for me this singer wanted an album cover with the cinema and Noire film lighting style. Having looked at many 1950's photographers I loved the lighting techniques on the face, hard light yet subtle in approach to light coverage. I have experiment over time and loved the challenge of creating the imagery.Editing
The image was brought into Photoshop to generally bring out the lighting further. There is not a lot of retouching to the face only to slightly increase the tonal range to allow greater depth on the blacks. In fact the only real retouching is to the background to remove a crease I'd not seen until at this editing stage, not that anyone would have noticed it is me being critical. There is a touch of sharpening to increase the image edges as a final piece of finishing.In my camera bag
To be fair I have two bags one for professional shoots and the other for general shots. In my main bag I have 2 Len's of 50 mm 1.4 and 1.8 and a 18 to 105 mm. I absolutely love my 50mm 1.4 lens its never far from my hand, camera or bag. I feel many photographers miss the opportunity to be creative without this lens as I do a lot of portrait work its fun to bring it out and play. I know others use it for different reasons but my 50mm is for this. I also carry three general flash's for use off camera and a Nikon speedlight, all for out door pictures as I still like to control light and two flash triggers. Again I carry more than I need but I hate it if one piece of equipment decides to not function well (of course I have 50 rechargeable batteries as well, crazy but its me). There's a;ways a gold/silver/white reflector, a hot shoe extension lead (in case batteries fail). A bag of powdered talcum powder for either softening someones face gently or marking places so models keep within an area. It's also good for anything reflective, a little powder on the hands and a gentle touch on the reflective surface, problem over. Grey card for white balance testing. Cleaning cloths for the lenses, wet wipes for general cleaning. both my camera bodies Nikon D800 and 7000. General after that it's equipment like tapes, pocket knife, small screwdrivers and rain covers etc.Feedback
To capture this shot you really have to think your way through the processes, I wanted a specific shot and had it in my mind all they way through. It meant I could work the process of image making in a manner I was in control off. Take time over the light results as it's this effect that is most critical. Personally I found the set up of the beauty dish the one light that needed to be the more dominant as this is the one that gives the light film effect. I'd fixed the camera settings to provide me with the blacks I required and the depth of field I wanted. Having this from the offset meant I was working with lighting all the time and therefore more thought in this direction. The beauty dish set up became critical in light intensity. Therefore going back to basics on single light photography gave me the opportunity to control the light flowing from the flash head. You have to remember the lighting rig of old was not as sophisticated as we have today and they fell foul of altering bulb light. The power output on the light was lowered to allow me to spread the light but concentrate it around the eyes. The two back flash heads were narrow light was needed had to be equal to allow no extra flood of light to break down the overhead light. These lights act a definition edge lights. the one light I brought in extra was the speed light flash from the side, I made this very dim but I wanted to get sharp shadows to provide sharper edges. Every light rig set up you do will vary but the result if you take your time is very worth while. If the subject was female the side flash would have had a soft box attached to create a softer light but still create some definition, I would also have had a larger silver reflection to bring to generally brighten the face up more, but took it back from the subject. Hopefully this helps others, thank you
