Lory in the Rain
Shot in the studio with a jury-rigged rainmaker.
Shot in the studio with a jury-rigged rainmaker.
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Jul, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken in my studio, using a homemade rain machine, and a few large tarps, secured with 2x6's around the edges, to make a 12x12 pond.Time
We were actually shooting something else that day, and this was an idea I had at the end of the shoot. As we were wrapping up with what we had planned, I just had a thought that things might look really good as a silhouette, so I suggested that, and she was already drenched, so didn't complain... too much. :)Lighting
This lighting was surprisingly simple. Since the original idea was to capture a silhouette in the rain I only used 1 single bare profoto D1, which is the light source you can see in the image. There was no other lighting for this shot, and this area of the studio has no ambient lighting at all, all the studio lights other than the D1 were turned off.Equipment
I shot this with the Profoto D1, placed behind the model. The camera was a Canon 6D with a 70-200 2.8 L series lens, @70mm at f/5.6 and an ISO of 200. I was about 12 ft away when I took this shot (didn't wanna get wet, it was cold! lol)Inspiration
My original thought was, this model had a dance background, and in the rain, backlit it just might look really cool with the falling rain and all. I kind of wish I'd gotten the light right behind her, it would have given me more of the silhouette effect I was looking for, but, having said that, I love this shot, and I'm very happy with it. Sometimes I guess things work out when it's half a plan, and half an accident. :) As long as you're shooting, good things can happen!Editing
Aside from converting to BW, very little post processing was done to this shot. Since it's almost a silhouette there was almost nothing to do on the model, I did remove a leg from the rainmaker that was off to one side, and cropped in just a touch to eliminate the edge of the pond that was sticking up in the front. To convert to BW, I used Nik Effects, and the "Art Full Spectrum" setting, and then tweaked the look until it looked just like I wanted. I was pretty happy that I had a model that just looks that great, and she looks even better when she's dancing, as she is in this image. She's a natural.In my camera bag
In my bag these days, I've got a Canon 6D, and a Canon 60D for backup (or if I need to shoot things far away, exploiting the extra reach from the crop sensor). Along with those I have a 70-200 2.8 L series, a 100mm 2.8 Macro lens, a 50mm 1.4, and my trusty 24-105 L series lens. I keep most of my lighting in my trunk, but I do keep one Yongnuo 600EX-RT flash, along with an Fstoppers Flash Disc for it (I get asked what that is, and where to get it, many times, works really really well!).Feedback
The simplicity of this shot makes it easy to do something better, the only tricky part, is having a space to make a big rainmaker. I understand there's lots of Youtube videos on much easier ways to make them. After you get the rain just right, you can create all sorts of interesting ideas. If you wanted to do something similar to this, I would suggest making sure the light is *directly* behind the model, and probably in line with her torso, not her neck, so that light wraps around her evenly from top to bottom. Without having that flare that I have, it would be much more about shape than subject, so choose your subject, and her clothing carefully, because that's all you should be able to see. Hope that helps!
