Svetlana
Jun, 2017Views
1177
Likes
Awards
Editor's Choice
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Superior Skill
Outstanding Creativity
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
Top 20 rankTop 10 rank week 2
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo outside a beautiful church in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is made out of sandstone and columns adorned the entrance.Time
I am not entirely sure which time a day it was, but I think it was around 2-3pm.Lighting
I decided to use all natural light for this part of our session. We had started out using a mounted flash with a softbox in the first part of our shoot, but when we decided to move to the church's entrance, I forgot all about using any type of artificial light. I felt so lucky. Because of the overcast weather, it wasn't terribly bright that day, however, the amount of light that was, bounced off the entire church. The columns served as the most amazing reflectors so her face was evenly lit with the softest and beautiful light I have ever had the chance to shoot in. About that time, it started drizzling. Fortunately, we were in shelter but not from the wind. I honestly didn't mind because it caught her hair and created depth.Equipment
I used my Canon 5dII as well as a 50mm 1.4 lens. Nothing else. Unless you want to count the outside of the church, given it was one big reflector.Inspiration
Svetlana and I had initially envisioned a series that would be very fashiony. When we moved to the front of the church, I was so incredibly inspired by her look and by the light conditions, that I honestly forgot all about what we were supposed to be doing. This exact shot was chosen over a year after I finished editing the rest of the series. I wanted to do something different. All of the other shots from that location are in black and white and they are among my best work. I love going through old work, and one day I stumbled upon this one. I loved her look, her eyes, the mouth being slightly open, so I decided to pull this one out and edit it separately from the rest of the series. I haven't regretted that!Editing
I did quite a bit of post. Originally, this image had a white background since it was taken outside, in front of a sandstone church. But I was going through a phase of dark portraits with the focus on the faces of my subjects, and the hair interwoven with the darkness. So I, of course, blackened out the background. I cleaned up her skin, not that it really needed much, and I dodged and burned shadows and highlights as I always do in my work. I am a huge fan of cheekbones, so I wanted them to stand out, and just really emphasizing the beautiful, natural light that I had to work with.In my camera bag
I shoot usually with very limited equipment, though I feel like my bag doesn't really bear witness to that. I always like to be on the safe side, so I usually bring way too much equipment than need be. I have my Canon 5D II as well as my backup, my very first DSLR, a 450D. I always bring my 50mm lens as well as my 85mm. I usually brought my 70-200mm but honestly, I haven't used that much at all for the past years. I prefer shooting with my prime lenses. I always bring a small reflector to bounce light, and I bring two off shoe flashes. I bring an umbrella, a big octagon box and a small one, as well as tripods to match and my Cactus v5 triggers. Most of my gear that isn't directly involved with the image (lights, tripods and such) are low budget gear. I gets battered so often, that I rather want to spend money on replacing it, than buy something expensive, only to have it broken due to wind or something else. Plus, it is really important for me to show, that you don't need the newest, most expensive gear, to create amazing imagery. I would, of course, love to upgrade my camera, but for a lot of us, upgrading isn't an option just yet. I make do with what I got.Feedback
Find a location that has a lot of white surface in front of the model to bounce light from. You can of course, also create this yourself using v-flats or something similar. The light here is all natural, and I shot with an aperture of around f/4.0, a shutter at around 1/125 and an ISO of roughly 200. Make sure your model bring up as much emotion into her eyes and mouth as possible. This won't work unless your model gives everything she got. I usually shoot pretty close to my subject, but this time, I achieved this crop my later on cropping it in Photoshop. A really nice thing, is to have some wind nearby, whether it is a machine or not. It really isn't a hard image to recreate, and honestly, I think it can me done most places, as long as you have a nice, overcast day, good surfaces to bounce light off and a model that knows her game.
