Views
5068
Likes
Awards
Summer 2020
Contest Finalist in Photoshop World Photo Contest
Featured
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
Peer Award
Superior Skill
Exceptional Contrast
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Great Find
Jaw Dropping
One Of A Kind
Top Class Lighting
VIP Favorite
Genius
Virtuoso
Top Ranks
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
In my home studio--which is just a converted dining room but it is the open space I need to move lights around and play.Time
Around 10:30 at night. This is my husband, and so we waited till the kids were all in bed and the house had quieted down a bit.Lighting
This was a work around lighting set up for me. My skyport for my Elinchrom BXRI had broken so I turned on a constant light source directly behind him and flagged off just the foot square behind his head that I needed for the dark background. This allowed the light to hit his hat and beard from the edges. The fill light in the front was just light bounced from the main behind his head and directed down to light his face.Equipment
Camera: Nikon D700, handheld Lens: Nikon 85mm 1.4 SS: 1/40th ISO: 200 Flagged spiderlite from the back, reflector in the frontInspiration
We wanted to document his beard. Military personnel rarely have the opportunity to grow facial hair like this and he was going back to work the next morning. It is one of a series we took that night. He shaved his head and beard in stages as he went so we have some with mohawks, handlebar mustaches and more.Editing
I did do a bit of tonal contrast and sharpening on his face to minimize some of the flare I was getting from shooting right into the light behind him. I also cleaned up a bunch of stray hairs and did basic color corrections.In my camera bag
My Nikon D700, and the Nikon 14-24mm 2.8, 35mm 1.8?? (it wasn't expensive but I love this lens), 60mm macro, and 85mm 1.4. I have also been playing around lately with an Olympus OMD an some m4/3 lenses and that has been a lot of fun too.Feedback
Just play with what you have and experiment with your lighting and your composition to make what you have work. My main lighting equipment broke so I made due with what I had. Later in the series I ended up using girl scout cookie boxes to snoot my speedlights for some of the mohawk shots where my shutter speed either needed to go above 1/40th or I had to have a flash to freeze his motion. If I'd have given up when my normal light stopped working I'd have missed making some of my favorite shots. There are a lot of ways to use a single light source to make it do more than one job and this shot is a decent example of that.