JoshMillsPhoto
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Dragunars
August 21, 2015
Beautiful Shot, Pose and the light is awesome. One of those I wanna be that good one day shots.
JoshMillsPhoto
August 21, 2015
Thank you Dragunars! I love dramatic lighting vs. standard portrait/studio style lighting. Deep shadows and soft lighting add drama and emotion to an image and I love shooting them. It is not difficult it just takes some practice to figure out but once you got it, you can pull it off any time.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on the leather couch outside my studio. The model was taking a break while I was changing up the set we were shooting body scapes. When I saw her sitting there the idea came to me.Time
It was actually pretty late at night but this was an indoor location with no windows or natural lighting to be had. I grabbed a studio strobe with a 36" octobox and grid and a few shots and lighting tweaks later here it is.Lighting
I was looking for high contrasting shadows. this was shot in a completely dark room. I used the built in modeling light to see how the light fell when setting the position of the strobe. It also allowed me to focus once we were shooting I placed the strobe with octobox and grid directly behind her and off to the left side to throw shadows back at me and off to the right side. I had it pointing down at probably 30 degrees from Horizontal. This allowed for lots of shadows from every part of her face and body. I had the ligth very close, probably within 2 feet of her head which provided the nice soft transitions into the shadows instead of harsh transitions you get when the light source is further from your subject.Equipment
Simple kit. Nikon D7000, nikon 28-105 at f/22 to keep great depth of field, 180 WS studio strobe with 36" softbox and soft grid.Inspiration
This photo and a series of similar photos were just a spur of the moment and not planned. It was the right place at the right time and the idea just popped.Editing
Yes I shoot RAW so it was a color RAW image. I used Adobe RAW and CS6 to process the image. blemishes were removed and some skin softening performed followed by a basic Black & White conversion and some minimal dodge and burn to highlight a few parts and hide a few other parts of the image.In my camera bag
Nikon D7000, Nikon D750, 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.8, 28-105mm f3.5-4.5, 70-210mm f4-5.6 Though I am about to replace the shorter zoom with a 24 or 28mm, and a 105mm I love fast prime lensesFeedback
1. Shoot manual 2. start with very low output on your strobe and bring it up as needed. This is all about the quality, amount, and angle of your light source. Big and Soft at and extreme angle is the key. I suggest playing with your lights when trying to accomplish dramatic lighting like this. - Small changes in position can cause dramatic differences - Differences in light output power affect the shadows as you will get more bounce light with higher outputs and you start to lose you dark spaces. It will also affect the apertures and ISO settings you need to use to get the exposure for this look.