ONE HOT LIGHT

When I first saw Theresa’s face, I knew I had to capture it. Fast forward to a week later and she was sitting in my studio. That Friday was a long day, I had shot for 8 hours for Louisville Magazine and raced to my studio to find Theresa and my team, consisting of makeup artist Casey Ritchie and stylist Jamie Hubbard, ready to rock. The hard work of the day was well worth it. The concept concentrated on androgyny, blending the lines of male and female fashion. I won’t dive into the logistics of the shoot or any pre-production, but rather the technical aspects. 

The first set, I lit Theresa with one stobe pulled back 10 feet and raised 12 feet to mimic hard sunlight. The lighting diagram can be seen below and is explained in this Fstoppers post here.

The second set, we got creative. I wanted to do something very dramatic with my new Oliphant backdrop, but I also wanted to shoot at a very shallow depth of field, almost like a celebrity portrait. I fired off strobes and tried several lighting techniques, but I just wasn’t getting what I wanted, I made a quick executive decision to lock in my 50mm prime lens and open up my aperture to f/1.2. Then, I proceeded to only use the modeling light on the strobe. The light was harder than I wanted, so I clamped a Westcott Diffusion Panel to the Paul C Buff Octobox and what came of it was a beautiful triple diffused light source. White balance was though to lock in, but once I had it, the results floored me.

A first time for everything; it was the first time I had done anything like that in the studio and it was all a big experimentation, but an experimentation that paid off.

LIGHTING LUCY

For whatever reason, January has been plagued with cancelled and re-scheduled shoots. However, the silver lining; it has given me a grand opportunity to experiment and really test my skills in the studio. In other words, do something on my own terms for me and my portfolio. I’ve wanted to shoot Lucy for quite sometime and always had the vision in my head, when a commercial job decided to re-schedule I jumped at the chance and got a team together in less than 30 minutes. What I was so exciting was that the majority of the team had never worked together. It would be a melting pot of talent that had never been on the same set and I knew it would be a winning combination. With a strong vision of mod styling fused with retro art, I brought together Raina Trimble and her bold artistry with Jamie Hubbard’s commercial styling. And with Lucy’s gorgeous look, I knew we would walk away with some images we could all be proud of.

I won’t dive into details, but rather focus on the technical aspects of this image. I wasn’t sure how I would execute the style of lighting I wanted, all I knew it that I wanted dramatic, moody and… fog. We started with the basics, one soft key and one background light. The key light was modified with a Photek Softlighter II and the background light was modified with a 30° grid and several CTO gels for a strong warmth. From there we built. I needed the legs and hands lit, so we placed a soft box with a grid under the key light just for that pop and fill. Finally adding a low powered speedlight with a red gel to accent Lucy’s jacket. Once the lighting was locked we unleashed the fog and I started snapping the shutter. Right out of the gate I was extremely pleased with the lighting and the mood.

It all may seem overkill for a portrait like this, but I felt it was much needed for the results I wanted right out of camera. Some lights just play a small role, but without them the image may lose interest. Next time you have some creative time in the studio, start small and build, you never know what unique light you may find beyond “the key”.

LIGHTING, RE-TOUCH, PROCESS

Many photographers may hide their techniques as secrets or publish them in paid tutorials or reading materials. Everything I know, I learned for absolutely free, but I’ve learned with a lot of patience and hard work. I’ve soaked everything in like a sponge and then used it to form my own process. This may not be the process or setup for you, but I know it works.

This set was for Z Salon & Spa, a local salon that has a great marketing strategy. When they asked me to shoot some images for an updated look, I gladly obliged. 95% of the models on set that day had never modeled, which was fine, but it definitely struck a challenge especially with beauty shots. The biggest obstacle was to shake the nerves and get the models comfortable in their space. First up, a striking young model, Abigail Taylor. She was nervous, but I cracked a few jokes and she seemed to immediately carry on. She had never stepped in front of the camera before, but by the end of the day I was handing her a business card for more work down the road. We managed to nail the shot below within 15 minutes of her stepping in front of the lens and it turned out to be my favorite from all the images we snapped.

My techniques aren’t all that complicated.

I wanted the red of her hair to really explode off the white backdrop and the shape of her jaw line and shoulders to really have the angelic sense. So I setup two lights on the background at full power for a real backlight blow. The with the addition of the soft hair light overhead and the heavy white beauty dish everything came together at once. The silver reflector right under the chin completed the puzzle with a perfect glamour fill.

My re-touch and post process is over viewed in the video below. While you can see the difference between the SOOC(Straight Out Of Camera) shot and the processed image, it isn’t all that crazy. It always feels good to get it right in camera and that’s exactly what was done here. The post work is simply the icing on the cake.

Remember if you have any questions, feel free to comment below or shoot me an email info@clayccokphotography.com