Since on the photo course we attend we have very little time for actual practice, we decided with V. to rent a studio and see what we can do on our own. We took two of V.’s friends (Ildi and Yza) with us as models. V. had some previous experience with both of them; I had my very first studio session with Yza. We carefully chose the clothes and made the make-up before going to the studio. We also bought two flowers on the way. So when we arrived, we could start making photos right away.
The place was much better (and a bit cheaper) than the one we worked previously. We instantly got four flashes, one was installed onto the wall and could easily adjusted to function as hair light. It was also very good that we were let to work on our own, we need not ask for assistance we wanted to change anything. (However, it was a bit scary to handle a several thousand dollar equipment.)
V. voted for soft lights and I gave in. However, it was mainly me who had the opportunity to set up the equipment, so I could still try out some things.
These two pictures (you may click on them for larger size) I used only one softbox placed just left from the models. We used black blacground with a red-colored flash on it. It’s light can also be seen in the shadows – an unintentional, but still cool effect. (I still have to remember to deal with that next time, though.) The shadows are quite definite, but not two deep — if I had not used a softbox, the right side of the picture would be much darker.
I also used this out on the first picture. I made Ildi to turn towards the light — the softbox softened her features, too –, but the folds of her dress are still definite because of the lack of the fill light.
Here I used two softboxes. One (providing the main light) was lifted as high as possible to produce a sun-like effect. The other one – this is the fill light – was lowered down and aimed upwards. This combination resulted in very soft, almost completely diffuse lights — only very shallow shadows can be seen on the face. The white lily also makes the model a bit more feminine. (You probably could not imagine how hard is it to get to a compromise with a model on the question which is the ‘graceful’ way to hold a flower.)
The concept of this picture was in my head all afternoon — however, when I got the opportunity, I still had to ask for the advice of the owner of the studio to make it real. Of course, I knew that I would need hard lights, but I wouldn’t have thought that one flash would be sufficient. With the rigid poses I and the blank expression I intended to make the models as statue-like as possible. The light is coming towards Ildi (in white), from the right, flattening her expression even more. Yza, already in black, get’s much more shadow. However, I made her to turn her fan a bit towards the light, making her figure a bit more prominent.
(Many thanks for Ildi&Yza for helping us out and being wonderfully patient models.)
