Test Shoot – Kailyka in the Studio – part 2
Here are some more pictures about my testshoot with Kailyka (here’s part 1). For the next two pictures we moved on to what’s often referred to as “clamshell lighting”. This means that you put a soft light source right above the camera and a second right below (to fill in the shadows). The result is usually a very pleasing flattering light. I wanted to try to get it to look a bit edgier and therefore put the lights further apart. The Elinchrom Ranger head with a large beautydish is almost over Kailyka’s head. Most of the light spills in front of her face to give the silver Sunbounce Mini reflector on the floor enough light to act as the light below the camera. A Lumopro LP 120 flash was used to light the background.
I noticed the angle on Kailyka’s legs and I’ve put the small Lumopro on the floor to get another triangular shape on the background. To finish the triangular shape composition, I asked Kailyka to keep her arms like this:
I then played around with the Elinchrom softlighter umbrella box because I haven’t used it very often yet (it came with the Ranger kit). It doesn’t give the same quality of light than the softbox but it’s not bad and just a touch faster to set up.
I feel like I still have a long way to go before I can define my own studio portrait style, but this fun shoot was certainly and interesting experiment. And the thing about experiments is that they’re always useful even if they go terribly wrong.
I don’t really like the clamshell look, but the very dark last picture is very inspiring! The DOF a little too small maybe. From the first part I appreciate the white-top ones (with non textured backgrounds) most. Thanks for the motivating sharing of test-shoots.
Awesome photos as always. How do you like the Lumopro?
Thanks for the comments
@david: the LP 120 is great, planning on writing a review of it soon
G’day Bert,
as always, inspirational stuff, thanks for sharing.
Bert,
I really enjoy these photos and you testing and improving in your studio technique. Love how you always push yourself to do assignments that expand your photographic vocabulary.
Regarding the photos. I know you like a shallow depths of field but I concur with Fini that the very photo needs a deeper DOF to really make the hair pop and more separation between the model and background. However, I like the clam shell lighting because it’s just another trick up your sleeve in the future.
Thanks again for being such a big inspiration.
Nice work Bert!
Can you tell me what your f-stop, shutter speed and all the power settings on your flashes were? Heee Heee
Moishe
Thx for the feedback
@Moishe: Well … naaaaah