Sometimes, the oppotunity for a striking image comes when you least expect it. Actually, come to think of it, it ALWAYS comes when you least expect it! This shot is all about light and shade (and physique) but that isn’t how the shoot started!
The Shoot
Initially, we were meant to photograph Sam and his partner Lily in front of a full moon on a clear starry night, with a windmill silhouette, and the two of them picked out with an off-camera flash in a romantic embrace.
You know, the kind of thing – not hugely original, but impressive nonetheless.
However, it was January in the UK, so the weather played a part.
Although the forecast was for cold, crisp, clear air, it turned out to be anything but. The final image we created is included in a separate article here.
So, having braved the elements to a degree (seriously, it was not just freezing but wet as well—the kind of snow that leaves everything dripping), we came inside to get warm or at least stop shivering! This was all for one of our Mastering Portrait Photography videos, so we couldn’t waste the opportunity to have all of us together.
Ultimately, we took a range of shots of both Sam and Lily, but for the life of me, I cannot remember how this shot came into existence. It was probably laughter.
The Shot
The key light is a single strobe with a reflector or spill kill on the front. You could just use a bare head, but depending on your space, you might need to put up flags to prevent the light from reaching areas you don’t want.
Using a small light like this creates hard-edged shadows and high contrast in the image, i.e., you can see every lump and bump clearly, compared to using big, soft light sources.
The light had to be placed high above Sam so that the shadows – having gone to the effort of creating them – would fall downwards, sculpting the muscles and body tone.
The trick is placing the light relative to the subject so the shadows (and hotspots) are where you want them.
I went for a simple ‘hands in pockets pose’ to make things easy and to prevent Sam from changing position too much.
To pick out the side where the key light isn’t reaching, I used a simple strip box—in this instance, with a grid attached to stop the light from pinging around the studio where I didn’t want it.
This light is actually quite close to Sam, with the power turned down low. This gives the torso a much softer, controlled modelling.
The background is black paper, which reflects just a little light. If I wanted an inky black background, I would have used velvet, but here, the paper has just a little tone to show through behind Sam’s black jeans.
I adjusted the power of the lights until I saw the look I wanted on the back…