I put the lampshade on Amber Tutton’s ever-patient head. (And it’s not even a New Year’s Eve party!) But the location offers so much more than lampshades. We spent the day doing other drawings, making use of the beautiful old house we had rented, moving around the area. In the scouting drawing I see an old copper tub. With joy, I thought, bubbles! Then fine print. No water, just buffer. So what to put in there besides Amber?
Annie to the rescue, with yards of cloth. I mean, a sea of soft shiny fabrics. Why not? While Annie did the fabric, our amazing HMU artist, Sabrina, did Amber’s hair looking for yards and yards.
Surprisingly, photographically, the smaller the room, often, the more there is to manage. Lens management is important, because of the possibility of distortion. Walls are dark green, so no light reflects off. Dangerous perch on stairs. Soft fabric, beautiful face, inviting soft light. Nothing fancy, just a big see-through Profoto umbrella, used in shooting mode.
Annie does a great job on the BTS picture, maneuvering around this incredibly tight space, and Sabrina is magical as she does her hair. Amber had to keep adjusting as she lay on the pillows and kept sinking deeper into the big tub.
You may notice the tireless Jake Newell, in the BTS photo above, holding his hand to the inside of the umbrella. Quick idea, and something I’ve been doing in my years with umbrellas. The light is generally centered towards the brolly, or slightly higher than the center, given the construction of this light-shaping style. The main light in this example is the Profoto B10X Plus. The light is good, but the emphasis is a bit high for our subject, who, as I mentioned, is sinking into a tub.
Jake holds a Profoto A10 unit in the lower quadrant of the umbrella, complete with a dome diffuser. I controlled both lights with the in-camera Profoto Connect Pro, and only brought in the soft bursts of light from the A10 unit into the mix, pushing some of the emphasis of the lighting down, towards Amber. Quick help like this helps adjust awkwardly placed light shades.
More on this shoot to come as Amber evolves from cloth-wrapped serenity to room-to-room ferocity!
Love the digital versatility. Shoot all Amber images with the Nikon Z 9, and S series 24-70mm f2.8 or 14-24mm f2.8, which is standard fare, I know. But for the final image in that wild room, I switched, with the flick of a button, to the 16×9 format. Given the sweep of stuff in the room, it makes perfect sense.
This type of day… diving deep into lighting, locations, and portraits, is typical of the two adventures we’ll be on.
VEGAS!!! Pretty face, stunning athleticism, incredible talent straight out of the Strip. Interesting locations, from Vegas style to cowboy town.
TALLIN! In Saaremaa, in the beautiful country of Estonia, a week long adventure in an epic castle. Eight models, elegant locales, total immersion in how to illuminate portraits in engaging and storytelling ways.
more tk…
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