Light Directions

This is a composition I had in mind for a long time. Thanks Tatjana for your patience when I took dozens of pictures while moving the lights all around you! I think I managed to keep her happy, since she still smiled on pictures taken later during the portrait session. If you are interested, you can find a set of photos here.

I used one D-Lite strobe from different directions in order to obtain a number of pictures which I then put together to get this one:

Photo by Me (large on Flickr), 2010.

I was interested in how it would look like when pictures of the same face, lit from different angles, were put together in one image. The pictures are ordered according to the angle of the light in the respective photograph. The one in the middle is the starting point where the light comes from the direction of the camera. To the left and right the horizontal angle is then increased/ decreased in 45° steps. The same applies to the vertical axis. The single pictures on the right, at the top and at the bottom are lit from behind, from the top and from the bottom.

The whole set of pictures could be kind of wrapped around to form a sphere around the model. Hope that doesn't sound too complicated!?

Anyways, I think it looks quite funky and it is interesting to see how such a simple thing like the position of one single light source can change the character of a face in a portrait entirely. From now on I will have a nice example at the ready, when I have to give another flash or studio light workshop ;-).

Hannah van Helsing

The quest for the holy chamber had exhausted our bodies and minds. Only a few of us were left of the fellowship that had set off a long time ago from a distant land in order to find it. Most of our brave men had payed the ultimate price to get us to where we were then; the long sought destination ahead.

This was the moment when suddenly the air got cold and darkness fell upon us, when evil powers reared up in their final and forceful attempt to prevent us from entering the chamber and bind them in their forgotten prisons for another thousand years.

The battle was almost lost when the reversal of fortune arrived to our salvation in person of Hannah van Helsing(*):

Photo by Tomer Jacobson (thetomer), March 2009.

Everything happened so fast, if it wouldn't have been for the Tomer and his lighting techniques beyond those of the forces of darkness, we wouldn't even have ever known who saved us!

So it only remains to say great model, holy lighting, unusual location = great shot! I like it very much (although I would have cropped it slightly tighter, but hey, it's van Helsing ;-) )!

If you like this shot too and would like to see a more of thetomer, check out his
website and his Flickr account. He has also got a blog, which is unfortunately (at least for me) in Hebrew only.

(*) Hannah is Gabriel's less famous - but actually more awesome - little sister.

Ace of Spades and Lighting

A fellow photographer Matt Grum recently featured this shot on his blog.

Photo by Matt Grum, March 2009

I think the look he achieved here is absolutely fantastic. This mixture of David-Lynch-not-Black-but-Red-Lodge and the vaudeville magician scenery works really well and makes for an amazing shot.

The look of the picture has been achieved using only two studio lights. The model is lit with a large softbox from camera left and care has been taken not to ruin the look of the background when light from this source spills on it. A second (snooted flash) spot light is adjusted in a way to obtain the light cone on the curtain behind the model.

Apart from the lighting, what makes this picture impressive is the whirlwind of cards surrounding the model. If you are not an employee of Pixar studios, the only way is to invide many, many friends who throw (and pick up) shitloads of cards at the model ... OR ... you just repeat the whole process with only one friend and one deck of cards a few times when using a camera on a tripod to shoot the scenery multiple times. Applying your friend Eraser Tool later when combining the shots in Photoshop, will allow you to achieve this look! Since the background does not change, this is relatively easy and no advanced masking techniques are necessary.

However, in case you like this shot as much as I do and you are interested in the details of the lighting setup, please visit Matt's blog and read how he's done it.

By the way, my own shot of Hitchkock like attacking Seagulls has been achieved with the same overlay technique.