November Tech 07

For November I want to showcase an extreme lighting situation and a simple,  elegant solution to it. This month I once again have the pleasure of working with the incredible Whitney Peyton to produce some PR images for her. This power pixie is only 5ft 2 in. and proof that good things come in small packages.  Due to contractual obligations she can not pose nude but when you look this good it makes NO difference so let’s get started.

Our goal was to produce images where Whitney was lying on a bed and surrounded buy Music. Reason for the music theme…Whitney Peyton is a Hip Hop artist and absolutely loves all forms of music. So we selected props from different eras and added the pink sheets for a bit of bubble gum. A little lingerie & spikes never hurts either. Now that we had the goodies it was time to light the set with all the damn reflective surfaces and make sure that Whit was properly lit as well. Keep in mind that the lady is the subject not her guitars!

When you are lighting an overhead image it is very easy to lose your orientation. With a standing set you are looking at the image  as it will appear,  but overhead and down can confuse.  The solution is get on the ladder or overhead viewpoint and build the light from there. What I did was to boom in a 36x48 softbox. The soft box was aimed down and place as if it was slightly above Whit’s head.  This situation can lead to the mistake of placing the light so that it comes from under the model’s face. NOT GOOD!  So check and recheck.

I had the light directly over Whit but it looked too flat so I moved the light to the right to add some shadow. This not only added shadow but brought out the body lines AND all the glare was gone. BONUS! 

A few simple meter readings showed that everything was within exposure range and a we shot! Best part was that the light allowed Whit full freedom of movement.

Camera: Nikon D200 w/17-55 ED IF Nikkor.

Lighting: Calumet Elite 2400/WS Generator with one Elite head and 36x48 Chimera Soft Box Pro.

See nothing to it. See you next month in the Online Studio and always...

Chase Your Dreams Not your competition Jack Cutler