About technique and more.

Real moody shots are not easy

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But so much fun

To be honest, the higher the level of difficulty the more fun a photoshoot can be.
When working with high contrast lighting and focussed light sources it can be very easy to fall into the trap of not having enough light on your subject/set.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the solutions.

Bounce
An easy solution to just grab a large softbox (or bounce from the ceiling) and set this 3-4 stops lower than your main light and open up the shadows.
You could also try to do it in Photoshop or Lightroom with the shadows slider.
If you use fill in lights you will also take away some of the magic that a high contrast image has.
However it’s a technique that sometimes is necessary, especially when a model is wearing dark clothes.

Accent lights
The first thing I always try is to solve it with accent lights.
For me the perfect accent lights are small strips with grids.

These are perfect to focus the light on one area and the grid prevents spill light.
The reason strips work great is that they are relatively small so you can place them close by, limiting the spread of light.
But you can also use them in both vertical als horizontal position (and everything in between).
And I often use them as main lightsource if a small softbox just doesn’t have enough “reach”.
Because the striplight is a rectangle you can light a wider area without spilling over to the sides like with a standard softbox.
Sometimes just changing a small softbox for a slightly longer striplight can solve the whole problem, and light the whole subject just the way you want.

Smoke
Another option is using smoke.
Smoke is a diffuser, reflector and mood maker.
And you know the most fun….. combining everything together.

So the next time you want to use high contrast lighting and you want to make certain details jump out, try the striplight.
In this video I show you one of the ways to light up details in a very dark shot, for super moody results.

 

You’ll never get that again

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Some things are just way too much fun

And working with motion is without a doubt one of those things.
But although freezing motion can be awesome, think about jumps or just a flick of the hair, incorporating motion into the shot is even more fun.
In today’s video it’s just about that. How to get awesome one time effects with adding motion to strobes and of course how to get special effects by moving the camera.

 

That Hollywood effect

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It’s weird but it does work

When we watch movies there is one thing that always draws my attention.
The flashlights.
Let me explain.

When I walk in a dark room and use my flashlight I can see the whole room light up, and… well that’s about it.
Well unless there is a LOT of dust in a room, but in those case I’ll be gone very fast.

So why is it that in almost every movie when someone enters a room there is distinct beam of light from the flashlight?
Well…. because it looks cool and draws you more into the movie.

So how do they do it?

You probably will know, but just in case.
You can get these effects by using a very nice focused flashlight and make sure the room is filled with haze, a very light smoke that is hardly visible.
In the previous posts we already talked about backlighting smoke, and that’s exactly what happens, and because the beam of light is very focused you can see the beams of light.

So how can we create something like this in our studio?

There are several solutions to create patterns in the smoke.
Of course you can chose to use a flashlight and no strobes. With modern cameras and great high iso performance this will be no problem.
When using strobes you can use for example a snoot, or a reflector with a very narrow grid and place the strobe far away from something that will project your pattern in the smoke. You can use branches, a ladder etc. As long as the strobe is far away it will create nice effects.

However if you want to do it easily and much better…

Use a gobo projector

Probably one of my favorite toys in the studio is the Westcott Lindsay Adler optical spot.
This is a device you place in front of your strobe and you can use the blades to create a light pattern but you can also place metal discs with patterns that can be projected in the smoke.
The unique feature of a gobo projector is that on the front you will find a lens that will literally focus the pattern from the gobo. This means you can place the projector close to your subject and have 100% control over the sharpness of the patterns.

So let’s take a look at how this looks.

Ok that might be nice, but how about adding two extra strobes?
By adding some colors you can spice up a shot, especially with smoke.
I’m using two Geekoto GT200s with the Rogue Magnetic system gels.
When you add too much smoke the pattern will disappear, during the workshop I often have less time to let the smoke disappear, so as you can see in the following results the smoke was a bit too thick for an optimal effect.

As you can see, adding the colors totally transforms the scene into something completely different.
Personally I like them both, but my preference are the ones with color.
However having the patterns from the back did lose some impact, so at one point we decided to raise the stand and let the projector aim down at our model.
This way the pattern will cut through the smoke a bit different and make it more visible, even when using a bit more smoke.

More fun

Working with smoke is already loads of fun, but by adding patterns or/and a Gobo projector makes it a lot more fun.
I can highly recommend getting one for your studio. Especially when you like working with smoke and emulate the old masters or film noir techniques, now that I think about it, it’s also great for fashion 😀

Next time it’s about adding motion in the smoke and the model.

Workshops

Want to learn everything about light control?
Want to visit a workshop where it’s not just shooting a model with a fixed lighting setup, but see how the setup is built and adjusted to the taste of the group?
And of course learn how to work with poses, backgrounds, small sets, styling, retouching, and a lot more…..

If this all sounds awesome, visit fotografie-workshops.nl and book your workshop.
If you don’t speak Dutch, no problem, let us know a few weeks in advance, and we can switch the workshop to English.
Not possible to travel to the Netherlands?
We got you covered with our 1:1 online workshop.
We have a full streaming setup in our studio. 4 detail cameras and of course the retouching software, so you can see every detail and of course ask questions during the day. Plus, you get all the RAW files after the workshop.

 

Using separation with smoke to glue the scene

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Sometimes it’s not black and white

People often claim that “this is the way” and “the only way”.
For photography I always think “there are more ways to do it”.
And that goes without a doubt when we work with smoke.

When I explain using smoke I often explain it’s best to first built the background and then use a small puff of smoke on the front.
This is indeed a great way to use the smoke to glue the set together, but that doesn’t mean  that you always have to use smoke in the front. Sometimes it can be great to have a real cut out effect. Especially with smoke.

So let’s take a look at the difference.

In this image I’m using no smoke on the front.
One strobe is behind the model aimed at her back, and we only used the smoke machine in the back.
The result is in this case a loss in detail in the black pants.
Would she be wearing lighter pants you would probably see some faint details, but it will be very dark.
The contrast between the background and the foreground does create a very nice image.

However if you want to glue the scene together a bit more, It will help to use a little bit of smoke in the front.
Aim the machine at the floor and wait for the smoke to drift up.
By using the floor you are in essence bouncing the smoke, making it more diffuse/haze, which works a lot better when you just want a slight “glue” effect.

Depending on how much you use it will look a little bit like this.


For me this is more natural, but loses that high contrast a bit of the first one.
In other words, both can work, but will give you a different look.

It’s always smart to first shoot a few images with only the back, smoke will often look like it’s gone but will still bounce back some light. So first shoot the background 😀
It also works great with portraits.

Next time we will start to add some effects in the smoke .

Workshops

Want to learn everything about light control?
Want to visit a workshop where it’s not just shooting a model with a fixed lighting setup, but see how the setup is built and adjusted to the taste of the group?
And of course learn how to work with poses, backgrounds, small sets, styling, retouching, and a lot more…..

If this all sounds awesome, visit fotografie-workshops.nl and book your workshop.
If you don’t speak Dutch, no problem, let us know a few weeks in advance, and we can switch the workshop to English.
Not possible to travel to the Netherlands?
We got you covered with our 1:1 online workshop.
We have a full streaming setup in our studio. 4 detail cameras and of course the retouching software, so you can see every detail and of course ask questions during the day. Plus, you get all the RAW files after the workshop.