Absolutely brilliant.1.. Hire model: http://purpleport.com
2.. Buy 10m of white voile or maybe muslin fabric
3... Put this over the model
4.. Put a studio strobe behind the model facing back towards the camera
5.. Frame up and focus
6... Ask model to pop up onto her toes and count her in... 1, 2, 3 .... shoot!
I've not used a cloth like that before (but I did buy 20m of voile last month ) however I do like a bit of backlight (light behind model facing back to camera):-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/31996637963/in/dateposted/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/29820487473/in/dateposted/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/22920595439/in/dateposted/
Yes - I think you're right Phil: the light will bounce around in the cloth to fill in the sides on her body, but the light on the face is definitely not coming from behind. I should add there are other lights around the front in my examples too.Absolutely brilliant.
I think there's possibly a V flat to reflect a bit of light back to the model camera right too
Slightly OT.Yes - I think you're right Phil: the light will bounce around in the cloth to fill in the sides on her body, but the light on the face is definitely not coming from behind. I should add there are other lights around the front in my examples too.
Slightly OT.
But I do love your work and your 'how to' postings Owen - I've just realised I maybe haven't mentioned it before. I try to maintain a 'don't write too many sycophantic posts' strategy.
This means keeping the background far enough away so by the time light reaches it, it's diminished in intensity. If the background is the same tone (shade) as the subject the the light needs to fall off by about 3 to 4 stops. It falls off by 2 stops every time you double the distance between the background and the light.
Why not a selfie? I bet you'd look gorgeous draped in muslin!@Scooter don't worry about posting links or hijacking a thread it's great to see other ideas and learning how the shot was taken is a great insight.
Thanks for the input guys . I am borrowing a tailors dummy to stage the shot first to save time with my model.
Lmao I think notWhy not a selfie? I bet you'd look gorgeous draped in muslin!
Funny enough I've been looking at 8x4 black/white poly board's. I am going to try as many variations of the shot as I can and try to better the original image.Owen has explained it very well.
It's actually just a simple semi-silhouette. A true silhouette, at its simplest, would involve bouncing a light off of a wall, with the light hitting the wall and nothing else.
A semi silhouette, again at it's simplest, would be the same but with a fill light at the camera position putting some light onto the model.
What you are aiming at here is a silhouette where you light the rear only of what is effectively a tent that's surrounding the model. If you want a semi-silhouette, again you put a weak fill light at the camera position.
But that isn't what the photographer did in your example, all of the light was from the rear, but it was overexposed, and light also bounced around the room, and these two factors (or faults IMO) created the semi-silhouette that we see..
Also, apart from the unsharpness, the thing that jumps out and hits me is that much of what should have been a simple shot was rescued (to some extent) on computer. Now, some computer work is always necessary, but it should be done to turn a really good shot into an outstanding one, not to rescue a poor one, and frankly you will be able to do much better if you control both the quality and the quantity of the light.
If you have the space, put black boards (big ones) either side of the model and just out of shot, angled exactly the same as the shape of her tent, this will add a dark edge that will really create some oomph.
Also, apart from the unsharpness, the thing that jumps out and hits me is that much of what should have been a simple shot was rescued (to some extent) on computer. Now, some computer work is always necessary, but it should be done to turn a really good shot into an outstanding one, not to rescue a poor one, and frankly you will be able to do much better if you control both the quality and the quantity of the light.
I was going to say that... this could be so much better with a bit of attention to detail.