Vanessa’s test shoot

When booking models for shoots, I prefer to have worked with a model before hand so that I know what looks they are capable of, how well they work on set, and how we work together. I like to do the same when possible for backgrounds, sets, or unique lighting setups. Setting up a test shoot allows all those things to happen.

This particular shoot was a test in order to try out a few sets I had built for an upcoming shoot. It was a simple set to construct, but I knew there could be lighting challenges based on the reflective surfaces in play, and all the light sources that would be used. A test was in order to make things go smoothly on the actual production shoot.

But the real success of the shot was finding this model, Vanessa. Very confident in her posing and very easy to shoot. For glamour shoots, I would have no qualms about hiring or recommending her to my clients. I don’t shoot glamour all that often, but when something comes up, I’ll definitely check Vanessa’s availability. Striking looks, quick to throw out pose after pose, and with nearly perfect skin (I didn’t do any retouching to Vanessa, save a blemish here and there).

The lighting and background was far more problematic. The background is nothing more than a few strings of Christmas lights dangling from a background stand. The lights were placed in front of two 4′x8′ sheets of silver insulation panels. The insulation panels were basically covered in a silver foil, and very reflective. I wanted the reflective qualities of the panels in order to accent the Christmas lights. This gave the background more depth, and made it look deeper than a single layer of Christmas light would have been alone, and gave the impression of twice as many lights.

This was all well and good, but I knew I was going to have problems keeping the main lights from reflecting off the sliver panels and washing out the background. I spent quite a bit of time flagging all the lights in order to eliminate all the reflections. When all was said and done, the model had very little room to pose, about an arms width with no forward or rearward movement. Even with those restrictions, she performed very well.

Since she had such great skin that it allowed me to use tungsten lighting for the direct and secular quality they tend to give off, while not exaggerating skin issues. It also made it easier to balance the background Christmas lights, and kept the model warm since the studio was a bit on the cool side that evening. It was rather cold out and the heating system was trying to keep up.

Here is a lighting diagram for the basic setup. I modified it with kicker lights on the right and left rear behind the gobos for some images (but not this one shown).

Copyright 2008 Stephen Faust, all rights reserved. Boston Commercial Photographer, http://www.StephenFaust.com

~ by sfaust on February 11, 2008.