Unadorned Wall

Now that Kristin is nude, we do some work against the living room wall.

Now that the digital camera is working, at least for the moment, I take advantage of the pivoting LCD screen to do some low angle images.

I usually position myself & the camera between the high soft light and the model, but this time, I move to the far side of the model, creating a shadowy light. I love looking at firm, flat bellies (partially because I don't have one).

Perhaps I shouldn't mention this, but I will: Kristin wasn't feeling 100% well during this sitting; she had the sniffles, and in certain poses, she would have coughing fits. At every opportunity, she threw on this comfy terrycloth robe, despite heating the room as warm as possible. As it turns out, I like photographing her in & out of this robe.

The concept was to have a main light to the model's right side. Normally, this would cast a large shadow on the model's left side, and I dislike single light source images, where the model's off side is in shadow in front of a background shadow. In the past, I've been known to add a second light to highlight the model's off side, but when I recently photographed Lydia, I threw the light onto the wall & let her off side be in shadow. I decided to build on this concept.

Here's the first exposure, and I found that the wall light was too bright. (That's the advantage of using the digital camera, checking the lights). After this, I reduce that light's brightness and get to work.

To a small degree, my old strobe power pack allowed me to vary the power to the second strobe head. A simpler solution is to move the strobe head away from its target. That's what we do.

Much better! I like how the off side wall light is balanced with the side lit by the main light; I like how the light bounces off the wall to highlight Kristin's shape. I like how the shadow on the bottom right corner of the image anchors the image, and I like how the soft, soft main light from the extra large soft box looks on Kristin's face & figure. The muted colors are a bonus.

Here's a film-based image. I still like the tonality I can achieve with film.

I'm falling in love with this lighting. We make lots of exposures.

This is the same image with two different croppings. My very first camera was a rangefinder, which meant that my viewfinder didn't always accurately represent the edges of the exposed image. So, I got in the habit of stepping back a few inches & cropping all the pictures. I don't mind cropping -- several photographers take pride in using all their negative, even including some of the negative frame in their prints. Not me -- I am happy to crop images for the best composition.

Which do you like the best? Me -- I like the one on the right. I think the line caused by the dark baseboard distracting.

Okay, now I'm thinking about the baseboard. Also, using a light colored wall tends to present some challenges, particularly with reflected light. So, I decide to put up my favorite backdrop, and we wind up with some of the best light I've been able to craft ever.

This sitting continues with Old Master Painter Light