Yulia -- More Studio Light

When Yulia & I agreed to work together, I knew that I wanted to try at least one setup to refine that studio up light scheme (previous page), and I wanted to develop a setup to take advantage of Yulia's unusual hair.

Before I leave the basic lighting from the Studio Up Light setup, I move in close to have some fun with the digital camera's ability to give me unusual angles (utilizing the pivoting LCD screen for framing exposures) and its very wide angle lens distortion.

I ask Yulia to give me a "don't touch" hand gesture. I had to encourage her to bring her hand really, really close to the lens. Here, her hand is just a couple of inches away from the digital camera.

Maybe this isn't "high art", but I think these images are lots of fun.

The low & wide angle exposures, above, were simply a momentary diversion. Here's the setup I had in mind for the next series of exposures.

I wanted to figure out a way to light Yulia's crazy curly hair. Here's a digital test image. The changes:

The up light is now a down light, positioned above & behind Yulia, intended to highlight her hair.
The canvas backdrop has been added.
A second soft box light is added, so that there are soft boxes to either side of the model.

I tend to crumple up the canvas backdrop between sittings, because I like the wrinkle texture. How the light hits the backdrop is very significant -- here, all the lights skim the backdrop from the sides & the top, thereby creating wrinkle shadows. If the lighting was flatter (i.e. if the light sources were closer to the camera position), those shadows would have been reduced.

Take a look at that test image above. I find that sometimes I wind up designing a lighting scheme that is terrific for figures but less than terrific for faces, and that's the case above. When Yulia faces me, the sides of her face are lit, but there is a bit of shadow right down the middle of her face.

A solution is to turn her face towards one of the light sources, as is done here.

I don't photograph models' backs often enough. I really like women's backs, but my style is to have a conversation with the model during the sitting, and as a natural consequence, she tends to be facing me. I'm aware of this & on my mental "checklist" for a sitting includes ensuring that I make some exposures like this one.

Do we like how this lighting highlights Yulia's crazy curly hair?

Keep tuned -- some fabulous back pictures are coming!

Another side by side comparison of a digital (left) and film (right) image. I definitely like the film image. Yulia has a wonderfully lovely back, and I particularly like the "architecture" of her shoulder blade.

Here's a favorite from the sitting. I like Yulia's muscularity & the side peek of her breast. Her posture was great.

In fact, at the moment, I was working with the film camera, and this was one of those times when I knew, just knew, that we had created an image destined to be a favorite. I was so excited, I asked Yulia to repeat the pose for a digital exposure (below).

I really like this one, too -- in fact, I think I like it a bit more. In this case, the lower contrast gives us a bit more of a glimpse of Yulia's face, and a subtle change in the position of her right arm changed the shadow on her face.

Both these images are film based.
I've been noticing that I like the base of the neck & the shoulders of a fit model like Yulia. I also notice that I usually don't do close up body parts photography, something I'm going to need to do soon.

I try to devote at least part of each sitting to working on my weaknesses. One of my weaknesses is that I'm much better at photographing vertical models as opposed to horizontal models. I invite Yulia to the floor, so that we can try to make some images, like this one, above.

Yulia has too much energy to lie down during a sitting. She moves around on the floor, and I make a variety of exposures.

Here's a secret -- don't tell Yulia: I get nervous about skin on this floor. This is the original wood floor of the house, some 115 years old. Rub against it the wrong way, and you might wind up with splinters. I wear slippers on it year round.

One final image from this sitting, this time in color.

I have to admit that Yulia wore me out! By the end of the sitting, I was pooped. Yulia left the sitting with me for another sitting, and I ran upstairs to look at the digital images from the sitting. I was greatly pleased. These images are much better than my typical first sitting with a new-to-me model work. A tiny little bit had to do with meeting & talking to Yulia at my party and a lot to do with Yulia's experience & skill as a model. I was even able to print a few 4x6 prints before Yulia returned from her other sitting -- it's always nice to surprise someone with something that they didn't expect. I look forward to working with her again, very soon.