Keira Almost Glamorous

Yes, I often return to reoccurring themes during my photo sessions. For example, I will probably start nearly all of my sessions with the "Getting Started" theme, like I did for the images on the first page from these session.
But I also want to try something different or new each session. With any luck, I'll expand my skills, and bonus -- I might create a new & interesting image. Finding something new to do, however, is easier said than done.

Inspiration can come for many different sources. Sometimes I might see a photograph that makes me want to try something similar. Sometimes, I just think about the habits I've formed & challenge myself to do the opposite while creating interesting images. Both these techniques are at work here:

	Lately, I've been using larger & larger soft boxes, so the opposite would be using a harder light (i.e. a smaller soft box or simply smaller reflectors).
	I've seen some glamour images which feature a hard light somewhat above the model & close to the model.

So, that's what I'm trying here -- there's a hard main light above & in front of Keira (look at the shadow of her chin on her neck), and there's a fill light below the camera to soften the hard shadows somewhat. In addition, since featuring Keira's hair is a theme for this session, there is a hair light highlighting her hair.

So, that's what we play with for a while.

Okay -- first learned lesson: Normally, I design lighting setups that allow models a little freedom of movement. This lighting, however, changes radically for every little change in position by Keira. That's often the case when the light source is close to the model -- little changes can result in radical changes in the light.

Keira does a marvelous job with the restrictions of the setup. And to compensate, we take the opportunity to play with Keira's hair.

In retrospect: this was an interesting lighting setup, but in practice, it was restrictive, and we couldn't generate the kind of variations that we typically like.
So here's a tip for all photographers -- when in doubt (e.g. when things aren't moving), give the model something to do with her hands. I give Keira a red scarf, and she immediately plays with it by tying up her hair.

I still consider myself to be a B&W photographer, and I think I still greatly prefer B&W images. But to be fair, some of my aversion to color images might come from my inability to balance the color. The colors here are fine -- the red of the scarf works well with Keira's skin tone & her brown hair, but the color balance is off -- to me, the color image looks a tad too magenta. I had always assumed that strobes were daylight color balanced, but I'm wrong. In future sessions, the least I can do is choose the "tungsten" color balance setting in my camera -- I should probably learn how to custom set the color balance based on the actual setting & lighting. I did try to use my photo editing software to adjust the color balance, and I failed to find acceptable settings. (I do love it when I discover new things I've got to learn). In the meantime, I'm quite happy using my sepia toning. I'll present a mix of color & sepia here.

The theory says: If some is good, then more is better. My original idea was that Keira would animate the scarf, draping it across her figure, but as soon as I handed it to her, she immediately did her magic & used it to tie up her hair, and I liked the result.

But the original intent was to give Keira something to occupy her hands (since she really couldn't move around much). So, we grabbed a branch of curly willow that I had hanging around.

... But our curly willow detour doesn't last long.
When I look at a photograph & assess its aesthetics, I often start by asking "why?". If I can't come up with a good answer, I tend to dismiss the image.

In this case, I couldn't tell you "why" Keira was holding the curly willow branch. There was no purpose, and therefore, the curly willow was simply an affectation. So, we drop it, but I allow Keira to move a little more.

Keira moves very well and does an excellent job in working within the restrictions of the setting.

I'm glad we tried this setup. I do find the light to be interesting, but I think that this light is more suited to close up headshots. We don't stay with this lighting -- we move on to another idea.

Keira, The Back Stairs