Not Work Safe, so a link: http://journalpix.com/Carly/Carly-102406-019.jpg

Here is a glimpse into my learning process. From October 15 through November 15, I have the unique opportunity to shoot whatever I want. Hot Shots is on holiday break and I have no client work on my plate. I've chosen to teach myself some very difficult setups and lighting using smoke and gelled strobes.

This shot combines smoke in a narrow space and two gelled strobes, both with dark blue gels. One is behind the model and to the right and the other is a key in front of the model and about 15 feet away. I shot this with a Nikon D200, which has about 10 effective megapixels. One challenge here is that 99% of the information is in the blue range, so I'm essentially using a 4 megapixel camera, considering that, for the most part, only the blue sensors are firing.

Getting the lighting right so that the smoke shows up properly, I don't overdrive it and start to get detail on the model's lower body (the point being to use the smoke to occlude), yet still get some detail in the breasts and face... well, it's tough. And I'm still learning.

As such, if you have experience with this kind of setup, I'd love to hear your thoughts and advice. Perhaps a non-gelled strobe with a snoot on the face? Perhaps a non-gelled grid from above as a hair light?

I stop learning when I die.

This is very cool.

What about two different colors? Red and blue or blue and yellow. Keep the light ratio slightly lower/higher on one of your lights, that way you will retain more color detail and it will also add some shadow interest. Check out Mert Atlas and Marcus Piggot. Their work is fashion based but their studio stuff is gel-based and amazing.. also David Sims does some really cool stuff. His Jil Sander ad campaigns come to mind.

Here and here and here.

Very cool, and very challenging. Please share what you learn!!!