Kay en Cabaret

Bilsen

The latest in my studio experiments this winter, here's Kay doing Liza (if Liza was this gorgeous). Insanely gorgeous and incredibly sexy, I'd have to say she nailed it.

Let me save you all some trouble --- The spotlight effect and the hard shadows are intentional. They are integral to the concept. Of course, everything else is fair game.

As always, click the first image for the full gallery.



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divamum

Nice set. But why not pull her further away from the background? It feels cramped to me when she's that pushed back.

I'd actually say you could go harder with the shadows for the "Cabaret" effect you want. That said, it poses some challenges - I'll be interested to see what dgrin's studio-light pundits say about getting soft light on the face for flattering, while still getting harsh shadows behind. My guess is you can only do it by adopting Hollywood-style lighting with multiple lights with different modifiers and careful positioning, but maybe there's another way......

Bilsen

Easy answer to question 1 Diva. The studio doesn't have the room to move farther away.

As for the rest, I'd LOVE to hear from the lighting gurus about the soft light/hard shadow solution.
This lighting was just one light with a barn door closed into a tight position and, occasionally, a 40 degree grid.

Thanks for jumping in.

novicesnapper

I also agree, that she nailed it. LOVE the shadowing, well done. Even the hair shadow. But a small tiny nit, 1 and 5 need to have the large dust spot cloned out. Camera right, towards the upper section. May be time to clean the sensor. If I was ambitious, I would burn a few of the shadows even more to increase the effect.

Bilsen

Thanks Novice. I see the dust and I agree, time for a cleaning. Thanks as always.

Bilsen

So much for hearing from the lighting gurus.

novicesnapper

I'm learning right along with you Bilsen, but I'm having a hard time keeping up lol.
Just a tip to check sensor dust. On a clear blue day, go out and shoot at the sky, make sure nothing else is in the image, just blue sky, preferably tripoded, low iso (low noise). Turn the fstop to the highest number (stop down) and take a picture. Go back in and download the picture and zoom it 100%, and look for dust or grease smears. Some dust is livable, some isn't. This is how I found a huge grease smear in one whole corner of my sensor. Definitely affecting the quality.

FlyNavy

I love the shadows on the wall. Nice work!

lilmomma

didn't read all the comments but the shadows on the wall work for a few but not for others. I don't have "studio" experience so I can't help you there. other than that I think your posing is great!

Bilsen

Thanks all.

Kay is really easy to work with.

anonymouscuban

Not sure if I qualify as a lighting guru but the biggest problem that you face for casting stronger shadows is your small studio space. You need to use a high contrast light. IOW, a small, high intensity light source. Think gridded spots or snooted lights. For a bit soft light, you can try a small gridded softbox but your space may be too small. Not sure. The trick is to move the light further from the subject until you get the shadow detail you want.

#4 is pretty good. Replicate what you do there. I suspect the light was furthest from the model in that shot since you had to pan out a bit to get her completely in frame.

Aleksandar Vasic

Very beautiful model.
This model should be given more attention.

novicesnapper

I wonder if you could use a soft light for the larger spot effect, and another with a snoot for a harder shadow? Kind of let the two lights overlap? With the more intense light creating the hard shadow?

Hackbone

Small light source gives harsher shadows than larger light sources. A light source far away gives harsher shadows than up close. Then diffusion and the material comes into play . However recreating exactly what George Hurrell accomplished would be difficult today. He used plate cameras and the emulsion was grainy. Also f stops of f22 and 3 sec exposures were common. He also used 30 inch fresnel lights pretty far away. Todays lenses are much sharper than his. So to do exactly that type of lighting today is difficult. We can only come close.

Can you get back further or smaller lens to get her off the bkg?

divamum

Looking at these again - I'm pretty sure the way to get the hard shadows you want while still flattering the model is multiple lights. For instance, in #3, a softbox from above and close to her (and maybe more to the front) for her face, and then a hard unmodified light from below left to cast the shadow to the right and above. Maybe a third light adding some soft fill to her face from the same direction as the one casting the backdrop shadow.

If you haven't already, you really should get hold of Roger Hicks' Hollywood Portraits. He reverse engineers a bunch 30s and 40s studio shots (including many by Hurrell), including styles such as this. Many of them use more than 3 lights to create the effects. Regardless of whether you can (or want to) exactly duplicate that look, it is a FABULOUS read and very informative

Bilsen

Thanks all.

Hack and Cuban, Novice and Diva, thanks for the ideas.