Mid-century modern

JonaBeth Russell

It's more & more of a theme these days, this type of style & decor, and I will admit...I love it! Photographing it is always a fun time and challenge, getting the lighting dialed in properly, watching for reflections, planning out the final edit process before hitting the shutter button....fun stuff!

This is a flash-ambient blended image. There are 3 flash frames (1 to fill the room, 1 to fill the room & add light above the window seat, 1 color corrected & bumped in exposure to clean up the discoloration from the dark slider door), 1 exterior ambient (in case I missed a reflection in a window somewhere), and 1 interior ambient, blended later to control light direction via luma layering.

Gear nerd stuff:
Sony a7Riii + Canon 24mm TS-E via Metabones adapter
AD600B for room fill
AD200 for additional light (motivated by slider door opening)
v860ii on a stick for additional light (motivated by window seat opening)

Enjoy & thanks for viewing!

Cornflake

Beautifully done. It's as if you'd had practice.

Juano

Wow, I'm such a fan of your work!

I hope I'm not being heretic here, but I feel that the window on the left could be toned down a bit.

Stumblebum

Killed it! Bravo JBR!

black mamba

There's nothing easy about dancing around with lighting like you often have to do. I'm always impressed with your results. BTW, JonaBeth,, I was forced to go through Gatlinburg a short while back. Geeeze....I didn't know there was that many people in the world. My buddy thought I had taken him to Las Vegas.

willard3

This is excellent and the even lighting is a credit to your experience.

El Gato

Masterful lighting and imaging!

Wonderful work...a printable, "photo-editor approved" image that could expertly compliment and enhance an article in Architectural Digest or Dwell magazine!

Well done! 👏🏼

JonaBeth Russell

Wow everyone, thank you so much for these wonderful replies! You all honor me with such compliments, they're not taken lightly.

@black mamba said:
There's nothing easy about dancing around with lighting like you often have to do. I'm always impressed with your results. BTW, JonaBeth,, I was forced to go through Gatlinburg a short while back. Geeeze....I didn't know there was that many people in the world. My buddy thought I had taken him to Las Vegas.

Oh man, you went through during the onset of tour season! The national park gets around 12 Million visitors per year, and consequently Gatlinburg gets around 11.9999999 million of them I think. isn't that insane???

@Juano said
Wow, I'm such a fan of your work!

I hope I'm not being heretic here, but I feel that the window on the left could be toned down a bit.

Thank you! I toyed with toning down that window as well. I ended up sticking with matching the sky/water/tree exposures best I could but I think what needs to happen is isolate the sand on the beach, and pull it down from nuclear to something more appealing.

For those who might enjoy the BTS stuff....here are the frames that made it happen.

1. Base flash frame, emulating light from the openings. There's the obvious 'flash on a stick' in the scene, and to the right, out of frame, is an AD200 bouncing light onto the backs of the chairs and in the direction motivated by the opening itself. The AD200 and the out of frame AD600B stay in place for the entirety of the set.
   

2. Fill flash frame, used only to wipe out the flash burn and myself from the scene.
   

3. Fill flash with exposure bumped up, and color corrected only to match the slider door opening. The existing window tint causes weird discoloration, so needs to be corrected.
   

4. Exterior ambient frame to wipe out any stray reflections in the windows
   

5. Interior ambient frame. This one is all about how the image will 'feel' in the end, as it sets the mood of the scene through light direction and exposure. This one is important to have dialed in properly for that blending.
   

Juano

Great work!