Rangefinder - February 2016

FULLY LIT

Stormy Raven

The mood I wanted for this raven gown, by Xiaolin, would
require a dark and stormy sky, with more dramatic light on
the model’s face. I started by testing all natural light with
my assistant as the stand-in model. First I exposed for the ambient
light on the face, but the background went completely over-
exposed. Next, I underexposed the ambient light by several stops,
shooting at f/16. I started to love the texture in the clouds and
mysterious glow in the sky, but because my subject’s face went
completely dark, I brought in the Profoto B1, which gives me more
powerful output. In addition, I set up a Profoto beauty dish with a grid,
for more focused and flattering light on my subject’s face. It went to the
right of the frame to a slightly short position, allowing the shadows on
the face to fall toward the camera for more drama. With a small
aperture, I turned my strobe to full power and brought it very close to
my subject. If I didn’t want to shoot at a small aperture, I could have
used Neutral Density filters to cut down on ambient light and open up
to wider apertures.

Keep in mind that you will need to utilize the aperture to dramatically underexpose ambient light without exceeding your camera’s sync speed (typically 1/200 sec on most DSLRs). Profoto’s B1 with Air Remote TTL will allow you the capability to use high-speed sync capabilities to shoot at faster shutter speeds if desired.