Color nude medium format photography

One of the few shooting I have made in a studio. Shot with Kodak portra and home processed with C41

Bath of light. A portrait in black and white.

A portrait of Noelí bathed in a one point light imitating the north light. Taken on Tmaxx 400 with Hassy.

Portrait of a tattooed girl

I liked the shadows light drew on the model's back enhancing the portrait with sensuality.

Light Tip. Preventing power surge damage. How to turn the lights on.

Are you going to light a scene? Remember that when you turn the light on, the electric intensity goes up around 20% than the normal (i.e.: when light is normally on). For example, let's say you have 3 Tungsten lamps of 1000w each and the maximum power your installation can offer is 3300w. Which is fine because you only need 3000w in total: you still have enough watts to connect your PC and a battery charger.

But, if you add that 20% extra lights need to be turned on, you'll find yourself that you are exceeding the maximum power by 300w:

3 x 1000w = 3000w

20% of 3000w = 600w  

3000w + 600w = 3600w > 3300w

In order to protect your equipment (or the one you are renting) you should always turn the lights on one by one, leaving enough room for the light to get that 20% extra of energy needed.

Now that lights are on, start shooting!

Knowing Light. Lighting set-ups (IV)

Missed part III? read it  here.

Let's continue with more light set-ups.

Rim Lighting. If the Key light is placed behind the subject only the outline will be illuminated leaving the subject in shadow. It is used to create silhouettes and express a sense of mystery and intrigue in a very artistic way. You can choose to soften the effect by placing a Fill light or a reflector in font of the subject. Rim lighting is very often used in conjunctions with more lights because it helps to separate the subjects from the background and to highlight hair.

Back lighting. When the rim lighting is not that extreme we have a light set-up which is especially used for translucent objects like bottles and glasses. The key light is normally doubled: two lights of equal power are placed on both side of the subject. You can either choose to light directly the subject or bounce the light with a white background. In both cases you have to be careful with light spills: to prevent this you need to use flags and lens hood.

High key lighting. This set-up is characterized for very bright mid tones, intentionally blown highlights and very few shadows. The key light is positioned on one side of the subject at 45º, while the fill light in the opposite side at the same degree. The background has to be white and illuminated by two background lights of the same power.

All these lighting set-ups are really variations of the triangle set-up we seen in this post. These are the basis but you have to feel free to add or remove lights, change positions, directing the subject towards one light or another and move around: you'll see how light and its effects change by doing so. This is the best way of learning to master light: practise and experiment.

Knowing Light. Lighting set-ups (I) The basis.

Unlike natural light, artificial light can be controlled to our discretion in every way: direction, intensity, angle, colour... When in a studio, you have infinite options to light a subject; there are photographers who only light with one lamp, others use 6, 7, 8 different lamps. There's not really a rule to decide the number of light points to use: what is important is getting the illumination and shadows you wanted with a light setting you are comfortable working with. 

If you are getting started to studio light, it may help you to know that there are some basics lighting set-ups most of photographers work with. But before explaining them it is essential to know the types of light yon can employ in a studio.

Key light. It gives the direction of light and the level of luminance of the scene (it's the most powerful lamp lighting the scene).

Fill light. It is used to fill up the shadows and reduce contrast. It may fall all over the scene or just on a part of it. It can be replaced by a reflector bouncing the key light.

Rim light. It is positioned behind the subject pointed to the subject's back. It separates the subject from the background creating a halo around the subject's outline.

Background light. As it name suggests, it lights the whole background or some small parts of it we want to emphasize.  It can be also used for creating patterns of light on a Cyclorama. 

Hair light. Similar to rim light but positioned higher and pointed to the hair highlighting it.

Texture light. Positioned on one side of the subjects. It is a must in fashion photography  because it reveals texture and the nature of the material.

Colour light. A frontal light which helps with colour saturation.

Now that you know the basis you are ready for the following step: how to position them. So stay tuned for the next post!

How I did it. Artistic nude colour portrait. A light diagram

When I made this portrait I had in mind some Flemish paintings in which the light is just on the subject, leaving the surroundings in almost complete darkness creating a strong sense of mystery. I had no doubts on how to position lights, but the problem was that I wanted this portrait to look like a painting. With a digital camera I would have add some kind of texture in the editing. but how could I do it with a film camera?

Kodak Portra 400 f4 t1/250

The picture was taken on Kodak Portra 400 with a medium Format camera which was positioned in front of the model at her height. I chose a 80mm lens because I wanted the proportions to be as natural as possible. I used just a key light on the right side of the camera, almost at one side of the model and slightly tilted down. By this I would have manage to recreate the atmosphere I was looking for and, by using just one light, I also achieved the "sfumato" I was after.

I also added a background light: it's on the left side and pointing far away from the framed background so that just the fall-off would enter the picture. By that I added depth to the image, thus maintaining my sfumato. I corrected the background light with a blue filter  to add contrast with the orange tones of the model's skin.

To create the painting look I knew that using a shallow depth of field would have helped me. Shooting at f2.8 would have been a bit too much, so I set the aperture at f4. The 500w flash was at 1/4 of its power  and the shutter speed was at t1/250 but the exposure metering was not the one I wanted. 

I could have changed the shutter speed at t1/500 (I can do that with my camera without flash sync problems) but I would have only gained one stop: I needed more. So I used a 0,6 ND, a neutral density filter which stops down 2 diaphragms.

To add e sense of ethereal and help with the sfumato I left the model slightly out of focus (soft focus). But I need a certain texture and this time grains would not have been sufficient. I decided to do this with the development of the film. I used C-41 colour processing and I under developed the negative which made the blacks softer, added a particular grain structure which works really well as texture but also added some colour shift in the blacks which, after all, also helps to the purpose, don't you think so?

How I did it. Black and white artistic nude photography. A light diagram

Artistic nude photography is one of my favourite kind of photography and something I really enjoy taking on black and white film. Here is a picture I made some time ago and the diagram of lights I used.

TMax400 - f8 - t1/125

This picture was taken on a Kodak TMax 400 with a Medium Format camera. The model was quite small as well as the space. in order to enhance her height I used a 50mm lens (which is an angular lens in MF) and positioned the camera really close to her right knee and played with perspective. The position of the legs and the right arm helped to my purpose, conferring to the whole image a certain dynamism.

As you can see in the diagram below, I used a three point light setting. The Key Light was a 1000w flash with square softbox on camera right, slightly tilted down at 1/2 power. I flagged it to avoid light spells on the background.

On the left of the camera I put a 500w flash also with softbox, the Fill light, at 1/4 of the power and more distant from the model than the Key light in order to fill up the shadows on the legs but at the same time to achieve the contrast I wanted. It was also flagged to prevent the light to fall on the background and more areas of the body other than the legs.

I placed the Background light behind the model, at 1/2 the power and with a snoot, which created   the circle of light at her back.

I used a yellow filter Y8 to get a brighter skin tone and shot at f8 and t1/125.

I like film grain very much and normally I want them to gain presence in the print, so control it with agitation during the development of the negative.

The image was then scanned and went trough Photoshop only to place the watermark and to reduce it to web size.

Hope you enjoyed this post, now it's time to practise!