LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
I always enjoy showing that you don't need a ton o' gear to create good studio shots, even classic portraits. Hopefully this will encourage you guys just starting out with a couple of Alien Bees or something similar. No excuses if you think it through first!
I recently had a couple of music-related magazine assignments, which I love to do. This is one of them, shot for Lake & Sumter Style Magazine's 08 Fall Arts Issue. It's a portrait of a local jazz musician named Paul Luciano.
I say local, but like many in this area, he's actually retired after a fairly remarkable career playing in bands all around the country, most notable a stint in Guy Lombardo's touring band. A fascinating man and gifted musician...
Shot at his home, I knew exactly the image I wanted to create. An older gentleman with a great deal of character, I knew a dramatic side-lit shot would work, and I knew I could pull it off using just two lights. After finding some beautiful deep red curtains in one of the rooms that made the perfect bg, I set up.
Looking at the lighting diagram below, you can see the medium soft box to the camera-right side is the key. Having Paul's right side (camera left) in complete shadow was an option, but it would mean his right hand and most of his saxophone would go dark. It would definitely get lost on his dark suit.
I though it would be better to bring out just a hint of detail, especially in the gold of the instrument. So I placed a large white panel to his right to reflect a bit of the key back onto him and open up that dark area just a little.
Now the spread of the key did light the bg some, enough so I knew I wouldn't need a seperate light on the drapes. In fact, it was so much that I decided to set up a black scrim (light panel) on the right behind the softbox to keep the bg darker and moodier.
Still, I wanted to make sure there was a little more seperation of Paul from the bg. The easiest way to do that without throwing light all over the place, and adding some classic style at the same time was to aim a gridded spot high behind him down onto his head and back.
I didn't want the accent light to compete for attention with the key, so I powered it a stop or so lower, and that did the trick, creating a very delicate rim effect.
As for the two images of Paul you see here, the one on the left gives you a wider view closer to full-frame. It's the way I shot all the frames to give me some cropping options.
The image on the right is the finished crop.
The final shot has some post-production editing in photoshop to clean everything up as well as add a muted but saturated color palette to give it a smokey jazz lounge feel.
BTW, the crop and composition was done keeping in mind this was for magazine publication, meaning I left negative space for type and possible banner graphics should they decide to use it on the cover. I also knew the their art department could smooth out any tonal "bumps" in the bg or cover those areas up if they wanted to.
Reply With Quote
And, as you can see, they extended the bg curtains to cover the entire frame, and smoothed out the uneven tones as well...
