I learned to light after years of deconstructing the work of other photographers. And I know from your previous feedback that you guys are fond of these posts, so let’s dig into another one.
How did I make this picture?
Is it a lucky snapshot?
Is it lit?
If so, how?
The camera Settings?
The direction?
Post production?
Whatever details you think are needed to make this image.
Looking forward to you trying to pick this apart… I’ll reveal everything in a followup post. The person who gets the closest gets… …a chest bump and a pizza, or signed book or something. Don’t be shy. Let er rip.
Shot has compression, so I’m thinking you’re shooting with a 70-200mm.
This, added to the fact that it has a huge depth of field, means in turn that you are using a quite high F-stop, like F16 at least. Which would also explain the absence of ambient light in the shot.
To freeze the motion, you don’t really need high shutter speed because you have the strobes to do that. So, it could easily be 200th.
There’s no clue as to whether this is a stage or a studio, but I’m going with stage, because a jump like this means some sort of space to run.
I don’t think this is a live performance, because no dancer I know would – in his right mind – be flashed right between the eyes during a live performance.
This can in turn mean that softboxes, or other form of huge light modifiers could’ve been used, no problem. However, this light could also be: one natural indirect light (probably camera right) and a single strobe with a softbox to the left.
Recap:
– D3 – 70-200 – F16@250th
– One strobe, camera left, softbox; mixed with indirect light, camera right.
– rehearsal, or non-production performance
– stage, or big studio
– Preproduction to increase the contrast and turn the photo black and white.
I’m guessing this was shot on a cyc wall, it could even be a white one. Gridded beauty dish camera left to get somewhere between super hard light and soft light and gridded to avoid any spill on the backdrop. Gridded strobe camera right about a stop hotter. I’m guessing the composition come from a crop in post and the original was shot in landscape mode to allow the dancer more room to move and less of a spot to hit. This gives some leeway to the dancer and the director. Perhaps this is why the strobe on the right is a little brighter than the left one as well; as the dancer moved around she came closer to the right strobe for this particular shot.
Camera is probably f/16 at 1/250th to kill the ambient completely. Desaturated in post, and then many many curves layers to emphasize or deemphasize certain parts of the picture. For example, the right side of the dancers right leg and the right side of her left hand are perfectly exposed, but the image is clipped (at least on my monitor) in the hair and in the toe of the right foot. The leg and arm are what give the photo motion and make it of the dancer. Her face is left extremely contrasty and hair and chest are deemphasized because this isn’t a picture of this person, but a picture of motion and dancing.
Looks definitely iPhone 4ish..
You lit her from her left back, as her right arm is in shade while the left arm is highlighted. You also lit her from the right, as we can see mid section shade along her right leg. I think you must have been above her and to the right of her, as you snapped her in mid jump.
f11-f16 for large DOF. you could have planed this view and ask for this position, or you could have done a continuos shoot and picket the right one.
Fast shutter speed 1/500th prob.
Low ISO.
Maybe some post to get some detail back from the shadow and of course to get it BW and take care of the black background.
Hmmm nice image,
Jump, pop. High contrast, left and right side lights, slightly behind the plane of the dancer shooting a little forward. Maybe a little harder on the camera right light. Lots of watt seconds/high f stop to allow blackout background. Post might just be tweaking contrast.