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.
I am probably going out on a big lim here, but it looks like this to me:
1. She is standing on her toe, on some sort of transparent material
2. There are 2 light sources, one on the lower right and one on the upper left. I am thinking the one on the lower right is grided.
3. Camera is a Mamia
4. since she is standing and not jumping the settings on the camera do not have to be too fast, just fast enough to sync, but the background going black would suggest a large aperture or a seamless black background.
Either way, I am glad you help us out by doing these, it really makes me stop and think!
Wow, I can see all of those thoughts, of above, below, and in front of a jump. Though flexible I don’t think she could get here leading leg at that angle in a jump if you were above her, so I think that’s out. The other two are very plausible. The toe she would be on point on is flat and dark like she is standing on it, though the shoe may just be that flat on the end, but I think I’ll go with that you are under her with a Plexiglas floor for her.
The light is mildly soft, so not giant octas or anything. Maybe 48″x36″ (vertically) softboxes on either side of her. The one left of camera is higher (her head level) and slightly behind her and the one right of camera is lower (her hip level) and slightly in front of her.
I can see the possibilities to post either on pointe from below or in splits from above, particularly given the perfect light pattern on her face, but I think Chase typically leans towards authenticity with ‘athletes’ to I’m going to say she was jumping. Also I think she would be off balance if on pointe. Given that positioning for our dancer she was lit with two lights, hard sources but maybe a little bigger than a standard reflector (beauty dish?). One directly left of her and slightly above the other to the right, slightly behind but about level. Shooting at max sync speed, subject frozen with the flash.
Is it Lucky or Staged? Big question. The give away for me is the difference in the highlight and shadow transitions on the legs cf the arms.particularly around the back foot. This tells me the “barckground” was masked out in post production and made black. She’s posed on the floor. The camera position then is in front and above the model. Light are low, left is a soft box set to glance the length of the body of the model, on the right are two spots with grids backed up well back. Unless there is some luck masking by the model’s left arm, the hair was masked as there is no edge highlights like on the arms. Camera settings, at least f/8, perhaps f/11 because everything is in focus, head to hips, toe to toe. Shutter speed dependent on the strngth of the strobes. I would think something moderately fast, but not so fast as to loose detail in the shadow transition across the face and chest. There might be some rotation in post production, high key b&w conversion to simplify the background edit certainly the original background was cut out – there is no light spill on the floor or even shadow transition to indicate depth in the background.
Very niclely done.
Jm2cw
Your favorite sandwich lighting just behind the dancer. The light camera left is more diffused than the light camera right. 1: 1 1/2 ratio. Camera height about 4ft. Multiple takes of model jumping against a black back ground until you got the shot you like. F11- f16 to ensure focus and 2000th of second to freeze action which would also control any spill or ambient light. Very little post production needed if any. Maybe you tweek the contrast. Profoto heads of course.