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.
Not a lucky snapshot, no..
I think this is shot in studio on black seamless (or very dark grey) and with two strobes :
– a very large softbox/octa close to her at camera left (very diffuse/soft quality to the light) and
– a second strobe at camera right, this time more distant or possibly with a reflector mounted on the strobe / silver dish etc. (harsher quality to the light), kind of a “kicker”
Both strobes are directed at her but the one at camera left is a bit more behind her than the one at camera right.
Probalby shot with a long lens (I would guess 70-200 / 2.8?) with a high f stop (f8-11?) and high speed sync (1/250) with reasonable iso (studio and lit so no need to go crazy with iso…)
And of course a little bit of post processing for B&W and adding some contrast and jazz the picture up a bit
hope this is quite close to THE recipe 😉
Two Strobes one left one lower right. 1/250th for freeze. Shot in studio, around f/8. Black seemless, Boost contrast in post production.
This isn’t a lucky shot.
I’d say she’s on the ground, doing a leg lift (or something), natural light (maybe a window on both sides) taken at around 12 noon or so because of the close to harsh light on her arms.
Settings would be f13 1/800 or so. Processing wise, you’d black out the background so you’d get that effect that she’s jumping.
Well that’s how I look at it.
Oops forgot – Lens around 200mm! Shot hand held (no tripod)
Without reading other submitters comments, My thoughts are that this is more than a mere “snapshot” I think it was well thought out and planned in art direction, choreography, shooting and post production. However it seems to be amazingly simple in its asthetic.
The frozen subject tells me this was more than likely lit with strobes, with just 2 lights, one, a medium sized softbox on stage right and probably a beauty dish stage left. The lights are placed at about 4 & 6 o’clock angle off attack to the camera. The camera was probably set the AF to continuous to track the dancers movement. The shutter was @ synch speed to kill the ambient, as the background doesn’t matter. It could be studio with concrete walls for all we know, for whatever the background was had been taken out by bringing up the blacks/levels in post. Images was coverted to B+W in postas well for a great, striking image.