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.
My guess is you were shooting from below, with the dancer standing on that thick plexiglas contraption you showed in an old blog post. You’re laying on your back, shooting up through some black material (fabric, cardboard or something else) to kill your reflections. She is lit by two strobes, on her left and right, with enough power to kill the ambient light.
Pretty new to lighting but my guess..
Certainly not a lucky snapshot, though there may be some sort of luck to the perfect timing and framing of the subject(however I like to call that skill), but definitely an intentional shot. Lit from the right and left. Must be a faster shutter speed to really catch the darks and to avoid blur from movement. Probably a middle range to higher aperture to create such a sharp image. Black and white post production, though it may have been set on camera prior.
High shutter speed, so to catch her without any blurring. Fairly flat image without lens distortion.
Black backdrop set back ~10′, or far enough to not to get exposure. Possibly even flagged off the lights.
You lit her camera left and right, with similar exposures (but not necessarily the same distance (greater intensity light on her left side) or angle, judging by the shape or the light and shadows. You needed to light both legs in front and back on both sides- so you used large, diffused light sources.
The shadow on her left arm and the way the light barely wraps onto the left side of her face but is able to show the shape of the top of her left cheek (and intensity of that side of her right foot compared to the left foot) indicate that the camera-left light that was slightly behind and straight-on or (height-wise) with the subject, plus the bottom of her right arm is barely lit, so it was probably barely wrapping from the back. Camera right light is angled a upward and is more frontal, from the ground up or below whatever she was jumping on (trampoline?) or off of. There is some exposure on her right hand, which is in front of her body, but it doesn’t hit her entire chest or wrap her left arm so was from below, so with that angle, you were able to exposed the inside of her thigh and her left hip, which is just about the lightest part of the image. That light hits the outside of her neck and cheek and almost gets to her chin but falls off the rest of left side of her face as she looks out.
You may have also bounced back down on top, to expose the top of her hand and left arm as it reached up. Exposure on left and right side were probably set 2-3 stops higher than the center of her chest and face (not necessary to go higher with a white leotard and her skin tone), so you were able to get some exposure on the rest of her face.
Or maybe you just haphazardly placed some lights and PhotoShopped the bugger until it looked the way you wanted! jk.
Either way, it’s a great image.
She is in a flying rig. Lit from slightly above left and slightly below right.
Just unlit background. Somehow she is being steadied so she can hold the pose. Had to be just right for the Rembrandt lighting. Post processing to remove rig and maybe people holding her steady.
Oops…above it says “I haven’t checked to see if some of the new Nikons use ISO.” It should say “ISO 100” and not just ISO.