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.
Hi Chase! 🙂
My guesses:
1. Photo made from strobe light only (no ambient).
2. no.2 big soft light sources (softboxes and/or octabanks) from back left and right.
3. background: the frame covers a portion of wall behind the leaping subject. The wall could be either near (in which case it is dark in color) or far (and either dark or light).
4. Shutter speed: max synch speed.
5. Moderate tele lens at “strong” aperture (let’s say amidst f/8 and f/16).
6. Camera in front of the subject.
6. Moderate post production, aimed mainly in raising the overall contrast.
First, due to the nature of the post, I refuse to read other members comments until you reveal how you did it.
Second, this is a rad idea!
Because it’s dance I dont’ think you’re shooting at a standard shutter sync speed. I would think you are shooting hyper-sync. This actually should add to the fall off of the light and contribute to the extremely dark background. The shadow on her front leg is very revealing in the placement of your lights. Because there is a shadow that runs the length of her leg, I can see that you used two lights.
It looks like:
Light 1: Camera right. Below subject, angled upward
Light 2: Camera left. Behind subject, angled downward
I amost want to say that you used grids for this or that you set your flashes to a very narrow spread. I say it because of the way the light isn’t wrapping around her completely.
You know what..this is actually pretty fun!
Because she is totally in focus and
Hypersync
F/8.0
ISO 100
Shutter Speed: 1/500th sec
That is my best guess.
Simple lighting…. not lucky but tried few times to get the right shot. one light, left high and one right low lights… and you are probably low or on the ground.
cheers!
I´d say she´s on he floor and the photo is taken from above her… because of the shadow in the middle of her leg I´d say there are at least two lights (boxes?) on each side… mmm camera settings…. low ISO if she was still then the other setting does not really matter… F8 maybe?
Actually, just looking at this again, for me, what probably makes this shot versus other imaginary versions that may or may not have been produced is the fact that the fingers of her right hand are lit so nicely – which if the lighting is as simple as I think, is not lucky exactly, but would certainly make this picture the pic of a bunch, where that had might have stayed in shadow.