High Contrast Portrait

Due to a jerk of a clerk at Amtrak, I wasn't able to take to Seattle all the photographic equipment I wanted to take. I was able to take my three Alien Bees lights but only one light-stand. No backdrops. No softboxes. Still, I was able to improvise. I propped lights up on cardboard boxes and used reflectors where I could.

Then my scheduled model flaked out.

One of my friends, knowing lots of women at her company who'd like being photographed, put out an email asking for test-models. Got two on almost no notice. Here's one of them.

The model was seated on the floor behind a posing table. The main light used a 7" dish and an orange warming gel. The hair light (balanced precariously on a cardboard box) was an unfiltered 30-degree grid-spot.

I was trying for Rembrandt lighting but I tended not to adjust the lights though the models were frequently moving.



Post edited by: OrcaBob, at: 2008/07/11 20:40

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/1660/ magn-glass.jpg

Based on this portrait I'd say you did pretty well in emulating the master's style.

For my own taste I might have put a secondary hairlight to model rear-right, just to separate her from the background, but that's just me (or maybe my crappy work monitor).

Really like this shot, Bob.

Thanks, Wes.

In photography, "Rembrandt lighting" refers not to the general way Rembrandt used light, but to a specific lighting angle that results in a triangle of light on the trailing cheekbone. I guess even Rembrandt didn't always try to pull it off.

Due to lack of a stand, the hair light was at least two feet lower than I had wanted. Perhaps that would've made a difference.

The way her dark side disappears into the background is not due to your crappy monitor; her hair really does disappear. A softbox (which I had to leave in California) would've helped with that. I see what you mean about the second hair-light from the left, and that would've looked great, but my three lights were tied up. The third light was a backlight between the sofa and the wall. That lighting on the wall doesn't quite show up in this sequence of shots.

I think it is a beautiful photo but personally i would have had less light on the model's left cheekbone and forehead. I think this is a matter of taste though. The hair disappearing into the background thing I do like... to my taste this adds to the overall picture.

"In photography, "Rembrandt lighting" refers not to the general way Rembrandt used light, but to a specific lighting angle that results in a triangle of light on the trailing cheekbone."

This is what I love about photography...every day I learn something new! I've read many books on lighting and never heard that definition. Thanks Bob.

And just so I'm not misunderstood, my nit-picking doesn't take away from the fact that it's a lovely shot.

I don't consider it nitpicking, Wes. This is the place for ALL comment and constructive criticism... and I found all the comments very constructive.

Very well done again Bob !

I find the hot spot on the forehead and the intense nose shadow very distracting and not very flattering.