Saturday, November 15, 2008

The effects of light and dark - Chiaroscuro

The term "Chiaroscuro" refers to areas of light in sharp contrast to dark areas. I asked Brent to sit for a few shots while I experimented with the concept. The idea was for the wall behind him to be light behind on the left while his face was dark there. Oppositely, his face on our right is bright but the wall behind is dark.

# Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200) [+]
# Aperture: f/5.6 [+]
# Focal Length: 85 mm [+]
# ISO Speed: 200 [+]

Strobist info: Ambient of 2 fluorescent banks (1 L, 1 R at 90 degrees to him. Each with 2 4' bulbs 40 watt 5000k) exposed at -2 to -3 ev. SB-600 zoomed to 85 mm through pringles can snoot to the left and behind him aimed at wall. SB-800 into white satin umbrella with black reflective outer layer on at camera right. This was almost 90 degrees to him and the swath of light was aimed so that it passed in front of him to try and get a more gradual gradation of shadows. The aim was for Rembrandt lighting and for the triangle of light under the opposite eye.

Post-process with Adobe Lightroom : levels, blacks, saturation, precrop vignette, post crop vignette, adjustment brush and ND grad filter effects.

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