Good morning afternoon and evening depending on where you
live. I had the pleasure of taking a few shots and imitating a
raindrop and colored gel tutorial. This Portrait Photography Ideas
was created by Lorenzo P. He has some extremely innovative and
has created some great tutorials so check him out when you get a
chance. I had the pleasure of working with lilkiser_12 and Bcarey
for this shoot. Lets see how it went.
Raindrop Effect
First up, lets touch on the equipment. I primarily used my 50mm
lens and Nikon d7000 for this shoot. I also used colored gels and a
moon lamp which can be purchased here. To create the awesome
lighting effects, I decided to power up my 3 orlit Rovelights
accompanied by 3 large godox softboxes.
These created some
amazing but sometimes to vibrant gel effects. This was easily fixed
in post. But to limit my post work, I had to lower the power of the
monolights to level 2 of 10. Last but not least we used some fairy
lights to create the images seen below along with a smoke
machine.
Cue Smoke
I really wish I had, had time to use the fairy lights with the rain
drop effect but thats ok, ill save it for another shoot. To create the
water effect, we simply used a spray bottle and a large piece of
plexiglass. By suspending it from the ceiling we were able to
bypass the necessary suspension equipment listed in the tutorial.
Using a bit of fishing string, thumbtack and duct tape, we were
able to recreate the same effects listed in the Portrait Photography
Ideas raindrop tutorial.
Regarding the gel colors, we had to experiment with which colors
worked best with the models and their dresses. We found blue,
red, purple and yellow/orange to really create the desired effect.
The most difficult aspect of the entire shoot turned out to be the
focusing mechanisms of the camera. The smoke and water drops
were constantly disrupting the autofocus mechanisms so much had
to be done manually. I also tried to prevent streaking on the glass
but was not always successful.
Loving These Colors
Furthermore I haven’t used manual focus in a while so it took some
getting used to but eventually I got the hang of it. It was kind of
like riding a bike, you hop back on and it slowly comes back to you.
Another aspect of the portrait photography ideas shoot that went
well was the poses. I was fortunate to have two models that had
taken pictures before so posing came natural to them. They
seamlessly transitioned from one pose to the next which
completely accent the shoot and made my job a lot easier.
Following the raindrop photos, we decided to switch to the moon
lamp, fairy lights and back-lit gel photos. The moon lamp shots
were also very difficult to obtained due to the low light. You do not
want to us flash with these images so oddly enough we used a cell
phone light to help the camera with focusing. Once the focus was
set, we locked the focus position in place and told the model not to
move from her current position. Even with such preparations,
obtaining the desired image was difficult.
Moon Glow
I had to play with everything ranging from the ISO to the shutter
speed to get the image just right. The moon lamp has 3 different
color setting which all change the way the camera handles the
image, This was also an aspect which had to be taken into
consideration to create the gorgeous model and moon lamp shots.
If your skilled, you can add some smoke to these images but I was
unfortunately unable to get the camera to focus in the low light
settings.
Next up we moved to the fairy lights. These lights are very unique
when it comes to lighting. There glow is very subtle and does not
appear as “bright” in the image. Enhancing them in post is an
option but I prefer to get the image as close to what I want before
post. I think for the next shoot, I will purchase stronger fairy lights
that give off more luminescence to make the shoot a lot easier. To
see some previous shoots with these lights click HERE.
Fairy Lights
Last but not least we ended the shoot with some back lit gel and
smoke shoots. For these images, only one of the three orlit
monolights was used. We positioned the model directly in front of
the light and attached a gel to the front of it. By using her body to
shield the lighting apparatus, we were able to create the images
seen below. Out of all the images taken, I would have to say these
are my second favorite. The water drop images take the prize but
these are definitely a close second.
More Rain
In terms of difficulty, these were much easier to create because we
only had to go through one layer of smoke rather than a layer of
smoke and plexiglass. If you are going to recreate this shoot,
definitely save these images for last. They are by far the easiest
and take the least adjustments out of the entire list. Also be aware
of the models dress and skin tone. Not every colored gel went well
with there outfits or skin tone resulting in lots of trial and error.
Cue Gels and Smoke
I hope you enjoyed this look at my unique spin on the rain drops
tutorial by Lorenzo P. These portrait photography ideas are sure to
spice up your portfolio and reignite that photography flame which
might be dulling. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to leave a
comment in the section below. I love hearing from you all and
would like to know what you think I can have done better on and
what I did well on.
More Smoke and Gels
Well that’s it for this post, I would like to thank
Letsbcarey and lilkiser_12 again for modeling for this portrait
photography ideas shoot. None of it would have been possible
without them. Until next time, stay BOUNDLESS!!!
