The title of this post/shot reminds me of the great Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting (Paperback). I have this book and it's a great asset for beginning strobists for reference, concept, and theory.
I call this one shadows and light because at 3:45PM the sun was setting through the trees and honestly it was too late to be shooting against this wall. The sun was too low and casting a shadow on Kendall's legs because there was a tall bush that was blocking the sun. The spotty exposure was also a result of the sunlight peeping through the oak tree in the backyard.
How does this shot compare with Kenna: Wall? I think this revision of the wall is better. I managed the highlights and shadows on the face better than the first rendition with Kenna. That's to be expected since I should improve with time. This image is sharper, crisper and less cluttered. I suppose exposing more skin helps helps with the simplicity of the frame.
-The reflector is still finicky and difficult to work with. I had Kendall's boyfriend Yuri help me stabilize the silver reflector since I had it high... I'm talking10-11 feet in the air bouncing light onto Kendall
-I read the histogram this time and as bright as Kendall's abs seem, they're actually not blown. In fact, I didn't blow any part of the highlights. Go D3 dynamic range! Good job me, for reading the histogram!
-Secondly I made sure I had good depth of field. I remembered that the last time I was using too large an aperture and this time I shot f/9.0 which allowed me lots of room to focus-recompose without losing sharpness/focus. The only danger was that I was shooting at 1/125th handheld and it could have been a little slow if I weren't stable. But really that's not pushing teh limits on handheld shutter speed. Another win!
-Didn't killed any blacks on this image because I needed the detail in her jacket and underwear. Instead I had room to kill some highlights on the top end and dropped down to about 240 on the high end.
-Did a little desturation via a B&W conversion at 31% opacity. Primarily however I used a gradient map with the same purple you see in Kendall for the tint and effect. However this time I went with Purple-to-White and blended with Soft Light at 56%, which I feel works out well.
-100% sharpening at .3 pixels was applied after resizing with a little less sharpening on the face (only 70%).
I think this one worked out well... :) live and learn...
Camera: D3/24-70mm f/2.8G @70mm, 1/125th, f/9.0, ISO200
Strobist: Sunlight from upper camera left and silver reflector from camera back upper right.
Model: Kendall B.
Makeup: Kelli Zehnder
Wardrobe: Kendall/Michelle Green
