New to Focht Creative – ” How “

Posted by kevin focht on Feb 2, 2012 in How, How to's and manuals | 0 comments

We are starting a new series of posts on Focht Creative called “How” as in how in the world did they do that!

We will start with some basics and as we get going, we will be doing more complex.

Here is the way we will approach this.

First we will show the photo, and then we will explain how it was set up, the thought process and what special equipment might have been used.

The shot…

This is a shot I did for an editorial a few years ago. It was all about a semi-famous girl who was getting married, but actually had another woman who was in love with her. Funny concept I know, but you have to start somewhere with a story line.

The issue with a shoot like this, was that it was all inside and there were some really large areas that needed to be lit. Some of the shots needed to look like paparazzi shots, and others needed to be light really pretty.

This shot was done in an elevator that we held open. I love fairly harsh light in my work and always have. It just adds drama. I also love to use fresnel hot lights whenever I can. I just love the old hollywood feeling to them.
Here is what a fresnel hot light looks like.

So the basic lighting set up was pretty simple on this one. One fresnel head up high and slightly to camera left.

The main issue with a shot like this, is to just make sure the shadows fall in the right place. You also can use the focusing ability of the fresnel to control just how much contrast you have in the shot and how hard the shadows are. If you zoom out the shadows become more like a hazy sunny day, if you zoom the head in, it becomes more like direct sun.

This was more like hazy sun, and in the end it worked out nice. The beauty of using hot lights, is that you see what you get. There is no guessing.

Kevin