As I was taking some shots of my significant others at the time pregnant belly as I decided that if I had the lights out we could do some head shots. I had a SLR Magic HyperPrime CINE T0.95 50mm on a Sony NEX-5N and a single light source 1000W Photoflex with medium SilverDome on boom stand directly over the camera. I had a white background but it wasn’t separately lit so it went a bit dark. I immediately fell in love with the photo, the quality of light, selective focus of extreme shallow depth of field. It is very difficult to focus manually at T0.95 as you have to be careful not to focus on the eyelashes as the eyes quickly fall out of focus. Even the slightest movement of you and the model can bring a lot of defocussed photos.
The eyes really stand out on this photos especially as Irena has very light coloured irides (irises).
I am planning to shot a short spec soon and I need some photos like this for it. So I asked my friend Gigia (who is coincidentally pregnant too) to pose for me to build up the look I need for the movie. As I had to bring the studio to her place I was limited in equipment so the set up was quite similar except for an additional light that lit the white background.
Lovely Gigia in improvised studio looking beautiful helping me brush up the technique.
For the third shoot I actually met with the girl who will be playing in the movie and she came to my newly temporary studio to shoot the actual photos for the movie and to test her in front of the camera. The setup stayed mainly the same with large softbox directly over the camera. One light was behind her (camera left) for the kicker light on the hair and the shoulder and two lights directed to the background so that I didn’t have to brighten the background a bit more in post.
I really like how this photos turned out. Gea really has attractive facial features. I would like to explore more of this kind of portrait photography as you can really get to know someone face like this. The subtle changes in the look when they smile, open or close mouth, lift or lower the chin. It really helps to prepare for the main shoot.
