articles/Fashion/Jazz-Meets-Heavy-Metal-page1

John Denton's Lighting Lab - Jazz Meets Heavy Metal - part 1 of 1 2

Published 01/06/2015

By John Denton

Whatever genres you shoot, weddings, families, fashion … there will come a time in your life when you hit a creative brick wall.

When you pick up a camera and don't even know which end to blow into get a good note out! When you're faced with a client and you can do nothing but jump them through the same old repetitive hoops.

That's when you need to do something to break out of your comfort zone, push down those walls of creative frustration and launch yourself into the sunny uplands of artistry.

OK forgive me the hyperbole but I do put shoots together, once every now and again, that are totally different from everything I've done before and tests me and pushes in new directions.

That was just the case in April when I asked my newest model, Jazmin, to come to the studio and partner her talents with those of body painter, Ellie Beadle.

Our idea was to create a silver statue, using a mix of paint and oil to give a high-gloss effect on Jaz's skin. It's a brave model who will strip naked and allow a painter to brush and smear paint on every inch of their body. When it was done though WOW, what an effect! The temptation at that stage is to step back and admire the handiwork of the team, then I remembered it was my turn to get to work and so started shooting. Before we added the paint into Jaz's hair we set up some headshots. The red tones in her hair were accentuated by the silver in her body and face. The lack of eyebrow details made her face look distinctly odd but we loved the results. I lit the set with a classic clamshell set-up of beauty dish overhead and silver reflector underneath. A strip-box was placed either side and slightly to the rear of Jaz, pointing back to camera. These gave a subtle rim lighting to her body and hair. Ellie transferred her skills from painting to angling the fan to get movement in the hair. (See final spread, corner image.)

All shot at ISO 200, 1/200s f14 on Nikon D300 with 18-70m lens.

• John Denton's Lighting Lab - Jazz Meets Heavy Metal page 1
  
• John Denton's Lighting Lab - Jazz Meets Heavy Metal page 2
  

There are 197 days to get ready for The Society of Photographers Convention and Trade Show at The Novotel London West, Hammersmith ...
which starts on Wednesday 15th January 2025