articles/Lighting/rbd-damian-page2

Rolling with the BIG Dog - Damian - part 2 of 1 2 3 4

by Damian McGillicuddy Published 01/04/2014

Once I had my meter reading for the 'key', which was f2.8, the thing I love about the Hedler is that the rest almost becomes purely visual.

For a man who works with flash almost every day of his life this is just so liberating.

The density of the shadows and contrast inherent in the subject is controlled by my second light, a Hedler DF15. This unit was fitted with a four-foot strip light. I turned the light on its side, placed it on a low stand and fitted it under the 'boomed out' key to form what is know as clam shell lighting. If I'm honest I didn't even bother to meter this light, that's the beauty of the visual cue that continuous lighting gives you. Naughty I know, but a working pro needs short cuts in his day ;0)

My final light was a four-foot square soft box, a slightly unusual choice but I wanted this light to pull a 'double duty'.

The unit was placed to camera-left, just out of shot and at about 90 degrees to the background. We also covered this light with a CTO gel, yes the do come in four-foot wide sheets. This light was set to enhance the contours in our Union flag background supplied by Click Props, thank you Charlie, and to add an accent light on to Abby, our model from Cliche Model Management. I set the 'pin hole' vignette art filter built into the EM-1... job done! This image was captured on my favourite Olympus lens the 45mm f1.8 - double the focal length for the 35mm equivalent.

If you are enjoying this behind the scenes look at how Team McGillicuddy work there are two ways to get more. The first being we put up a fair few 'How was it done' posts on the blog, that should be your first port of call... www.damianmcgillicuddy.com

'There's a state of war':

On to picture number three! Once more Zoe did a sterling job on make-up and styling. I wanted a quirky, slightly macabre toy soldier.

The whole essence of this image is in the depth created by multi layered flags, so its back to portable flash to squeeze the little fellows in where thier bigger studio cousins wouldn't fit. I LOVE the freedom and creativity shooting portable lighting gives.

Keeping with the style shot so far we are back to using CTO and CTB covered strobes to act as accent lights. We used a double layer of CTO on the unit to camera right to deepen and intensify the colour. The unit was placed to spill through and across the flag, creating both form and a little transparency.

The accent to camera right was covered in a CTB and was placed further forward than its partner. It accents the rifle and adds a luminosity to the union flag in the foreground.

There are two extra accent lights in this image. White light aimed primarily at our subject. These units had the light spill controlled by adding 'barn doors' from my portaflex kit, I just wanted to separate the subject from the background without adding flare to the image.

• Rolling with the BIG Dog - Damian page 1
  
• Rolling with the BIG Dog - Damian page 2
  
• Rolling with the BIG Dog - Damian page 3
  
• Rolling with the BIG Dog - Damian page 4
  

There are 53 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