Ok, so you’ve got your basic black room. And then you light it up. In an in-depth way. Let’s start all over again.
Why can’t you just use a flash and pull the shutter?
Good question.
A) Because the exercise is to use multiple lights.
B) And more importantly the issue of control. If you have a subject, who can stand still, and you can shoot at f/1.4 and let the room drift into low-light surroundings, ok. Just give it a try. However, if you need f/8 or 11, with a lot of subject, i.e. a lot of depth of field, then your shutter pulling process will take longer. Unless you take a trip to ISO heaven, where when you’re tasked with rendering something sharp and beautifully detailed, rather than an impressionist painting, it’s really should not. And a light does not cover the group.
Well, simple will never cut!
Real. John Loengard, a top photographer and DOP at LIFE, always says, “If you want something to look interesting, don’t light it all up”. Thus, the mood of the room determines the light zones, a glimpse of highlights here and there, a healthy shade of shadow and a combination of colors. Notice the blue in the far doorway? Does it really make sense?
No. But it’s fun, and it vividly shifts the palette away from the dominant hot tones.
This is where a professional system comes into play. Lights come in a variety of sizes and strengths. From big to small. Spotlights strong enough to illuminate the building from the outside (see behind-the-scenes video and take the screen below from the video for illustration) and the light is small enough to fit under the silver dome on the serving tray. Grids and controls. Softboxes have different sizes and effects. Reliable, well-built generator as Pro 11 packs that weather spent two days in a row sitting in a plastic bag in heavy rain.
And one ring to rule them all. (Sorry, went a little Gandalf there.) But Connect Pro, is the conductor here, of all the instruments, from the explosions of the big lights to the subtle accents of the little things.
It has over 100 channels, with six groups per channel. Great link with Profoto smartphone app. Switch from TTL to manual with your TTL values intact. (That’s huge.) The air control has a battery, and Connect Pro seriously extended battery life. That is excellent. Especially if you power it with Maha Powerex Triple A Battery. This Triple A is very powerful and makes the unit go and go.
So we begin. Back-to-front lighting of the photo, sounds paradoxical. But for a room like this, I chose because those windows are at the back, flooding the room with light starting with a massive flood of light from the CTO’s three Pro 11, placed outside. And then another blue Pro 11 fills the doorway. Those “outdoors” lights created the lift, pop, and bounce I needed to fill the good parts of the room with light and do it naturally. In other words, those 2,400 WS units pushed light into the space in the direction it would have come from natural daylight. From that point on, it was B10X Plus unitand A10 The units, spots, gels and controls, piece by piece, enhance the details of this very dark (and sometimes very crowded!) room.
We used Profoto C1 series lights also have a good effect. It’s great to have a light-based professional-quality device that actually fits in the palm of your hand and you can store it anywhere.
The BTS video has a great grid with the location of the lights, and here’s a rough list of the devices: Profoto Connect Pro, Profoto B10X Plus, Profoto Pro-11, Profoto C1 Plus, Profoto . Zoom ReflectorProfoto TeleZoom Reflector, 1 × 4 . RFi softbox range with soft mesh, RFi Softbox 1×3 with soft code, Profoto Clic Gel & Mesh Kit, Silver reflects light with mesh, and diffused socks.
Once again, thanks to a great crew and cast…
Lynn DelMastro – Executive producer, Andrew Tomasino – Captain, Casey Mathewson – 1st Assistant, Hannah Mitchell – 2nd assistant, Samantha Brown – Lead wardrobe stylist, Sophia Phillips – wardrobe assistant, Michelle Coursey – Master makeup artist, Jayme Jennings – Makeup artist assistant, Olivia Boucher – Makeup Artist Assistant, Hide Suzuki – Hairstylist Lead, Ubu Nagano – Assistant Hair Stylist.
And great video team….
Melanie Mclean Brooks – Directed/Produced The Flying Giant, Ryan Brooks – DP / Flying Giant Productions, Heather Ender – Producer / High Grove Productions, John Henri Cohn – B-Camera, Ruben Hernandez – Camera Assistant, Ray Suthinithet – Audio, Al Roberts – Gaffer.
Special thanks to our talent – June Nichols, the wonderful house and party girl. Nik Pjeternikaj – devilishly handsome diplomat, and his beautiful mistress Laeticia De Valer. Lovely mysterious guest – Marisa Roper. The suspicious butler, Parker Smith and gorgeous Jerry Leeand dandy movie maker, Charles Sammann.
All the best for Profoto for being a great partner and creating this content. Great teamwork on a large scale.
More tk….
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