As I’ve said so many times, I have intuition about lighting up a bar. I mean, what’s not to like? Mood, atmosphere, shadows as well as highlights and reflections. A picture to paint on with light. Step in, take a deep breath of the stale beer, and sit in a corner. The angle is usually a confluence of elements. Best place for theme? Can I show the grit of the place at the same time? Can I effectively light this in the time that I have? Determine that, spike the camera.
You try to choose the location for the subject wisely. Fortunately today in the field I am taking pictures Dominic Minix, a great guitarist, singer and performer in the New Orleans music scene, which is always full of energy and talent. Dominic has a substantial supply of both. When discussing the shoot over the phone, his calm tone and demeanor immediately let me know that we would be a great match on location. He makes good music, and physically he’s one of the more attractive subjects I’ve ever photographed.
Back to the bar and the light. I cheat, really. I don’t look into the nooks and crannies of the bar where endless darkness reigns. I looked out, to the windows, looking for the angle of incidence/reflection, which might reward the lens with a skate point of light that extends the length of the rod. It can happen naturally, or you can create it yourself. Looking towards the windows and capturing at least a little of what they have to offer is a way to work faster and blend your light with what’s already there.
In addition to the window, I also look for sidewalk space. Somewhere to put three Profoto B10X Plus outside units, off pedestrian traffic, warm them up and blow them up. That’s what’s lighting up much of the St. Roche is in NOLA. I took this photo around 10am and it doesn’t look like that at all. (My metadata tells me it’s late afternoon, but I just flew in from Romania and didn’t change the time clock on the camera.)
This is what the place looked like when I walked in.
After lighting, it looks like this.
Warm light slides through the windows and weaves along the bar. I moved the bar stools upside down into the light’s path so their chrome legs could catch the light. I doubled those highlights by placing three Profile A10 units on their tripods and place them on the jukebox just out of frame on the right camera. They are gelled, checkered and pointed to the foot of the chair.
For Dominic, it’s simply a 1×3 . RFI soft box strip with mesh cloth out the left side of the camera. Putting up an umbrella destroys all the look and feel created by the backlight. (I was lucky that the backlight created highlights in the shadows of his face.
Do my first serious frame with Dominic at 10:35 am. The last frame is at 10:56 am. All pictures are taken with Nikon Z9and Nikkor Z 50mm f/1.2Sit’s an open wonder.
Light speaks and transforms. Always handy for a bar.
More tk….
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