In this shoot, I created an eye-catching fashion image using three creative tools; gels, mylar, and shutter drag! Bringing this shot to life involved 2 strobes, 1 constant light, creative background, and some purposeful camera shake, so let me walk you through it step-by-step!
Step 1: Main Light
I placed the main light in this scene high and to the left of the frame to create directional, sculpted light. I chose a medium umbrella with diffusion to create silky light on the subject’s face.
The concept for the shoot was to play with a lot of bold and saturated colors, and therefore adding a blue gel to the main light turned the subject a rich blue and added a ripple of blue light onto the background.
Step 2: Background + Background Light
I wanted to create a metallic textured background and to do so on a budget. I decided to hang a crinkled piece of mylar (metallic plastic) on a C-stand arm and place it a couple of feet behind the subject.
To illuminate this background, I added a strobe (Profoto D2) on a floor stand with a red gel directly behind the subject. Now the blue gel of the main light and the red gel of the background light was both reflecting off of the background texture.
Step 3: Constant Light
So far the two strobes (both Profoto D2s) have illuminated our subject and the background, yet the right-hand side of the subject’s face was still in shadow. I decided I wanted to add more color to the scene and chose a magenta light source to the right of the frame. I selected magenta because the red on the background (especially when mixed with the blue) was created more of a pink/purple result.
For this third light source, I chose a Nanlite PavoTube X (2ft) LED light source. This constant light is full RGB, meaning I could dial the color into the exact hue/saturation I wanted to fit my color palette.
At this point, however, I was shooting at ISO 200, F8, 1/200 second. When I took the photo, the magenta constant light was not visible in the shot. Why? Because a constant light is not going to show up at these camera settings intended for strobes… and so I needed to make a change!
Step 4: Shutter Drag
The next step of the creative process was to work with a technique called shutter drag. This basically means using a longer shutter in order to record more ambient light. I lowered my shutter speed all the way to 1/8 sec, giving me final camera settings of ISO 200, F8, 1/8 second.
With this longer shutter speed, the magenta Nanlite was now registering both on the subject and the background. Why use a constant light? Why would this benefit the concept of the shot? Wouldn’t this just make the shot blurry?
Step 5: Camera Movement
When you drag your shutter (using a slow shutter speed), adding camera movement to your shot can create a lot of life and energy to the image. It will create streaks, blurs, and unexpected results that can really give a sense of movement.
For this shot, I used the Canon R5 and Canon RF 70-200mm 2.8. Having a zoom lens gave me the capability to wiggle my camera, zoom the lens, move in and out… each resulting in a different creative effect.
You can see that each image was different and bursting with energy!
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✘ PRODUCTS USED:
Canon R5
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Canon RF 70-200mm 2.8
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Profoto D2
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Profoto Medium Umbrella with Diffusion
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Rosco Gels
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Nanlite Pavotube X (2ft)
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Avenger C-stand
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Floor Stand
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#photographytechniques #shutterdragphotography #adorama
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Photographer - Lindsay Adler
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Videographer - Samuel Bouret
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