untitled series #1, 2018
Victoria, Australia
42cm x 30cm inkjet prints
The following body of work showcases six detailed prints in a contemporary approach to showcase woman’s fashion at night alongside my development of studios lighting skills outside of the studio. The series draws direct technical influence from various Facebook posts by the American wedding and event photographer and videographer, Diego Rivera – in particular his “#Atlanta” post on April 14, 2018 to the “Learn to Light – An OCF Lighting Community” Facebook group.
From a technical aspect the lighting techniques explored during the trimester that I utilised during my photoshoots was very different and experimental from my usual style of shooting as well as slightly tangent from class content.
Focusing on the portraiture images, all of them slightly underexpose the ambient light from the background to create contrast from a hard light subject. This contrast aims to draw the viewers’ attention away from the setting to the subject model. In camera, balancing the quantity of light from the flash to correctly expose the model while underexposing the background was mostly successful, with only some minor pseudo-vignetting required in post-production. In contrast, the models were all placed in the lower two-thirds or half of the frame to create an essence of space and scale presenting the city metropolis surrounding while not drawing too much attention away from the subject model.
The series is presented on six A3 inkjet prints, printed on Ilford Smooth Pearl Paper and arranged in a singular row. The linear presentation of the series aims to link all six images together as a series while presenting them as individual pieces. Ideally the singular landscape orientation image would be presented singularly from the rest of the series or in a series of its own. This was unachievable this time due to space constrains and timeline respectively.
Overall I believe that the series is successful in showcasing my exploration and development of outdoor studio lighting utilising second/rear curtain sync long exposures to create portraits.