This is part four in a series of excerpts from ESSENTIALS: Studio Lighting for Nude Photography, by Dan Hostettler. Dan has been a professional beauty and nude photographer for more than 15 years and has been internationally published and featured in GQ Online, The India Times, FashionONE TV, GoodLight Magazine, MUZE Magazine, FOTOdigital, and many more.
–MM Edu
During the shoot with Melisa – we were producing the last material for my lighting guide – I suddenly got the idea that we are in need of creating some additional imagery: The Cover Shot.
What’s It For?
For that day, I had the cover production with Melisa on my plan and in my mind. In addition, I already had the series with Jenni Czech ready to put on the cover: the bright seducing one that now decorates the front page.
So while shooting with Melisa, the concept for the cover image was to produce – as an opposite to Jenni’s image – a shot on dark background with a similar pose, just mirrored.
In the last minute of that day, I decided to shoot another “last set”; in front of this painted, structured dark grey wall. The setting was simple with a gridded beauty dish and an additional stripbox with grid for some rim light.
The beauty dish was already in place from the fast-glam shoot and we just had to move tech and model from one blue wall to the other grey one. This, including the rim light set up, literally just took minutes.
Melisa got a quick touch-up and I decided to go with a bright creamy net outfit as a lovely contrast to her tanned skin and against the dark wall.
Impeccable!
Setup
The gridded beauty dish narrowed the light beam perfectly and only lit up Melisa while creating a nice light fall-off around her. This helped to get a more dramatic and “dark” look – the model simply stands out.
Rim light from behind right helps to nicely separate the body from the background and additionally creates a decent glowy atmosphere.
We simply nailed it. Thanks to an amazingly free-flowing shoot that took us less than 10 minutes!
Tech Sheet
- 2x 400 Ws Monoblocs
- Key light: Beauty Dish Ø2.3’/Ø70cm & Grid, powered around 300 Ws
- Rim light: 1x Strip Softbox 1.3×6’ (40x180cm) & Grid, powered around 170 Ws
Credits
- Photography: Dan Hostettler
- Model: Melisa Mendini
- Hair & Makeup: Aneta Lozkova
- BTS photography: Jan Prerovsky
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ESSENTIALS: Studio Lighting for Nude Photography - by Dan Hostettler
If you liked this article there’s much in Dan’s 280 page book, which features Jenni Czech and Melisa Mendini, delivers the perfect “one size fits all” access: theory, showcases and exercises photography newcomers, amateurs, aficionados and versed pros.
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