Tay Du Ky Online 2010

and on we go with the tattoo project

Another candidate for my tattoo project was Alex. Since he now has several tattoos, I had not been shot at a particular location, but wanted to be flexible to work in the studio and possibly build another setup from an old brick wall.

However, I wanted the studio does not begin with a "normal" light up. So I built a ring of light as the main light, which consists of 16-60W incandescent bulbs and is not dimmable. When I received the correct distance from light source was determined to model, I made a test recording first to see how much light the background would collect even more. Satisfied with the background brightness, I built a 28 "softbox on a boom that was to provide an angle as a separation light from above him for an appearance on his head and shoulders. Again, I made a Testaufname to make sure that this flash the background . would not affect too much see the two test shots can be found here:

Very clearly you can see here the two very different color temperatures in the upper picture I left the white balance to daylight. so I could well see the light color. In the lower picture I already put the white balance to match the color temperature of the main light in order to evaluate the color contrast between foreground to background, the better.

saw the first recording with Alex like this:

photographed after minimal light changes, we have some more pictures:

And to show that he is not as bad as it appears on one or the other picture here does, is here's the proof:

A second lighting setup was built, this time a much more "typical". We put the main light up front and used for the softbox, which previously acted as a separation light. This was very close positions on Alex to effect of a strong light fall. She was sitting practically just outside the image field. To enhance the contrast of the image further, two black Styrofoam walls as close as possible to put the side of Alex. This ensured that the contours of the body were a little darkened and an even better separation of body and background is applied.

but I still prefer the studio working on location, we moved but still for a few shots to the outside. As background, I chose an old brick wall, which had a great structure.

To the light mood of pure natural light to test, I made a test shot as it pretended my light meter. After a negative correction came a further test shot that showed how much the ambient light was now under-exposed. The third image in the example will show the final exposure settings with flash.

The flash was fitted with a snoot, which threw a round beam at the wall and prozudierte the harsh shadows. If I had not wanted the harsh shadows, I would have a softbox with honeycomb or use only been with recessed front diffuser can. But I wanted the shadow to integrate into the picture. But since work harsh shadows on faces usually ugly, I asked Alex, looking directly into the flash.

The figure below shows the planned Image:

liked the light me as really very good, but I noticed now that even his tattoo on his right side was met and therefore the light from the wrong side of him. So I built the light around so that the main light was left of the camera.

order here but the cue slightly to align the studio recordings, I provided the flash with a filter film that warmed the flash to 3200K. Below you see a white balance Testaufname by day, showing the strong orange color. Second, you can see below the test firing, the final cue, as the white balance with incandescent lamps:

These two images come directly so out of the camera. One sees clearly that the cool color again dominated the points are struck by lightning but neutral. The areas that lie in the shadow of the flash and are therefore exposed only by the light, show a strong blue cast. Following her

see the finished image. Vignette and contrasts have been strengthened, taken off his jacket, so that the tattoo looks good and I asked Alex, again to look directly into the flash. Thus I switched not only ugly shadows on the face, but also ensured that his entire face gets the correct color.

achieve

To another look without a lot of construction work, I reduced the distance of the previous principal light strong and the comb was replaced by a rectangular spot attachment. This now only met the tattooed arm. The first test shot below shows the result: a properly exposed arm, the rest of the picture very under and stained blue. The right image shows the next shot, when I added a another fire, did likewise with a warm tone filter film with a honeycomb directly to Alex's face addressed. So now show only the face and tattooing the correct color, everything else keeps the underexposed Blue.

In the next example, you can see the impact that a longer exposure time on the final result. The areas struck by lightning are the same bright, but the darker areas appear much brighter now. With this increase of the ambient light but will also give the flash exposed areas a higher proportion of blue and should be corrected.

Since I already liked the light mood while quite good, but the color did not suit, I chose a black and white conversion. This was mainly due to Alex's left arm, which does not illuminated by lightning, has also been reproduced in a very blue and the skin tone was very ugly.

has definitely been fun again, and Alex has so willingly endure it ... :-) We continue with the project!


- Martin -