Portraits of Bec – Home Studio Work

Steven Perdikis

This series of images was shot last week. I spent the weekend editing. I worked with Bec late last year, in a completely different world, outdoors. The one similarity is the use of flash to produce images. This time, in a very different style.

I’m presenting these images not in the order they were shot, but in the order that shows traditional photographic lighting techniques moving into more obscure and (more complex) lighting. All images are shot on my Nikon Z6, and I used three lenses throughout this shoot, the 85mm Z f/1.8, an adapted F mount Tamron 24-70 f/2.8, and a an adapted F mount Tamron 70-200 f/2.8.

Here are the standard portrait shots, which focused on expression, sharpness and posing:

These were lit with a combination of a GODOX AD600 in a 120CM softbox, double diffused, and a GODOX AD200 with a dome on it for fill lighting. A lot of the light is bounced around the small room, with the main light camera left.

Next, I moved to some black and white images, tweaking lighting slightly.

I really like the expression in this black and white image – it is elusive and hard to pin down – I like that we can’t see the eyes, which adds to the mystery of the image. Deep shadows certainly help with this, too!

Bec’s a dancer, and we had intended to capture some dance moves by firing the flash multiple times in a single exposure.

We did exactly that – using a flash to illuminate her twice, while using some LED bulbs to capture the movement between flashes over a 2.5 second shutter speed.

These are single exposures, with only some minimal dodge / burn in photoshop.

I’ve missed photographing people – and this is something none of us have had the opportunity to do in recent times. Bec and I are already planning to work together again in the future, so stay tuned for more!

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