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Stuart Wood's Lighting Recipe - part 2 of 1 2

by Stuart Wood Published 01/04/2013

My assistant for the shoot was Dan, who was a fellow delegate. I got Dan to hold the light at the same height as the sun, relative to my camera, so that it looks like Paris could almost be lit by the sun. In reality and without the Quadra firing, Paris would have been a silhouette only. For a little artistic license, I brought the light around to light more of Paris as I did not want her simply edge-lit. Despite this and as a result of all the other details being controlled at the beginning, the lighting still has a nice natural feel to it.

The maximum sync speed of 250th of a second was selected and the power of the flash was then varied to suit the sky, which, for obvious reasons, was getting brighter by the minute. I was always aiming to render the background around a stop and a half under the exposure for Paris, so that she would clearly stand out against it. 250th at f8 at 200 ISO was the exposure for the chosen image, which was one of the last that we took.

It is testament to the stopping power of the Quadra that, despite Paris leaping through the air, the only movement on the image is her long hair behind her that was never even hit by the flash!

It is always absolutely vital to work as a close team with your subject and none more so than when you are shooting complex dance moves that not only need to look great photographically, but are going to be scrutinised later by other dancers, so Paris was closely consulted throughout until we obtained an image that was perfect for her too. It means so much that she is SO thrilled with the result and I was so impressed with her efforts and professionalism that not only is her form in the air perfect in the image, she also has the most lovely smile on her face that takes this image even further.

Then the taxi arrived to take us all back to the hotel and a hearty breakfast!

Stuart Wood holds regular workshops and training days in advanced lighting and can be contacted at stuart@stuart-wood.com or 07831 359379.

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1st Published 01/04/2013
last update 09/12/2022 15:00:26

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