In this episode of How I Got The Shot, Kyle teaches us how to best enhance the desired focus with lighting – be it costume, location, or makeup. He’s joined by model Emma Niess and H/MUA Cassy Laessig. In this video, he creates a makeup-centric photoshoot, and details how the lighting influences it. He decided on two looks; One look is golden tears, the other is black. For the entirety of this shoot, he’ll be using the new Celestial flash units.
Because of the focus on makeup, Kyle emphasizes to stick to tighter framing, so lighting the background isn’t on the forefront of importance. One of the things that’s going to be consistent in the shoot is the look of backlighting like a warm sunlight.
To start, Kyle uses a 35″ Octabox as the key light, and a 51” Soft Silver PLM™ Umbrella with a Color Correcting Gel Dome as the hair/rim light.
In the next setup, Kyle switches out the PLM with a 10″ x 36″ Stripbox, and puts a 7″ Reflector on the key light to provide more specular highlights and a harsh sunlight look.
Next, Kyle positions two Celestials with 14″ x 60″ Foldable Stripboxes on either side of Emma. He put a 10″ x 36″ Stripbox on the key to light her face and provide unique catchlights in her eyes.
For the next setup, Kyle swaps the small stripbox back to the 35″ Octabox, and keeps the remaining lights unaltered.
With the intent of creating a composite with the two makeup looks on either eye, this lighting setup stayed the same while Emma returned to hair and makeup to transform those gold tears into black, and change blazers.
The result is a two faced type of composite, made possible by not changing the lighting setup.
For the final setup, Kyle kept the 35″ Octabox as the key and one of the 14″ x 60″ Foldable Stripboxes as a rim light. Additionally, he added a Celestial with a 7″ Reflector with a warm Color Correcting Gel Domes on it behind the model to create a halo effect behind her.
“By playing with light on our backdrop it’s going to allow us to really change up the tone a bit. Since we’ve kept everything simple -we’re only using a roll of gray seamless- the color and tone of our background are going to be entirely set by our lights and shadows and how they interact with it.”
“At the end of this shoot we’ve effectively created a tone that is present across all looks and all images while still showcasing each individual look and pose.”
To learn more about the Celestial, check out our FAQ Video or website.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our customer service team – and if you recreate any of these set-ups, be sure to tag us on Instagram at @paulcbuffinc.
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