Lights, colors, fractals and a small studio space

I created this photograph at WPPI in Las Vegas. I was at the ClickProps Studio Backdrops booth. This company makes over 500 backdrops in various designs and sizes, and we got to test out a number of them. This photograph was shot against the “Brick Natural” backdrop. Our shooting “studio” space was only about 5 feet by 10 feet.

 A collaboration between two photographers

The photograph was a collaboration between two photographers: the model, Kat Armendariz of Hush Hush Shoot Studio in Las Vegas, and me.  Kat is one of Las Vegas’s premier boudoir photographers. She stopped by the booth where I was doing lighting demonstrations and we created this photograph together. Kat is holding a Fractal Filter, which is a glass prism that can add an artistic flair (and flare) to your images and videos.

A small studio on a large show floor

Kat was lit with 3 Nissin Di700A speedlights, triggered by a Nissin Air 1 transmitter. The flash to the right of Kat, which is going through the Fractal Filter has a Rogue grid with a diffusion filter and a half CTO filter* on it.  In this photo, I used the half CTO filter to warm Kat’s skin tone.

The flash directly behind her created the hairline light, using a Rogue grid. It has a Rosco Calcolor Lavender 60 gel.  Cinefoil (photographic black tin foil for shaping light) was added to the Rogue grid on the right to prevent any of the light from this strobe from hitting the background.

The flash to the left of her has a Rogue Flashbender 2 XL  to fill in the left side of her face. This flash was one stop darker than the other two speedlights.

When adding colors to your photograph, it is important that you control where your light from each flash is aimed.  Grid sets are used to control the spread of the light.   To determine my exposure I used a Sekonic 458 Flash Meter.

All color filters and Cinefoils are included in “Rosco Location Lighting Kit By Rick Friedman“.  Also included in the kit is a sheet of Tough Spun, used for light softening.  I designed this kit to contain all the gels I use on location.

*A CTO is a color-temperature orange filter normally used to convert daylight to Tungsten.

This was shot on a Nikon D810 with a Nikon 24-120 lens, ISO 250, f/5, 1/125 second.

Making a lighter studio

Each of the strobes was on the new Nissin LS 50C light stand.  This light stand reaches up to 6 feet when it’s fully extended, and folds up to 19 inches! At 1.2 pounds, it’s the lightest and most compact light stand on the market. I was able to fit my entire studio setup in my ThinkTank Airport Advantage Plus. Weighing in at 6.9 pounds, this bag is a lot lighter than other roller cases, which makes carrying my entire studio a lot less strenuous!