Jane and I began working together
last summer,
having the opportunity to work outdoors several times. For this
session, however, we were to work indoors, mainly due to the freezing
conditions outdoors (being the middle of winter and all).
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Digital infrared original |
Jane was visiting Moncton for a conference but did have an evening available to work with me so I set up my
lighting
and we began working. As opposed to using all three lights, and
continually having to adjust one thing or the other, I decided to use
the most basic of lighting approaches and set one flash head above the
couch on which Jane was posing. On this flash I used my large (30"x60") softbox, to give the light a soft, even quality.
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Digital infrared original |
Unlike our previous sessions outdoors, where Jane and I worked
with the body in the landscape, this session was focused on details.
With the softbox positioned high above her, the light gave beautiful
description of form, yet gave soft, delicate transitions from light to
dark (with direct light, these transitions would have been harsh and
contrasty). This
focused the images on form and shape; this, combined with shallow depth
of field (a result of using my 50mm f/1.8 lens at large apertures),
allowed me to make a whole series of images that walked the line
between being details (because of the close-up composition) and abstract
(because of the shallow focus).
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Digital infrared original |
It was a great pleasure to work again with Jane whom I hadn't
seen for many months but, as enjoyable as it was, I couldn't help but
feel how lacklustre the images were compared to the work we'd produced
outdoors.
I have never really overcome my frustration with working indoors with
studio lighting, and while it is definitely preferable to not
photographing at all, it often falls so far short of my work outdoors
that it becomes more about practice and experimentation than actually
pursuing the making of images.
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