When shooting a photograph, I often feel that I am creating a single frame from a movie. The star of the movie is the subject. With the use of backdrops, light, a ladder and a Venetian Blind I have created an effect and a mood. In this article, I am sharing examples of the use of colors and lighting to create different visual effects.

This set is from my Creative Lighting Workshop in Boston on April 22, 2018. I had 2 completely different lighting setups right next to each other.

How the Lighting Was Created

Model Valentina Beli from New York is on the right set. For lighting, I used a Nissin Di700A speedlight with a Rogue Grid set with the 25-degree white grid shot through a Venetian blind, hung using a boom connected to 2 light stands. The Venetian blind is gaffer taped to the boom. I used the Rogue grid to narrow down the beam of light before it hits the blinds. The strobe was fired with a PocketWizard Plus IV radio transmitter. I always use radios to fire my strobes, I can move around and am not bound by the length of my PC cord.  My speedlights are set to manual. To determine my meter readings I used my Sekonic 487 DR light meter with the built-in PocketWizard transmitter. When I take the meter reading, the meter fires the strobe. It’s just a bit more convenient than having to use my transmitter to fire the strobes during my lighting tests.

The backdrop is a “Wooden Door Blue” and it and the floor are from Click Prop USA.  A big wooden ladder was at the studio. Valentina Beli is wearing a white dress from Sew Trendy with a black leather jacket.

This photograph was shot on a Nikon D810 with a Nikon 24-120 f4 lens at 44mm, ISO 200, Aperture: 6.3 and Shutter: 1/160.

On the left set, Julianna Nicole is the model.  For this shot, I mixed a portable studio strobe and a speedlight. For the main light, I used a Dynalite Baja 4 with a Dynalite Beauty Dish. The Dynalite Baja is a self-contained portable studio strobe with an internal battery. I really like using these strobes. Take it out of the case, put in on a light stand, turn it on and you are ready to go!

For the hairline light, I used a Nissin Di700A speedlight with a Rogue 25-degree grid and a Rosco Calcolor Lavender 60 gel from the Rosco Location Lighting Kit by Rick Friedman on a boom behind and above the model. Both strobes were set to manual. When mixing speedlights and studio strobes, the speedlights have to be set to manual. To fire the strobes, there were PocketWizard Plus III plugged into both the Dynalite and the Nissin strobes, and a PocketWizard Plus III on the camera as the trigger.

This photograph was shot on a Nikon D810 with a 24-120 f4 lens at 48 mm.  ISO 100 Aperture f4, Shutter 1/160

Happy Lighting!