More on Working in Close Quarters

If there's one, close-quarters, room I dislike working in it's bathrooms. Might as well be working in a closet when it comes to many bathrooms. Yet, often enough, I'm asked to shoot pretty girls in bathtubs and showers. They are, after all, natural places for models to appear sans clothing.

First off, there's rarely room to back light in bathrooms. Well, to easily back light, that is. And I'm a guy who likes to use back-lighting.

Sure, there are ways to hang lights up high and out of the way--gaffers do it all the time--and there are booms that can be utilized. But the big difference between gaffers and photographers (leastwise, in terms of lighting a set) is gaffers and their minions (lighting grips) are given ample time to light them. Photographers, well, this photographer, is usually given mere minutes and, even then, the honchos on the crew are looking at me like, "What's taking so long?"

Sheesh! Rodney Dangerfield move over. Hey guys! Try selling your freaking video without good photographs for the product art, advertising, marketing, and more!

That little outburst aside, time and space are my foremost enemies when I'm directed to a bathroom to capture some pretty girl pics. Usually, I'm left with few options other than front lighting. In my mind, front lighting is front lighting even if it's coming from the side, i.e., the source isn't positioned, to some degree, behind the model.

Of course, there are a few other issues at work when shooting models in tubs and showers, not the least of which being the humidity in the bathroom. Most models aren't going to be too thrilled working in cold water, even luke-warm water, and their lack of enthusiasm for doing so often limits the range of emotions and poses they offer... even when the room itself is quite warm. Unfortunately, hot water causes humidity in the form of steam. (Even though the steam might or might not be visible.) Steam, as you're probably aware, loves to cloud glass. You know, like the glass that is your lens.

Yeah, I've shot in some bathrooms where there was plenty of room, both to get my lighting gear where I want it and to keep myself far enough away from the water (the steam generator) to reduce or eradicate it's impact on my glass. More often than not, this isn't the case. Usually, I'm stuck with front lighting and trying to keep my glass clear.

Oh well.

The image at the top is (front-lit) Savanna from last week. I like the way gravity did its thing on the bubbles slowly flowing down her body. I set up two lights: One of them behind me modified with my Larson Reflectasol. The other, for fill, off to the side and modified with a small, shoot-through umbrella. It was one of those (many) times where I wished I had some additional gear with me to help me control and confine the light, e.g., a snoot, grids, flags, doors, whatever, but that wasn't the case. Total set-up time? About three minutes. Total shooting time? About ten minutes. Total set-up time for the (3-man) lighting crew to light the bathroom? About an hour. Maybe, in the future, I'll just say, "Screw it!" and use their (continuous) lighting and a high ISO? Sure will make my job easier.