*POP* That Girl!

Rather than writing about me and what I'm up to, I thought I'd write about pretty girl shooting today.

"Whew! It's about time!" You might be thinking.

Shooting environments can be cool or they can be neutral. I've shot models in some fairly interesting environments and, at the other end of the spectrum, I've shot them plenty of times in front of neutral seamless backgrounds. Regardless, when shooting this type of glamour the model is (or should be) the focal point of the image. Either the composition, the background and/or environment, or the lighting should draw the viewer to the model. Ideally, a combination of these things, better yet, all of them should pull the viewers' eyes to the subject.

It isn't enough for the model to be beautiful, sexy, and naked to draw the viewers' eyes. Obviously, this isn't necessarily true when you're shooting a model as part of an editorial image, fashion, art, etc. But when it comes to glamour, leastwise, this type of glamour, it's generally the preferred way to go.

Good pretty girl pics often separate or *POP* the model from the background. The easiest way to do this is with lighting. It's my opinion the lights working from behind the model are, most often, the most important lights on the set when it comes to this genre of photography.

Separating models from the BG can be done subtly or quite obviously depending on the result you, the shooter, are looking to achieve. The highlights coming from behind can be hard, i.e., specular, or soft, that is, diffuse. It's simply a matter of metering those lights and increasing or decreasing their power output. There are no rules for what your meter should read. I can't simply say, "Increase the output by half a stop," or something similar.

You should have some understanding of Angles of Reflectance to better comprehend how the lights coming from behind, i.e., those coming from behind at various angles to the model, will reflect. That's why I can't tell you how much, exactly, you'll need to increase (if at all) the power from those particular lights.

You should also remember that back lights can cause reflective highlights and/or shadows where you might not want them. (BTW, for the purpose of this article, I'm mostly writing about working with strobes, not continuous light.) That's one reason why I like working with modeling lights. And I like having them set to "Track."

Strobes that allow you to "track" will increase or decrease the intensity of the modeling lights as you increase or decrease the strobe's power output. If you really want to see what your back lights are doing (assuming your lights have modeling lights) turn off the main light and you'll see them even better. When working without modeling lights, chimping and learning to use your camera's histogram is the next best thing. If you don't have modeling lights, try snapping a few without the main light turned on and chimp and check your histogram when you look at the results. If you're working with multiple continuous lights, some of these same techniques can be easily applied.

In the image of Rachel, seen above and snapped last week, the highlights on her body, i.e., those coming from behind her, are somewhat diffuse coming from camera left and a bit more specular coming from camera right. That was intentional. Often, I prefer not having the highlights that are "edging" or "rimming" the model to be equal from either side. Personally, I think it adds a bit more interest to the image. But maybe that's just me?

In the photo, you can see that Rachel is in a cluttered environment. That made it even more important to separate her, with the lighting, from the background. I also attempted to place her in that environment in a way that things in the background, i.e., the curves and lines of various things in the background, lead the viewer's eyes to the model. See that tire leaning against the car? I purposely set it there. I set it to lean at an angle that helps move the viewers' eyes up and towards Rachel. The curved line of the car's hood also moves the viewers' eyes towards Rachel. Rachel is leaning slightly towards the tire and away from the line of the car hood. That's also helping move the viewers' eyes where I want them to go.

In terms of composition, Rachel is off-set in the image. That makes the picture a bit more interesting and also works well with the lines, angles, and curves of various items in the environment. I also keep a wary eye out for stuff in the BG that might appear like it's growing out of the model's head. I'm not saying it's a particularly great image, but it does serve fairly well for this update.

Remember: When it comes to all this stuff about separating the model from the BG and moving the viewers' eyes where you want them to go, it's all deliberate. So much of this is about developing an eye for detail. Leastwise, it should be. An eye for detail needs to go beyond looking for stray hairs or clothing tags hanging out or other stuff like that. You should be developing a deliberate eye. An eye for detail, composition, lines, angles, curves, and, of course, lighting.

Rachel captured with Canon 5D, 28-135 IS USM zoomed to a focal length of 45mm, ISO 100, f/7/1 @ 125th. Not too much post. No MUA... Cheap client. Rachel did her own. I hate when there's no MUA. Oh well. Wha'd'ya gonna do? At least they paid me better than my normal daily rate.