Tales From the Jacuzzi

First off, the Pretty Girl Shooter Flickr Group is growing nicely. If you haven't joined, why not do so? Flickr works a little like myspace.com in that, as you become more involved, you develop an extended network of groups for viewing the kinds of images you enjoy. As of this writing, we have 81 members in the PGSFG.

Back to Tales From the Jacuzzi...

One of the sets we decided to shoot while I was in Vegas was Devin in the jacuzzi. It was night and it was cold. Many people associate Vegas with intense heat--and it's true it bakes there in the summer--but in the winter it can get fairly chilly in Sin City. While shooting these jacuzzi pics, the temperatures were in the mid-30s. It didn't bother Devin much, she was in the hot, bubbly water. I, on the other hand, was freezing my ass off.

One of the problems that was immediately noticeable was the steam generated by the hot water and the cold air. Often, we had to fan the steam away from in front of the model. While the steam was a cool effect, when it drifted in front of the model it simply hazed over the shots. I probably could have made that work if I was looking for some artsier results, but I was shooting pretty girl pics, not art nudes.


I had limited gear with me on this trip. I'll be going back in the near future and, next time, I'll bring along some bounce-board to use as flags or reflectors, and perhaps a snoot and/or some grids.

While shooting these jacuzzi images, I really could have used some flags or other gear to control the light. Initially, I went with a three-light setup for these but the spill was scattering light everywhere and while I didn't not like the results, I decided I'd like them better with a bit more shadow in the shots, rendering the images with more of a night-time feel to them.

The first image I posted (above) is a good example from the 3-light setup. But, for me, there's just too much light... at least in my opinion. I decided, therefore, to remove one of the sources from the setup (my edgelight behind the model, camera-left) and go with two-lights. This allowed more shadow and fall-off, adding a bit more drama to the images. All of you might not agree that the two-light setup worked better but I think, in this case, less was more. Besides, I like shadows. Yeah, a lot of glamour photography utilizes a higher-key approach, but that ain't my usual style. You can see the result of removing one of the sources in the second image and in the image I posted with my "I'm Back" update prior to this post.

As mentioned, the model is Devin. I captured these with my Canon 5D w/28-135mm zoom, ISO 100, f/5.6 @ 160th. The mainlight was a 5' Photoflex Octodome. The two backlights in the first image and the one backlight in the second were bare bulbs with small, 6-inch, parabolic reflectors attached.