BeautyInDecay
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Littlerock, CA at a location that was sadly destroyed in the recent wildfires. The model, Juliette, is sitting in an abandoned car and pretending to drive. She was dressed in a black outfit that provided a great contrast to her skin tone, so I wanted to use the leading lines of the car but get a glimpse of her leg in the image.Time
This was taken July 2020 in the afternoon at around 6:30pm in the California desert on an extremely hot day. Even though it was fairly late in the day, the sun was still intense.Lighting
The sun was behind us, and I was. shooting with a Zeiss 35mm Distagon lens. I had a strobe pointed at her 45 degrees on camera right, to light her face and separate her from the background. My aperture was f5.6 1/200 sec and ISO 100.Equipment
This was shot using a Sony A7RIII, with a Sony Zeiss Distagon 35mm 1.8 lens, Handheld, so no tripod. The lighting was a Cheetah Stand Colt 45 reflector with diffusion on her face from the front and the sun was behind her. The strobe was a Godox AD-600 at either half of 1/4 power.Inspiration
Littlerock CA is a desert. town with a western vibe. Juliette was wearing a outfit that suggested needing to get out of a bad situation fast and the idea of her starting a car with the door open in a hurry and driving away was the inspiration.Editing
I used Lightroom to reduce highlights and slightly lift the shadows and then color graded and edited in Photoshop. Juliette's skin and makeup is always pretty flawless, so the editing was minimal as the image already looked good in camera.In my camera bag
Although I do have an old Pentax camera in my bag, I generally reach for my Sony A7Riii which is my main axe. I have several zooms that I use when necessary, but I definitely prefer prime lenses and my Zeiss Distagon 35mm is probably my most used lens. I love Godox lighting and usually carry a couple of AD200s with various Magmod gels and grids, an AD600 and I recently picked up a Flashpoint 300pro which is becoming a favorite. Most of my on location modifiers are Westcott Rapidboxes, but in the studio I like to bounce light off v-flats or use Wescott umbrellas or Octaboxes.Feedback
I love natural light portraits from either early morning or late at night with long shadows. Put the sun behind you and light your subject with either a strobe or a soft white reflector. You just want to put enough light on the face to make the image pop, but I personally try to avoid flat light on faces as a little light contouring always looks better to my eye.