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Posts Tagged: low key
A night of low-key photography – part 2
With every shoot I do, I make an effort to revisit the shoot after some time has passed in order to look at the shots with a fresh eye. Â I’ll also do this after developing a new technique or just to experiment and see if I can come up with anything neat or show worthy.
I added quite a few images to the gallery of my low-key experiment shoot with Corrie back in January. Â Some of the new images are, in my opinion, my best low-key work to date, though there is one stunning high-key image included. Â I just can’t seem to get away from bright lights and hard shadows.
So, sit back and enjoy the show. Â I’d love to hear from all of you with comments, criticisms, suggestions or anything else you want to say or ask.
The gallery is behind the cut because, as you should already expect from me, they’re Not Safe For Work (NSFW).
An experiment in low-key photography. – Part 2
I took some time recently to complete my finishing touches on the first shoot of 2015. There may be a few more gems buried in the shoot, but I am extremely pleased with the results so far. I hope you will be too.
As you probably already knew, the images past the cut are NSFW.
First shoot of 2015 – A Low Key Shoot.
On January 4, 2015 by scott With 0 Comments
- 2015, Corrie, Experimentation, Nude, Photography, Scott Bragg, Sensual, Smyrna Studio
I’ve been experimenting with low-key lighting and trying to achieve a very soft, body-molding look for a while. Regular readers have seen some of the results of that experimentation in previous posts.
All of that experimentation came together for the first shoot of 2015 tonight. The setup is deceptively simple with a black cloth backdrop, an SB-910 speedlight in a 24inch softbox to the right (photographer’s right) of the model.  I set the speedlight to 1/4 power and shot at F/22 or F/18 @ 1/125 and ISO 100. This gave me a completely dark room with the only light showing up on frame being the speedlight.
The results were everything I had hoped they’d be. The model was very fun to work with and I’ll be shooting her often over the coming year. With the exception of the image labeled ‘Fire Down Below’, the only editing on these is cropping and b/w conversion and, when needed, a touch of sharpening. ‘Fire Down Below’ had a bit of color bump, clarity and sharpening to get the look I wanted. I also brought the exposure up slightly on it.
As you probably already guessed, these images are NOT safe for work. Click the ‘continue reading’ link to see the photos.  And as always, enjoy and I look forward to your feedback.
Classical Nudes
For quite a while now, most of my work has trended towards high key lighting, almost to the point that it’s become somewhat of a signature for me. As an example, these are the out-takes from a set called “A Sleazy Drag King Shoot” due for publication next month.  Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been pushing my lighting experimentation in the other direction. Low key, softer and more subtle lighting. Below the fold are a couple of nudes from last week that give a strong sense of the classical painters of the last century. Even though the lighting is very simple (1 strobe with softbox and a single incandescent in the room), and with just a little bit of work in Lightroom, I’m very happy with how these came out.
Implied nudity behind the fold. May or may not be NSFW depending on how picky your HR department is.
Wendi in Profile
I spent some time last night doing light and posing experiments with my lovely wife, Wendi. Generally I do not get anything usable out of such a session since I’m focused on what works, doesn’t work, and on experiments. I deliberately push things to extremes in order to study the *why* as much as the *what* of how the pose or light acts and looks.
Then there are times when with a little post work, I come up with something truly extraordinary. The last time was the image “Stark Elegance” (nsfw) where it was a particular pose and expression that was the inspiration for an image. This time, it’s just the way the light fell, the softness of the detail on her hair, her expression.  It’s probably one of the most elegant portraits of Wendi I’ve taken yet.
Enjoy.
Wendi in Profile