Fort Collins isn’t a major urban center, but we do have a few good alleys in town. One of my favorites alleys is in the old town section. We wanted to create an urban style image, something with attitude but not over the top. We chose Maya to be our model, she is fantastic in an urban setting, and has clothes to match. We shot video (go Randy!) on this shoot, you can see behind the scenes here:
We used Elinchrom Rangers for strobe, a 53 inch octabank, a smaller square lightbox and grid spots on the accent and background lights. The first image came together after creating some highlights on Maya’s right arm and in the background. Without these accent lights, her black sweatshirt got lost against the background..it is all about separation. The other challenge was filling in light under her hat, which the big octabank had no problem doing. Basically cross lighting on Maya with a third strobe hitting the background. Technical data is D3 camera, 28-70mm 2.8 lens, 1/80 sec at F22. Main light 53 inch octabank, accent light on arm is 30 degree gridspot, and background is 40 degree gridspot on the brickwall.
For the next image we wanted to bring out more of the alley into the image, something to add more drama and mood. We set up with Maya at the entrance to the alley, and used a similar formula for lighting. The main light was a 27 inch Elinchrom softbox. We also had a 30 degree gridded strobe aimed at her shoulders, and another 30 degree gridded strobe hitting the wall on the left. In the background was a 20 degree gridded strobe, the fourth light in the set up. This fourth light was important to draw the viewer from Maya through the rest of the frame, and helps add depth to the shot. Technical Data: Elinchrom Rangers for strobe, D3 with 28-70mm 2.8 lens, 1/125 at F22. Skyport wireless system used to trigger strobes.
