I like to go back a few years and look at the work I was doing then to see what changed and what stayed the same. Currently, I am using more fill light and almost always using light on the background. Introspectively, it feels like I've erred on the side of being too careful with my light these days which takes out the tension, contrast and, well...drama of the image.
I think I'll go back to the studio and move some of those fill lights back a little bit. Or maybe turn them off.....
5 comments:
Kirk,
Don't you adjust the lighting dependant on your subject? Like hinting about the person's character by making the lighting more dramatic?
Thanks for blogging!
Henk
It's really hard to fight against the pull of the safe and conventional. My portrait lighting was always edgy, but when I entered into an agreement with an Olan Mills-trained photographer to share studio space some years ago, I found it a constant battle to resist making my style less edgy, more conventional, just because of the influence of having him around making portraits in the way he had been trained.
It's always amazing to see beauty through your eyes, Kirk. Wonderful. Thanks for sharing photos like this one with the rest of us. You, sir, are an artist.
I'm interested in the way that very high tonal values for skin seem to have high aesthetic value. Irrespective of race or actual skin appearance. It seems to be a cross-cultural, cross-generational phenomenon too: one can go back hundreds of years in asian art portraits and see the high beauty aesthetic placed on very, very light and unrealistic skin tones in facial representations.
The last comment is interesting, currently in Asia being white is a sign of wealth and
beauty. It's great to see you going back and questioning and changing your approach
very inspiring to us all.
Colin.
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