Help needed

[Freddycr]

Hello...I'm preparing a photo shoot with Rebecca. Among other styles, i'd like to shoot some bodyscapes....now, my light source are strobes (speedlites). + brollies
Is there any home-made transformation or adaption that would allow me to use them to shoot bodyscapes , with black or white BG ??

Thanks a lot

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

You can shoot bodyshapes with everything as long as you look what you are doing.
Sometimes I use a small or stripped softbox, but also bare spots or grids.

[Lorek]

Did you tried to use your speedlights on stands with umbrellas?

[Blinky]

I'm not an expert with nude bodyscapes so I figured I shouldn't post a reply but it seems that nobody's pointing out some important points about revealing form.

-A lot of the bodyscape you see are lit with the main from behind, reflecting the light off the skin from a low angle. Reflector fills or edge lights illuminate the outlines the main misses.

-The lights are typically distant to control falloff and/or carefully feathered to to graze over curves —the idea is to create smoothly graded transitions from highlight to shadow and emphasize form.

-Those bright, sharp, wet body highlights are reflections, so the principle of angle of incidence equals angle of reflection is useful. To get those long, broad specular highlights, the the light will need to be low angle (assuming you camera is also low, about body level).

-You can use your brollies or just straight lights with reflectors. The brollies will give you softer cast shadows... the closer they are (and consequently the bigger they are in relation to the subject), the softer the shadows. Cast shadows are different from the shadow zones on your subject.

-If you want that really glowing, supersoft illumination, shoot your main through a big scrim like a sheet of china silk stretched flat with a frame or something.

-Change the distance between your lights and subject to change the transitions from light to shadow on your model's body (falloff).

Like I say, I'm no bodyscape artist like Doug Lester but those are tried and true principles for revealing curvature and form and should give you something concrete to work with.

Chip

[d10d]

you could make homemade snoots to help control/direct the light a bit more...

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03...noots-and.html

dan