BPI Science Awardee Shoot: Shedding Light on Excellence

I have known Denniell Ann (simply Denden to people in the department) since she fortuitously found her way into the B.S. Chemistry program about four years ago. Ever shy and self-effacing, I asked to shoot her for an article that I wrote for the USC Department of Chemistry's blog (which you can read here). I did this, not only to celebrate her many notable achievements, but I hoped to infuse her with a you're-only-limited-by-your-imagination kind of confidence before she headed out into the matrix real world.

As I have come to learn, it is always good to get your standard 'crowd-pleasing' keepers done before you experiment with something... less conventional. So, I went for an evenly lit, high-key-type look for the pictures below.

 

Even Steven

Three lights were used to create the look. Due to mixed light sources in the room, I decided to kill off ambient contribution completely. I used a flash set at about 1/16 power, above and behind me as on-axis fill. This allows me to build upon how the shadows in my image will look like before I bring in additional lights. A second flash in a Westcott Apollo soft box at about 1/4 power was placed above (pointing down) and to the right of the subject at an angle of about 45°. A third flash was shot through a LumiQuest SoftBox III and placed on a short stand behind the subject pointed up at the white projection screen. A few test shots, tweaks and adjustments in her pose gave me the pictures below.

The first was shot with a 70-200 mm lens.

A wider angle lens (17-50 mm) was used to make the picture below.

The white background with her white bolero (Yes, I know what that is!) made the wording on her plaque readable in the second image, so that in itself was a bonus.

Time to loosen the straightjacket.

__________ 

 

Just a Thought

With two highly usable keepers in the bag, I dared to go with something more unusual, which resulted in the image below.

  

I was going for the portrayal of a light bulb moment (okay, I don't get points for thinking outside the box). I was going for a less staid formal look, and getting Denden to buy my idea was already a win in itself. I set my camera to blow out the highlight detail on the light bulb in the frame, but I wanted to dial it down to the point where the outline of the bulb can be clearly seen. I then went with one flash at about 1/8 power with a 1/2 CTO gel and shot it through a 1/4" speed grid to act as my key (upper camera right, pointing down at the subject).

If I didn't write the article on the subject, would the author have selected this picture to accompany it? Probably not. But, if I had to be selfish about it, this shot was purely for me.

Green Chemistry

I wanted to put in a couple more environmental portraits, so I moved the shoot to the department's instrumentation laboratory. I've shot in this space before, so I really wanted to make it look different this time around.

I set my camera to include very little ambient contribution even though I turned off the overhead lights, since light from fluorescent lamps was still bleeding in from the adjacent room. I used two bare flashes that were both gelled green (I was stacking gels, so I forgot which ones exactly) to create a TV-lab sort of atmosphere. I don't think people who have never worked in one will believe how unbelievably boring the lab can be, hence the green was thrown in to spice things up. One flash (at 1/16 power) is behind me on camera left and zoomed in to about 70 mm to avoid too much spill. The second flash (at 1/8 power) is outside the doorway behind the subject on the right and zoomed in to about 50 mm. I added a third flash set at about 1/16 power with a 1/4 CTO gel and shot through a 1/4" speed grid to act as key.

Okay, Denden is not actually in standard PPE; but I doubt if she would look better if she were wearing a lab coat and safety glasses. As a parting shot, I brought her into the inner room of the lab for the shot below.

I pretty much used the same setup as in the previous shot; but this time, one of the flashes providing the green glow was snooted and pointed up at the white ceiling on camera left, while the other was tucked underneath the table. A VAL, hiding behind the door to the room, was holding the key light (still set as described in the previous shot).

Just out of curiosity — If you got to pick the photo to accompany the article (linked at the beginning of this post), which of the above photos would you pick and why? Chime in in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading.