After my first experience with portrait studio photography I asked my wife to have her model for me. I’m thankful she agreed and had the patience of dealing with my challenges during the shoot.
The concept of the image was to have it represent someone looking inwards, examining someone’s own thoughts. Hence the name “Introspective”.
Asking her to strike a thoughtful pose with her eyes closed, being framed inside the iris of an eye, felt like an interesting execution for the concept.
The exposure on the model is created using 2 light sources:
One speedlite with a grid behind the model, outlining the subject from the dark background.
One speedlite with a softbox on camera-left at a 45° angle behind the subject, filling some extra light on the subject.
Together, both lights cause a low-key effect on the model.
The exposure on the backdrop is created as following:
First of all, the complete backdrop has texture in it, which is necessary to get the iris-like structures in the image.
When separating the subject from the backdrop, there is little light spill on the background, creating an almost (not completely) black backdrop.
Using dodging in Lightroom, meaning raising the exposure of a selected area, I was able to retrieve the detail of the structure in the backdrop, applying it only where the iris would be.
My wife though it was strange to see herself in an image like this, but did end up liking the story it tells and the emotion it portrays.
Thank you for reading along.