The Flash Centre - No 3 - Low Key Head Shot

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No 3 - Low Key Head Shot

Low key head shot

Skill level – Basic to intermediate

This simple but striking low key (a composite of tones darker than grey) portrait was taken using just one light and a reflector.

I simply draped a black cloth over a couch before asking the model to lay on her back, this is a comfortable and flattering pose. Whilst not a requirement for a younger model, this position is also aided by gravity, for a flattering rendering of the face.

An Elinchrom RX head was fitted with a strip light (long thin soft box) and positioned at right angles from the camera, and pointing down onto the model at 45 degrees. This also has the flattering effect of accentuating the cheek bones, and contouring the face.

An original Triflector (only available from TFC) was positioned just out of the cameras view to the left, and this redirected light back into the subject, to reduce the highlight to shadow ratio.

Strong eye contact engages the viewer, whilst the simplistic B&W tones controls and shifts the emphasis up to the face and particularly the eyes

Shot on a Canon 1 DS at 100 ISO, the exposure was set at F8 and 250th of a second. A 28-70 2.8L lens was set to 70mm

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