Brown shawl

[Chris Saper]

This photograph was taken indoors, with my Nikon Coolpix 5700 digital camera. To light my subject, I placed a single 6500 Kelvin bulb in a reflector on a tripod. The bulb was at a height of about 7 feet. Just off to our left . perpendicular to the wall, was the closed studio door, which is paInted white, and acts as a fill reflector.

I wanted to have clean value separation, so I placed her against a middle value wall (my studio wall, painted in a Home Depot Behr color called Mesa Gray) so that the shadowed side of my subject would be darker than the wall, and lit side lighter.

[William Whitaker]

Let me say to everybody that Chris knows what she is talking about. This is a superbly wonderful piece of reference for a painter. Using this material as a point of departure, she can really bring off a first class portrait. She is following all the time-tested proven rules. Notice that the light is coming down on the form from a slightly elevated angle. Pay attention to the fact that three-quarters of the image is in light and a quarter in shadow. This is just about textbook perfect.

The grey background is a wonderful foil for working scrap. It also looks wonderful against flesh. The color

[Jean Kelly]

Thanks for the extra information on this Chris and Bill. I didn't know about the 75% rule and will try it next time I photograph someone indoors. I also have to paint those walls and get rid of a bunch of "stuff". I recently bought a Nikon Coolpix 5400 (last Aug.). Chris or Bill, could you advise me on the camera settings you use with this set up? I started this as a total novice, and now feel a little more competent, but sometimes still get blown out highlights. There is a setting for contrast and saturation level, do you ever change those from auto mode? I finally figured out that I need to set it on aperture priority for outdoor shots to get the best results (at the highest setting). I'm getting a little better at choosing the setting for the best light. Any tips you can throw out?

Jean

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

Hello Chris,

I am under stupefaction from the beauty and perfection of that photo...
Just a question: when you did the painting afterwards, did you have the same light as when the model was posing, or the light (the Kelvin bulb) was just there for the photos?

Best regards Sergio

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Chris, the photo is fantastic, and I was so lucky to have seen live one of its european outcomes !
I must say that after my Coolpix 5700 broke in a car accident I have upgraded to the D50 but still miss my old one!
Thank you for the fantastic example
Ilaria

[Chris Saper]

Wow, I am so delinquent in responding - so sorry!

Jean, regarding the camera settings, my camera does a very good job with auto, and I find that I only need to specify a white balance when the light is at an extreme temperature in either direction. I tweak saturation and contrast in Adobe photoshop as needed, before printing. I have found though, if I use a "portrait" setting (large aperture) my camera has trouble getting everything in focus. A smaller aperture would be better.

Sergio, I only paint in natural indirect light, which is quite close to the 6500 K bulb. In Arizona there is so rarely anything but clear blue skies that the indirect natural light is quite constant in temperature, at least compared to a region where there's lots of rain, clouds etc.

If I were to paint under an artificial light I would use the same bulb.

This is one of several images from a series of photos that I took, and Scott Bartner actually painted from this particular image - a spectacular piece that was accepted into the Royal Society of Portrait Artists last year. I am going to buy a lottery ticket (I keep meaning to) so I can purchase this painting from Scott- this is my daughter Alexandra.

Here is the link to the painting on Scott's wonderful site

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

The photo indeed has something mysterious and intriguing (may be because of Arizona "Spanish" light imitation?
I think as a landscape it could be the subject of several paintings and interpretation...