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LONLEY HOUSE

LONLEY HOUSE

Lonely House – Behind The Photo

In the lower Catskills, NY circa 1976, I came upon this unique farmhouse. The house had a door and a window on the front and this side view sports a single window. The overcast sky crated the void that makes the house stand out even more. An important aspect of this photo is this is a very early photo taken in the infancy of my photo career. Taken with a Miranda Sensorex camera, my first SLR, and with a cheap lens. From an early enlargement that was squirreled away, a digital copy was created and enhanced to the state is is now. Also see the other versions of this shot – Sepia, God Bless Our Home, and Storm.  A humble home with a humble message – So blessings to you, your loved ones and comfortable home.

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QCC Quick Contrast

QCC Quick Contrast

QCC — Quick Contrast Control

“How To Change the Contrast On Your Subject In Two-Seconds!”

Here is a fast and efficient method of controlling contrast using a shoot through panel (this one is from Chimera).

Our assignment is to shoot an environmental portrait in a work place.  We position a 42×42″ frame with a standard diffusion for a “shoot-through” main light.

The subject is seated on the edge of a desk, a window view in the back ground and the panel frame in position for the key light plus another panel with silver reflective panel as a fill reflector.

The top row shows a Hensel monolight strobe at a distance from our panel frame, filling the diffusion panel evenly to produce a soft wrap of light around our subjects face.

Then in seconds we can change the contrast on our subject (bottom row) by moving the strobe closer to the panel frame creating a small concentrated spot of light on the panel and Viola – we have changed the contrast without any major effort. We never had to move the panel. Now make a quick adjustment to your exposure or power down the flash.

Tips on Exposure:  in the above examples, the camera exposure was changed in the higher contrast image and the background went darker.  To keep the background the same density as in the first mage, the power of the strobe could have been reduced so to maintain the same exposure.  Either way works, it is just a matter of how you want your background to look.

Gear:  Hensel Flash and Chimera Panel/Frames.

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High Key Set

High Key Set

VARIATION -LIGHTING HIKEY SET
This is my variation on lighting the background for high-key portraits.
Most solutions I’ve seen others use to light the background, requires two lightbanks or strip lights. I eliminated these two modifiers and made the V-flats do both – light the background and control the “spill-around” light coming from the background.
The V-flats I use are the Chimera Panel Frames with the elastic corners on the interchangeable fabrics. Each V-flat uses a Black/White and a Black/Silver panel. The diagram shows the arrangement in relation to the light source. Ah, the light source … a pair of DynaLite bare bulb flash heads bouncing off the back sides of the V-flats.
I came up with this to be able to set this up in smaller areas. The Lightbanks take up considerably more room.
FYI – The key light here was a three-foot Octabank.

See diagram below…

Gear:  Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105, DynaLight M1000 packs, 4040 and NE1 heads plus Chimera Beauty Dish.