Simple concept, hopefully - a music student not entirely enjoying practicing her fingering. Rather tricky to light though... Had some hard times trying to light saxophones before:
(, )
so this time i had a decent idea where to start, but the soft lighting and lack of reflections needed for the sax wasn't entirely compatible with the harsh shadowy mood i wanted to give the portrait... In the end i went for a single harsh flash, zoomed in to 85mm from almost directly above the saxophone pointing down. I wanted the handcuffs to stand out as much as possible, without getting excess light on other parts of the scene (and keeping the shoulder just behind the chain a bit darker to get some separation). For added definition to the face, and that all-important catchlight on the eye, i added a second flash dialled down 2 stops off to the left, zoomed in to 105mm, with a blue gel over it. Cloth on model's legs to stop them becoming distracting bright areas leading out of the bottom of the frame. Not sure how well the unusual composition will go down... but we'll see. Also wonder how many "too dark" comments i'll get...
I personally quite like the chiaroscuro shadows her hair casts on her skin, but i imagine i'll get some comments about how this could have been better illustrated in a school uniform etc... But having her dressed this way seems more appropriate to illustrate a student practicing deep into the night, to me anyway. This was a painful pose for the model to hold, and a painful angle for me to shoot at, so i didn't get quite as many takes as i'd have liked. In retrospect, wish i'd given the sax a bit of a polish to get rid of some distracting marks around the bell though.
Editing: Rotate, crop, desaturation of everything except the blue, about 80% of the yellow, and 30% of the red channels to make the sax stand out more and give the model a more melancholy, colder look. Resize and sharpen.
Outtakes:
And before anyone asks, yes, the saxophone is (almost) perfectly playable with the handcuff there.
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I don't like the idea with the handcuffs; slavery to music should have been portrayed in a different way, not with something so criminal...and it isn't S&M enough, either, despite the harsh light, the beautiful model, and half exposed boobies...
cool concept - really cool. The handcuffs kind of get lost in this composition though. If she's a slave to the music maybe just the hand and the cuffs and the instrument are enough to convey that conceptually. Really nice lighting - I know how hard it is to control those highlights - nice job
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