About the image

Hi to everyone. First of all, I have to state an important point. I consider the model to be my equal, she is not an object to be dressed and posed. For me the interaction with the model is fundamental, the model talks to me, she has ideas, proposals, and above all she is a friend of mine. In my portrait work that I’ve been doing for about a year and a half, I have selected 7 models who are “my” girls and only with them I take photos. In my opinion, this is an important premise because you have to understand how the photo was born, and my relationship with the models, in particular this one whom I have known since she was a child. Going back to the “Hard light” project, our idea, mine and the model’s, was to highlight a flow of shadow and light, like a river, on her body, without being vulgar, and with an unusual point of view. I thought, what do you always see of the model? The face, and then we take it off! We did several tests with the lights, as you can see from the attached files. But in the end, we decided on a single light, and we changed the background, from white to black. I wanted to reproduce the portraits I used to do in analogue with black and white film and a red filter. So, we tried red light, but the effect was to soften the skin imperfections too much. I wanted to take a “hard” looking photo, in accordance with the contest’s request, “hard light”. So, we took that RGB light set at CCT, 16% intensity and at 3500 Kelvin and I gave it to her, sitting on a wooden cube, while I was lying on the ground and photographing it from below. No tripod, hand-held camera with a slow burst shutter release. Light measurement set as “spot”. AWB as color temperature. I’ve also attached a contact sheet of the series of photos taken, so you can see the workflow. The chosen photo is the last one. We struggled to find the right position of light to create alternation of shadows and highlights from the breasts all the way up to the neck. As for the technical aspect, I shot with a Canon 5D Mark IV, obviously in manual mode, quality RAW, and with the monochrome “style”, to immediately see the effect of black and white in the camera. Note: in the monochrome style I set the filter as “red”. The lens was the 50mm f1.2. I didn’t use the maximum aperture because I wanted more control of the focus area, which was aimed near the crucifix of the model’s necklace. ISO 800 with 1/125 shutter speed and f4 aperture was the right compromise. Postproduction. Only “noise reduction” in raw camera. Nothing else. I wanted to leave all the imperfection of the skin, moles, hairs, the lines in the neck because that is reality and reality has to be the aim of this photo. Other times I act on the model’s skin but this time no, “hard light” was the theme and “hard” had to be the model’s body too. Finally, the model approved the photo, she noticed how the pulled necklace highlighted even more the “hard” concept of the photo, as if she was choking herself. I hope you like the work done, beyond the final result. We had a good time and we enjoyed the “Hard light” challenge! Greeting from Italy Guido & Ecaterina