Hair by Claire Higgs - Toni & Guy Essensuals

Canon EOS 5D Mark II - CAMERA

62 mm - LENS

F 8 - F-STOP

1/100 sec - SHUTTER SPEED

100 - FILM SPEED

Flash - LIGHT SOURCE

Normally when shooting full body shots I prefer to keep the lighting simple. Atmospheric, but clean and strong; usually relying on a softer more diffuse light if it's going to be directional. The benefits of this are obvious for minimising post production work, predominantly in reference to where 'the rubber meets the road'. Meaning that where two planes connect in a photo, the feet to the floor for example, your have to worry about clean but believable shadows. Here however I wanted strong dynamic lighting on the hair and didn't want to sacrifice that for a bit of extra time in post. Incorperating seven different lights will in theory produce a very confusing 'shadow pool' with the possibilty for every light to cast its own unique shadow. The introduction of the small softbox fill light down low not only throws some much needed light into the dress but also helps to kill all but the key lights strongest shadow.

Another technical difficulty with this shot came when I was trying to capture the huge amount detail and texture in the dress, hence the adding of a further two lights either side set low purely to catch any shape in the folds. As with lighting anything dark, we can only ever see the reflected light, and what with this dress having so many layers of a mesh like material (taffeta) lighting this dress from the front had no effect as the light went in but never came out. By using supplemental lighting from the sides I was able to create more shape with a little amount of highlighting resulting in the dress having the appearance of being lit.

Behind the scenes video shot and edited by David Lloyd photography