Photographer Anna Gunn and Filipe Martins, Portugal.
A thin sheet of glass was sprayed with water to provide a bit of an out of focus foreground and create a mood for this stylish portrait by Anna and Filipe. To create the feel of a rainy day, they used a large diffuser to camera right, just out of frame. To light that scrim, a small strip light was placed only inches from it. The size of the scrim created a soft, constantly fading away light source since the strip light was so close to it. This gave a very natural main light, with ultra soft wrap from the soft, diffused scrim. No fill cards were used on the shadow side.
Takeaways:
Moving a very large light source in close, and providing a smallish size source behind it can create a very soft, natural “window” light look for portraiture.
Assignment:
Using a very large scrim (cloth shower curtains from Target) bring an additional soft light into the back to illuminate it. Use a small softbox (6-10″) or small umbrella (24 – 30″) and work the distance from 16″ to 4″. Note the different ways the light falls off, and creates a feeling of soft ambient. The distance of the source from the scrim may determine the size of the ‘hot’ area. Note the difference between small softbox and umbrellas.
