When I was contacted by Savitha to organise a shoot, she mentioned two possible genres. Bollywood and Hip Hop. When I think of Bollywood, I think of bright colours and I thought the theme would be most suited for a spring shoot. It was late October and the rare colours left in town were on graffiti walls. So we decided on a Hip Hop themed shoot in Meadowbank.
I decided to get some more practice with my two speedlights set up and Phottix Odin flash triggers. It was a cloudy day and the available light was pretty flat, so I could definitely use some more contrasty light. One light to the left and one to the right, not on the same plane. Which one was brought in front of the other was determined by Savitha’s pose.
Just caught the action at the right time.I started with the main light camera left.Switching from full body to “plan Américain”I let Savitha go through her poses, provided they were compatible with my lighting set upOne of my favourites from this series.Switching the main light to be camera right.When framing theses kinds of shots, I wanted to include as little of the pavement as possible without cutting her feet off.
After Savitha changed outfits at the local Mc Donald’s, we went for another series. There was relatively little choice of graffiti backgrounds and most of them offered very little room to shoot, so we stuck with the same mural.
Savitha preferred this shot….… while I preferred this one. We ditched the glasses as they were limiting the poses Savitha could do because of the need to avoid nasty reflections of my speedlights in her spectacles.Switched the main light back to camera left.Alternating between full body and close up to give some variety to the series.The cap posed some lighting challenges. Had my lights a bit lower than I usually do.I like the energy of that pose.Bit of an arm wave going.When Savitha ran out of ideas, I switched the main light to the other side.Again, try to have a little of the pavement as possible and not cut a foot off.She did some similar poses as in the first run, but with the different outfit.My favourite of the series.The arm wave again.
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