First shoot for the Village Voice
I recently got to shoot for The Village Voice, an alt-weekly and NYC media institution. The photo came out lovely lovely lovely, mostly due to the handsomeness of the artist I shot and his interesting art that made pretty light patterns.
The shot almost didn’t happen as the installation wouldn’t turn on. Needing to get a photo that day no matter, I set up this shot:
Yes, less exciting but still interesting (the box is nearly bigger than my room!). What makes this photo notable (for me at least) is the last minute DIY lighting. The box was in a gallery with large windows, but not nearly enough natural lighting to do anything respectable. They had a flood light sitting around that I plugged in and got this shot (I took a screen grab from Lightroom with the highlights in red):
I liked the exposure and settings but the hot spots were a bit much and concentrated. Doug loves construction lights because they are by far cheaper than lighting kits and has experimented with similar DIY diffusers (two dryer sheets apparently do the trick). Inspired and excited by my first shoot for VV I grab a bit of bubble wrap from one of the art pieces and grab a gallery worker to hold it up in front of the light.
This is the general set up:
This is the results:
And THAT is how you make cheap construction lighting work for you.
Photo and info on the artist is here.
