VIDEO: Neil van Niekerk, Ulorin Vex, and a D1 Kit
Neil van Niekerk is a New Jeresey-based photographer specializing in wedding, portrait, and boudoir photography. When he got the chance to shoot alternative model Ulorin Vex, he took it, and took his Profoto D1 kit along for the ride.
He starts out using one D1 head to light his white background and uses a beauty dish to light his model. As it turns out, if you’re too lazy to use your Air Remote to adjust your out-of-reach lights, you can always use a stiletto-wearing model! Anyway… he later decides to add some rim light on Vex to add a little separation, which he does using two striplights with softgrids. Then he replaces his beauty dish with a large softbox in order to get softer, more even coverage of the model. It’s a interesting look at how a shoot and its lighting can evolve over time.
Watch the video above and check out Neil’s portfolio. Find articles on his blog, Tangents, and his wedding photography on One Perfect Moment.
All images and video in this post are used with permission and ©Neil van Niekerk, all rights reserved; story is ©Profoto. Please respect and support photographers’ rights. Feel free to link to this blog post, but please do not replicate or re-post elsewhere without written permission.
Tags: Behind the Scenes, Neil van Niekerk, ulorin vex, Video
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Comments (4)
Randell John
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Hi Neil,
Great set of images Ulorin Vex is a fantastic model, she makes modelling look easy.
Can I ask about your light set up?
You mentioned that in the first set, with the white backdrop that your key was set as f8 and the light hitting the backdrop was also set as f8.
Everything I’ve ever read about setting up a white backdrop state that the backdrop should be lit between 1 and 2 stops above the key, depending on who your reading.
Can you confirm that both your key and fill were set to the same exposure.
Really enjoying Tangents, and learning a heap from you.
Best wishes.
Reply
Neil van Niekerk
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Hi there Randell
There was a bit of a shortcut in the description.
Even though at 02:05 into the clip I mention, f/8 here and f/8 there (and pointing to the background), I didn’t meter it as that. It’s not an exact description of what I did there.
At 1:15 … I mention that I’m not going to specifically meter for my background. I am going to look at my histogram, and push it to the edge or even over the edge. This way I force the white backdrop into a pure white with no detail. That’s how I actually did it.
I also cleaned it up in post.
Here is the blog post that shows the comparative shots:
(check comment #17)
http://neilvn.com/tangents/high-key-studio-lighting-portraits-model-ulorin-vex/
The rest of the blog post will have more of the detail you’re looking for.
And this blog post has further links to the rest of the shoot with Ulorin Vex:
http://neilvn.com/tangents/behind-the-scenes-video-of-the-photo-session-with-ulorin-vex/
Reply
Debbi
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Seeing the above comment it does not look like you are answering questions, but my question is ” did you photoshop the floor white”? The beauty dish couldn’t possibly lit that floor perfect white. More like grey, yet the video shows the image and a pure white floor. Thanks
Reply
Neil van Niekerk
| #
Hi there Debbi …
Apologies for the slow replies. Work has a way of interrupting the fun stuff.
You’re quite right, the floor wouldn’t be that perfectly white.
I did it in post.
As I mention in my reply to Randell, the description of the post-processing is in this blog post:
http://neilvn.com/tangents/high-key-studio-lighting-portraits-model-ulorin-vex/
… and further comparative shots are down in the comments section.
They show the progress.
Reply