First post of several on the joys of backlighting, which in the simplest terms is exactly what it sounds like: sticking a light somewhere behind the subject for some kind of interesting effect.This shot, which was part of my Model Behavior DVD Two project (WHAT?!? You haven't bought a copy yet? What's wrong with you?), put not only a light, but a whole lotta smoke, behind our subject (sometime wrestling diva and all-around cute goth girl Carrie Cooper).
The influence for this pic was, of all things, a promotional picture from the recent IRON MAN movie: Robert Downey, Jr. in his metal suit, standing in front of an back light with an oval cutout shooting through a lotta smoke. (Similar to this.) So in my boundless naivety, I said to myself, "Hey, self, you've got a smoke machine AND a softbox for your strobes with an oval mask. Piece of cake, right?"
Yeah, not so much. As you can see, the smoke machine (Halloween-store consumer grade at best) didn't produce huge volumes of smoke, and the soft box wasn't large enough for the cutout to create a well-defined oval. (It's clear the IRON MAN photog used a full-size cutout and a much better smoke source...) Nonetheless, I've found that any backlit smoke behind a subject is better than no backlit smoke etc. And -- most importantly -- both I and the subjects loved the results. Here are, respectively, Liz Savage and Lane Rosario, two more satisfied customers:
So half a win is better than no win at all.
Next time: "accidental" backlighting -- boon to, or bane of, pro wrestling photography? The answer might surprise you...
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