Creating the Photograph is an original series where photographers teach you about how they concepted an image, shot it, and edited it. The series has a heavy emphasis on teaching readers how to light. Want to be featured? Email chrisgampat[at]thephoblographer[dot]com.
Thiago Lopes Pereira is a Brazilian photographer who sometimes gets paid jobs, but most of the time does personal projects. By day, he’s an engineer in the aircraft industry. “I discovered photography at age 20 in second year of Engineering. Since that day, I studied a lot by myself, learning as much as I could about this recently discovered passion.” says Thiago.
When he discovered how to use a strobe flash off camera, he was mesmerized.
When we recently asked our readers to show us their strobist photography, Thiago answered the call.
So here’s his story.
The Concept
My girlfriend Jessica found some tutorials of horns, and since we like to make our own props for the shoots, it was a good opportunity to make something we never did before. We did it and called our friend Alexia for modeling, who got completely nuts about the idea. She has been a great friend for the past year and I have a ton of photos of her in my portfolio.
The idea was getting some photos in a park with little natural light bouncing in, like candles, sunset light and posts light if needed. I absolutely love the combination of natural and strobe light because it makes it look natural and catch the eyes of the viewer.
Jessica did the makeup on Alexia, arranged the horns and clothing and we hit the road.
The Gear
– Canon T3i
– Canon 40mm 2.8 STM
– Canon 24mm 2.8 STM
– Lumopro LP 180
– GODOX 80x80cm softbox
– Yongnuo 430 II
– Old Lamp with candles
PS: Some would say that this is a proof of gear does not matter so much. I totally loved the results and I am not worried about using entry-level gear. Lighting does matter!
The Shoot
For this particular photo, I asked Alexia to lay in the woods, and carefully positioned the lamp with lit candles near her. From the start, I knew I would crank up the ISO to show some of the natural lights. Also I wanted to use wide open apertures to get little depth of field. So I set it to ISO 400 and I started to get the right position and power from key light. Once done, I put a Yongnuo 430 in the back, just outside the frame to get the back light for model, the light in the leaves behind her and to get this little flare. To show the candle lights, I slowed down my shutter speed to about 1/40th of a second and it even got a little light on Alexia’s legs.
Similar settings were used to get the sunset golden lights, slowing down the shutter speed and using flash to freeze the subject.
Post Production
I usually try to make everything inside camera so I have less work at post production. The settings I use to make is more to add the kick to the image, bring up a little color, highlights and contrast. If needed, I correct the white balance.
The 0.25 of exposure is to compensate the shadows and blacks put down for some drama.