Christopher Nisperos

 "Making of" photos:
 Florian Kleinefenn

... continued
 

THE LUX MAGAZINE SHOOT

 LENS

To fit the magazine cover, I
wanted a sharp three-quarter
shot in 8x10 format, so I choose the Schneider-Kreuznach
480mm f 8.4 Apo-Symmar L.
This lens is famous for it's crisp rendition without being excessively contrasty. I knew
that I could rely on  it to give me details in the darker areas (see the highlights on the model's black sweater) while still letting me preserve the important textures in the highlights of the face.  

PROPS

I decided to use a pearl necklace as a prop. This gave  me a way to keep the portrait a bit soft, yet still show the sharpness of my Schneider lens. I asked my model to wrap one end of the necklace around her finger and stretch it out, tight, parallel to the lensboard. As well, I asked her to keep this necklace at the same plane as her eyes (which was not so easy on a two second exposure!).  

LIGHTING

The lighting for this type of portraiture comes directly from cinema lighting and the effects from the various light sources, which can only be judged from the camera position, usually have to be adjusted down to the centimeter.  Since I usually work without an assistant, this keeps me running back and forth from light to camera --climbing, crawling, standing on tip-toes -- to adjust, re-adjust and check the lighting. Jeans, knee pads and cowhide gloves are standard studiowear!  Metering is done at this point, not to find exposure settings, but rather to establish lighting ratios.    

I use Dedo spotlights for my main, hair, background and kicker lights, and a diffused tungsten-halogen lamp as a fill. Using Dedolight combined with a Schneider lens make the technical job easier (artistic errors are another question!).  

Since my model had a fairly full face, I decided to use a "short lighting" scheme. This puts the side of the face which is closer to the camera is in shadow and gives a narrowing effect. You can judge the placement of the main light by noticing a small catchlight in the eye and, in particular, by the formation of a triangle-shaped highlight which appears on the cheek of the model, nearest the camera.  

The background
--a white wall which was given a subtle pattern by directing a 650 watt Dedo spotlight through
a LightBreak cucoloris--  was lit in high key, so I then used a 100 watt Dedolight to backlight the model's far cheek and make it blend-in, or "bleed" in. This helped me to further "thin her down",  visually.   


SCRIMS

Scrims are indispensable for
this kind of lighting, especially for shading blondes or bald men.
I used an Avenger
scrim to reduce the light falling on her forehead, and help maintain the attention on her huge eyes.   
 

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