Eclipsed in Darkness

[nmajmani]

So I did a photo call recently for a theater company. We had a shot come up where the director wanted to use almost no light. I had to crank up the ISO, and do some other technical things to make it come out, but I think I came up with something good. I converted it to Black and White to give it a sort of old film look.

What I'm interested in here is critique on my use of the low light to produce this shot. Does it work half in black, or should the actress be more exposed to light? Just for context, the shoot is from Fame, the Musical, this is Carmen, and this is the exit light to the song In LA. (if that helps anyone)



Nikon D5100.
ISO 6400
F 4.5
Shutter 1/125

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by nmajmani

So I did a photo call recently for a theater company. We had a shot come up where the director wanted to use almost no light. I had to crank up the ISO, and do some other technical things to make it come out, but I think I came up with something good. I converted it to Black and White to give it a sort of old film look.

What I'm interested in here is critique on my use of the low light to produce this shot. Does it work half in black, or should the actress be more exposed to light? Just for context, the shoot is from Fame, the Musical, this is Carmen, and this is the exit light to the song In LA. (if that helps anyone)

Nikon D5100.
ISO 6400
F 4.5
Shutter 1/125

The photo looks good, and I shoot a lot of studio low key shots as you can see in my flickr page. It makes the photo feel and look dramatic, this photo has potential of being a photo essay too.

[Doug Sundseth]

It's not intended to be a beauty portrait, so I think your split lighting works fine here.

There are a couple of places on the right side of the photo where it looks like the light caught just a bit of hair. I'd like to either see more or less there.

Finally, I think you might be able to get much the same mood with a portrait crop. You can still maintain enough negative space to keep the effect, but the tighter crop will make the actress stand out more. (Stylistic, not technical. Ignore if you like this crop better.)

Very nice photo.