Patricia

Model: Patricia Timmerman | Canon 5Ds / EF 135mm F/2.0L USM | 1/125 - f/5.6 - iso 100

By keeping the face just slightly out of the light, a sense of mystery remains in the photograph. Think of it as a reversed version of the lighting Rembrandt used: instead of a small triangle of light on the face, there's a small triangle of shadow.

The lighting for this photograph was created using a single flash with a large reflector, positioned high up on the left-hand side. This produces fairly even illumination, although the light remains relatively hard.

Of course, the studio setup involved more than just the flash. There was a mattress on the floor, with a pile of cushions behind her back. To conceal them, I draped fabrics over everything. These are just ordinary fabrics bought from a fabric shop. I had the edges hemmed to prevent fraying, as I use them quite often.

There's a red fabric beneath Patricia, but the red fabric at the top of the photograph is important, too. It was draped over a crossbar between two light stands, the kind normally used to hold a roll of backdrop paper. In this case, however, a red fabric was hung in such a way that it also created a frame within the photograph.

At the very back of the studio, there was a plain black cloth. All in all, quite a lot of fabric for a single photograph.