People in interiors - Institute of Photography and Communications

I had a course in Oulu which was organized by Studio Kuutio. We had a great possibility to have the course in one of the most historical buildings: an old provincial goverment building.

Demonstration in a Green Hall. Working with available light and flash.

In a first session we used interior as a three-dimensional space. In this case we used interior’s little details as composition elements. We worked using available light and one speedlite. I also played little bit with colours in postproduction…

In this case we used one speedlite as a fill light. Available light was our mainlight. I’m showing model’s separation from backround on the screen.

After the Green Hall we went to the Main Hall.

I’m showing the key points of posing in this case. Including that I’m demonstrating vignetting with light. If umbrella is too low or it points out too straight to models, light becomes too flat. If model has a white T-shirt, it may burn through. That’s why umbrella should be pointing out little bit diagonally upwards.

In addition to light our models we put some extra light to the room behind. The room was called “Red Room”. That’s why we put a red gel over the external flash. This way room became even more reddish.

In the first picture models are too close to door and that’s why they cast a shadow to the door. Next picture I moved the models towards us and the shadow disappeared. At this point I also changed their poses and places on the other way round. This way I was able demonstrate classical lighting for man and woman. I also added some CTO-gel to the fill light to change models’ faces shadow side to warm colour.

More dramatical feeling in the Red Room. Final picture wasn’t very good, but in picture below can be seen the composition I planned. In this case I wanted to demonstrate placing models in different places in the interior: another one is the main model and that’s why he’s in the front. Another one is secondary and that’s why she’s more at the backround. This kind of composition increases the three-dimensional feeling of the picture. (In this case Jaakko is in the front, because his suit was more formal and suitable for this interior.)