'Low Key' Lighting Set Up

After my test shoots with my Dad and my sister in the pervious post, the outcomes led me to have the exact same set up as it worked perfectly to give enough light to the subject and wasn't too much for the camera settings.

I am shooting onto Black and have black flooring, a normal Low Key lighting set up uses one light source and that is exactly what I have done.  I only need one light source as I am working with long exposures, the longer the shutter is open the more light, so I would not need any more than one light source or the exposures would not work.

It was Bill Wadman's work that I originated my ideas from and then thought about pole, but I had seen that he used one light source from above to light his dancers. I cannot really get my light to be above the subject so can only put it as high as I can and to one side of me whilst I shoot.

I ave drawn out the lighting set up that I used for my test shoots and what I will use for the main shoot.  It worked out perfectly and the lighting should hopefully be alright for my main subject of the Pole dancer.  I have my black material rolled down and round flat to the wall and then the black ground sheet to cover the floor, no backdrop stands as I have new fixtures on the wall.  The Pole is the centre of the image and the main focus point for this shoot, so it has to be directly in the middle.  I have drawn my subject just to the side so it is easier to notice the top, base and pole and then my subject.

Like i said, I only have one light source and I have placed the continuous light source to my left and placed it as high as I could with a tilt downwards and on the pole.  The windows are blacked out, but the light source is quite bright so it is not a dark dark room.  The camera setting to start off with, has an ISO of 100, an aperture of around f/10 to f/8 and a shutter speed of 3 seconds to start off with.  I ranged my speed and long exposure time with my test shoots so I will do this agin in the main shoot too.

This lighting set up is so simple and I am glad it is something that can have great results with it not being hard to set up at all.  The light source can be changed to different places in the room and around the subject and still have good results with the long exposures. So there isn't really a set way, but I have chosen to keep in camera left. 

Equipment List:

• Canon 60D 
• Nikon D80
• Tripod
• Camera Remote (for Nikon only)
• 1 x Continuous Light & Light Stand
• 1 x Softbox
• Black Backdrop
• Black Ground Sheet
• Pole!
• 4 LED lights (two blue, two green)
• Duct Tape (for the LED's)

My 'Pole Motion' Test Shoots

I have already posted a small number of test shoots but for the two different types of LED lights only.  All of these images below and on this post are my test shoots for my motion idea and long exposure movements round the pole.  I have used my sister and Dad for these tests, which was quite a laugh as neither of them know anything about Pole fitness/dancing. Both of them were really helpful and tried out everything I asked them too.

I am aiming to produce creative imagery of body movements around the pole.  I want them to look different to normal long exposure images and have a sense of mystery about them to certain viewers.
Some people would not know how they were taken or how the moves are created.  The hardest thing about doing a test shoot before using my model Claire, is that, I can't actually picture what it will look like properly.  I wont be able to picture the moves properly until I have her in the studio and I try out different moves off the ground.

So these tests were really just see possible lighting situations and how I am going to positions my model for the actual shoot.  I wanted by the end of this test shoot session to know where my light source will go and what camera setting to have, I also wanted to see what exposure time would be best and what shows movements show up the most with each exposure.

The first few images at the top, I had on the wrong lighting setting on the camera.  It was set on cloudy so was truing the skin colour and movements a bright orangey red, but I changed this to Tungsten and the colour was correct. These show movement tests and some with the LED's as well.

Like I mentioned above, I have used my dad and sister for these test so its hard to actually picture what the images will turn out like when i have Claire actually performing the moves on the pole.  But the LED's lights work in the settings I have so far, and the body movements and motion look how I want them too.  I was aiming to have bright movements as well as faded out and blurred movements. My dad was quite funny to see spinning around the pole as a test, but the images above do show what I am looking for in the movement side of things, but I think the test shots below have turned out a bit better.  The colour of the shorts my sister is wearing stand out quite a lot which is actually quite nice, this make me want to include some colour in my images with my model.

Most of the images above here, show my sister standing quite still in front of the pole and her moving her arms up and down by her sides.  This creates almost a circles of light around her body just from the movements of her arms, things like this will be interesting to capture. Its so simple to capture interesting shapes and body movements in a certain amount of time.  I am using around 3 seconds on all of these images so far and within that time you can move all limbs to make all kinds of different shapes.
Using the LED lights will only be a possible at the moment but well worth trying out, because the amounts of fun and creative patterns and lines I could make with the LED lights could have some amazing outcomes.  I am happy with these test shoots, happy with the lighting set up and the images have come out quite well and show a range of movement which is exactly what I was going for.  Now I just need to see what it would be like at the actual shoot.

Organising the Shoots

So now that I have the floor ready for the shoot, I just need to go over the testing to get lighting and exposures right.  But before this I would like to make sure I have the shoot planned out and ready.

I have been messaging Claire again to make sure she is ok with my plans and know when I would like her to come to my home studio.  I want to get the shoot done asap so that I can have time for the editing process afterwards, so we've decided it would definitely be in the next 2 weeks.   I have worked around any problems she has had and made sure she was comfortable with what I wanted to do.

                                       

                                      

We've decided on Tuesday 2nd April for the shoot so that I still have enough time to sort things through afterwards. Here below in this conversation it shows how we decided on the date and times. 

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 These Images / messages below I have added onto this post so that it fits well to show my organising, but is the conversation the day before the shoot and the day of the shoot. 

So, here shows some more organising and checking things through so that Claire is prepared and to almost prepare myself, I like to go over things again and again to make sure I would have done it correctly.  I also mention about having her hair and make up the same as the first shoot for my mixed media and talk through clothing possibilities.

When I showed my model the original ideas of Bill Wadman's motion series, there are a few images that show a red outfit on the dancer.  I asked my model if she had some other colours that she could bring along to the shoot so that we could try out different things.
She sent me this photo, of some of the clothing she wore for a recent Pole event themed black and red, and I though it would be great.  All plans before the shoot and hopefully it will work well.

The Floor Problem

Today I had a tutorial with my tutor Miranda about my final ideas and what I was going to do to make them happen. The main things I ran over was that I am shooting long exposures of the body, capturing body movement and motion.  I know I want to shoot on an all black background and will have my model Claire, a pole fitness instructor performing moves on a pole in the centre, this brought me to my next problem .... the floor.

I've mapped out a small timeline of photos to show how I have progressed through this problem and solved it!  The first set of images at the top shows my black material backdrop but when it was on my original backdrop stands, which do not reach the ceiling and also do not fit wide enough across the room.  So you can see in the very first image that it doesn't sit right and it is quite awkward having the stands there as it doesn't go all the way to the wall.

You can see with the images above I tried to pull the material forward to see what It would look like and of course it looks better all black.  Because of the problem with the backdrop, my dad had a very clever idea, and went and found some old shelf bars and drilled and screwed them into the wall at either side of the room as wall fixtures for the backgrounds.  He had to long copper bars to put each background on, my white material and my black material.  This was perfect, it meant that the backgrounds were at the highest they could go, they are on longer bars meaning I could use the whole of the material and how much easier it is when they will both be constantly hanging.  The four images below show how the shelf parts are screwed in and the two copper bars for backgrounds.  You can get a feel of the room size and how much space I have for shooting the pole. 

I took these images of my mum and dad putting up the background, on to the copper poles and up on to the shelf.  The far right image below looks so much better that the very first image, the backgrounds are now across the whole wall meaning i can use more space within shoots.  The floor in the room is a bright laminate, therefore, quite shiny.

The PROBLEM:

I want to have the whole of the background for this shoot black. Which usually means, in a studio you pull the paper or material (in my case) down and cover the floor with that piece of paper or material and then put lights, subject and camera on top of that particular floor.  My problem comes in when I want to put the pole up but cant put the pole on top of the material because it is far too dangerous and I cant have it on top of a paper background because I only have material black.  I pulled the material round to see what it looked like all black and its what I'm looking for so I need to think of something. The floor is a laminate floor, so easy for the pole to go on top of, but it can't go on top of material because there is the risk of it sliding.  I need to find something black and flat to go on the floor.  

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These images below were a very quick test of the idea of long exposures and slow motions with the body around the pole.  This is before the black for the floor was sorted and you can see how bad the images would be in the floor was laminate.  I know that the body movements show up lovely onto black as you can see of the upper part of the images but the floor is still a problem and needs to be sorted before the shoot.  Even with this test using my mum and sister, they were slipping on the material that was on the floor, so it should preferably be as flat as possible. 

The SOLUTION:
When I originally knew that for this project I was going to be shooting low key in a dark room, I needed to have the windows covered up because I didn't want any light to be coming in.  I tried to use cardboard to cover the windows but it ended up being too difficult so for this myself and my parents (who have been my amazing assistants) used a think ground sheet from a hardware store like B&Q or Homebase.  These type of ground sheets are waterproof and quite think but still kind of lightweight and flexible, so we cut a piece for the window and it worked perfectly to keep the light out.  So when it came to needed a black floor, it took a little thinking but, it seemed like the perfect option.  We had quite a lot of the sheet left over after the window and laid it out on the ground in the room.  The pole had to be taken down, and the black sheet was stretched out across the whole room and we duct taped it down all around the edges so it was as flat as it could be.  Then because the pole had been marked out in the centre the pole was put up with a small circle cut out so the pole was still on the floor but partly on top on the black ground sheet so it stayed down.
The images below show the results. It was a great idea, and made the ground a perfect black. These images show my backdrop hanging up before it has dropped down and the ground sheet flattened.

The only thing I was worried about was whether the black ground sheet would shine and reflect.  The only way for this to see is by taking some more test shots.  Theres a normal image with all lights on that shows a shine, but the sheet is actually more of a 'matt' shine therefore doesn't reflect that much.  I then pulled the background down and placed it how I wanted to and folded it back so there was a straight line and took another test shot with my sister.  The lighting settings were quite high and bright so you can see the black backdrop and the black ground sheet with a small shine (middle below), but then I tried making the camera settings lower and a shorter exposure time and then the background and the floor together looked perfect. You can barely see the line of where the two join from floor to backdrop (below right), and even if there is a little, it can be taken away in photoshop.

 I am now perfectly happy with how the black background has worked out and have solved this problem that I had.  I will now have to hold a test shoot for the long exposures to see what settings I will need and then I'm ready for the shoot with my model/dancer.

Super Bright LED Lights

So I can definitely say that going to get the Super Bright LED lights was the best idea, they make the first LED light seem so weak.  These little bulbs are a lot brighter and stronger as a light.  They move very well in the dark and shine up perfectly.

We had to figure out some kind of way of connecting the battery and wires of the LED light bulb so that it works, but in a way that won't be noticeable in the long exposure image. My handy man Dad helped me out with this and made a connection between battery and bulb and taped it up all together with the on/off switch one end and the light on the other.  The plan is to attach it like a bracelet and tape it to my models arms and legs or other body parts.  Here are three sets of images below of the LED lights that I have for the shoot, and they look great considering how small they are.

Here I have my sister standing in front of my black backdrop in my studio and we were just testing the lights to see if they are good to use for the shoot.  I have two bright Blue LED lights and two bright Green LED lights.  Both great colours for shining up in a photo.   The lines are definitely stronger than the images before with the first LED lights.

These photos below have only a small amount of natural daylight coming in from the window and the rest of the windows are blacked out.  I like the colour of the natural daylight but I would probably end up blacking out the whole of the window and using a soft light as my main light source for the body movements, and it should be dark enough in the room for the lights to show up perfectly.

These were the test shots before the pole was put up in the studio room again and was quite obviously before the shoot day too.  I will be having the pole in the centre of the room as it is the main subject and focusing point.  I want to see what the LED lights will look like going around the pole, so that will be the next test shoot before I have the Claire come in for the real long exposure shoot.

With a few of these bottom images I used a flash to see what it would look like if I set the flash off whilst my sister was drawing in the air.  I already knew what it was going to look like, because the flash freezes the subject, but I thought it was quite interesting to see the difference compared to the other images.  But this this also brings me to my next small problem ... the floor.   

My 'First' LED Lights

I am still unsure on whether I will even use the LED lights in my shoot, as the main ideas are trying to capture the body movements and motion in the work similar to Bill Wadman's work, but I still wanted to have the lights there just so I can try and do at least one image like John Spence's work.

I asked for assistance from my family about the LED light source that I wanted to use for my shoots, and my dad, is a handy man for almost anything and found a small LED light in Maplin's.  As soon as he showed me it he asked if it was bright enough as they did do 'super bright LED'S', and he picked up the normal ones to begin with.  I went straight up to my studio and tested them against the black, not with any major lighting source but just to see how bright the actual LED light is.

I have different colour of these set of lights and they are bright enough but when moved quickly the line goes very thin. The different colours are shown here below and you can see how small the small bulbs are.

PHOTO OF THE FIRST SET OF LED LIGHTS !!!!

Here above are four tests against the black without lighting showing how strong the light source is, Its fine when its on it own in complete darkness because it shines quite bright, but below, shows two quick shots of my dad with the light in front of him and you can see that the lines runs quite thin when moved fast.  This has made me think that maybe the light isn't bright enough and wouldn't be bright enough to travel fast around a pole movement.  I will probably get the super bright LED lights instead of these first ones, but it was good that I was able to test it and see that it wasn't bright enough before using them for the shoot.

Messaging my Model & Shoot Preparations

I wanted to show some proof of me messaging my model Claire about the shoot as we discussed everything from, locations, hair and make up, ideas and clothing. 

The very first message I sent her, I was a little worried if she would be up for it, but I got such a good response.  Claire and I are friends so, talking to her is easy and comfortable, which I am much happier about.  I'm so glad I have chosen to go down this Pole Fitness/Dance route as my final idea as it has made things easier for me and I am still as excited to try out some ideas too.  

I have also used Claire for my mixed media film shoot the the first couple of message are about that shoot too.  The ideas of the two shoots look completely different from one another anyway.  I sent her a image of Bill Wadman's 'Motion' series and an image of John Spence's with the LED lights round the pole.  After I had sent her the two images she seemed really excited to try it out. 

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Claire, was so helpful at this point, giving suggestions and asking about how to have her hair.  At first I did not think that I would be able to shoot this in my studio because I didn't think I had space and considered using one of the dance halls that she rents for her Pole Fitness class.  But this would mean talking my background and lights as mentioned below and that would be quite difficult.

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I worked around dates that she could do and that I could do, but was running quite close to schedule so needed the shoot shoot.  She asked if I wanted to use her pole room at her house and sent an image of it, but my studio room is bigger and also has my backgrounds set up and I have all of my lighting equipment there so I though it would be the best way to just shoot in my studio anyway.

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At this point I still haven't got a shoot planned but, we have decided on hair, make up, and underwear for her to wear and also that I will definitely shoot in my studio at home.  Above you can see the room with my background and camera.  The first shoot for my mixed media is below and shows the underwear she bought as I asked for Nude colour.

So at the moment, I have done a shoot for my mixed media that went well and gave me more ideas for this project but I still need to sort out a date for the shoot and find LED 's and see how I will sort the all black background out. 

Millie Robson - Fairy Lights Pole

I found this series of images last minute and had to include them - I think they look fantastic!!
I've always said to myself to use fairy lights with subjects in the studio, I always imagined using them for a couple portrait.  But this is an even better idea and it works so well.  If I had more time for this shoot now, I would definitely try and use fairy lights with Claire in my studio for the long exposure shoot.

These images are obviously taken still images but with the lights wrapped round as the only light source which is great, but I'm imagining if I used theses same lights but for long exposures, it would look amazing, there would be so many different light lines around the pole. This is definitely something I can work from and try out after my shoots.  I love the pink and yellows in all of these.

The lighting I think is what make the images so good for me.  The bright pink shine from the background and the way the fairy lights stand out against the quite shadowy dancer, look great.  I also think that if I could have created images like these they would look great blew up big in an exhibition, especially with a bright background colour.  It really does fit into my ideas well, and the pole moves are great too.  The way the dancer is positioned on the pole looks very elegant in every image. 

I like how the lights are bundled and wrapped around her ankles, and then spread out all over her body in two of them.  It really shows the difference.  The space in the studio must be quite big to create these images, there looks as if the pole is quite high with high ceilings, my studio is smaller than this so I would be limited, but I could still have some good results if I considered using fairy lights, there so many different colours too.  I had such hard thoughts of not being able to find any LED light to use and if I can't then I may try this idea.

The images are stunning and very different, Once the studio is set, I can see the lighting being very simple as well as the camera settings and exposure.  The only light source is the fairy lights.  This looks very creative for something that could be very simple to set up.

I would say I had a favourite image from this series if I did, but I think that they are all equally good as each other.  I just need to crack on with finding a LED light source and working out studio set ups in my studio and lighting for the long exposures.  Hopefully my images will look creative and different like these do.

Marko De La Light

These three images I found on Flickr page when searching for light painting and long exposures involving pole dancing.  I was trying to find as many examples of it that I could find and I think that this once shows it perfectly too.  It has body movements, pole dancing and light paint long exposure.  

Marko is a French photographer and has named these three images "Your body is a flying Kanji"

Photo & Light-painting Marko Pole Dance with Caroline, Paris, 2011.

They are a Series of light-painting pictures made ​​during the "Street Art Creative Experience" 2011 Bellevilloise. 

It is the balance of two artists, Marko 93 & Caroline, set lights here. The latter practice Pole dance discipline that blends dance and acrobatics around a bar. These acrobatics and inspired Marko fixed positions that light-paint this lovely model.

Marko: "Some body positions remind me of flying Kanji. "

I think that these three images look quite futuristic and also give me the impression that the effects were done on photoshop or something even though they were not.  They Have been done my using long sticks that have the LED lights inside them so that when you wave it around it creates a band of light instead of just one small light.  Some of these kind of lights flash as well which could be a really nice effect.  I know that I will not be able to get hold of anything like this and am not expecting to, so I won't be able to create such a light.  And again, I do not plan to flash the subject as well even though I think this makes a nicer effect, I would like the subject model/dancer to be blurred because I want to show body movements.

Patrick Rochon - Light Painting Master

This photographer I have included because his work is huge inspiration for me.  Whilst looking at light painting for around the pole and using it in my long exposure images that I will test out - I just found his works fascinating.  The photographer who calls himself the 'Light Painting Master' creates truly strange and amazing works just using light painting by himself. 

Patrick Rochon is a Light Painting Master – his amazingly stylized and visually complex photography  is created by using lasers to illuminate his subjects in ways that create an eerie, otherworldly feel in the finished portraits. Patrick has also taken light painting to a whole new level by building costumes of lights and performing light painting on a giant screen to create a unique visual experience.  

I love looking at his work, its fascinating - here's his website for more light painting images!!

For the images above, Rochon says how working with 'Butoh' a contemporary dance group born in the sixties, he started light paintings and live performances with them. Rochon talks about how comfortable there were and barely spoke because of the shooting and moves in unique ways with their bodies. He also says how for the dance groups, "the light just came out of me", just the right touch, just the right colours, just the right timing, just the right exposure.

With this kind of photography it could always go so well and then could also go quite bad, with some great results and some no so good results.  This is one thing I worry about before my ideal shoot - whether it will actually work out, or if I will get the lighting right for the lights to be seen.  But all things I will have to work out on the spot - trail and error is best for light paintings.

These images of Rochon's really catch my eye and I know that if I saw them at exhibition, they would be so incredibly striking and would stand out.  I think this is one of the reasons I want to try and make this happen and try out light painting with my pole dance model, so that the lights can stand out. But these portraits that this photographer has painted with a ray of different light colours looks amazing and strange.  I would think a lot of practice would go into creating these. For me I wouldn't even know where to point the light lasers, but it would be worth a shot.  I have once before used a torch to paint the  subject myself, and it worked great, so this is the same but with an upgrade to coloured lasers.

Some of the portraits really do look quite eerie, with the sharp bright lights, but I will seriously consider trying these effects for my portfolio some time in the future.  But for this project - what I will take away from this is the way the lights can be used when shooting portraits in the dark - it has also made me realise that the LED light will definitely work and that I should try my hardest to find the lights to use.

www.patrickrochon.com