Snapshots from Bruessels

Last winter we visited Brussels for a few days and I wanted to use the opportunity to do another photo session with the lovely Rubi Stri. She was kind enough to follow my invitation and we met in a compound near Brussels city center to take some images.

The place although very spacious with big windows and a completely open loft like construction was very challenging.

Our original idea was to create a sunny atmosphere with strong complementary colors using the light coming in through the large front windows on both levels. The day however was awfully dull with overcast sky and little sunlight filtering in.

I was forced to use two B1 mono-lights to compensate for the absent sunlight and introduce warmth to the scenery. Unfortunately I had only two heads to illuminate the overly generous lounge area where we wanted to take the photos. This does often result in an uneven illumination of large areas and strong contrast which can easily overwhelm the cameras dynamics range.

The handheld light meter proved to be very useful in this situation and helped me balance the muddy daylight and the brilliant strobe lights. I positioned one of the B1 heads on the far right to prevent reflections and put a large white panel in front of it to strongly diffuse its light. Thus creating the nice golden sheen on Stephanie’s hair which looks like sunlight coming in through an additional window.

The second B1 was in front of her to the left firing through a strip box thus accentuating her face and parts of the skin shining through the blue shirt.