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Apogee Photo Magazine

The Glamour Photographer's Notebook
by Gene Copas

Sense of Humor

There are times in every photographer's lifetime when we come up with some "hair-brained" idea or scheme that we think is the greatest thing that ever came along.  Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't!  When we come up with these fantastic, wild and glamorous ideas, we better have a model with a Sense of Humor.  There are some models that I have worked with that I would not even suggest an idea like this to.  I know that they would be out the studio door before I had even finished describing what I had in mind.   

Which brings up an interesting concept!  Communicate with your models before the session!!  Hey, I know photographers who don't even communicate with their models during the shoot, much less before the shoot!  But it sure helps to talk to them about what you want to do and enlist their cooperation before they show up at your studio. 

I had worked with the beautiful model, Valerie, from Jacksonville, FL and we had a pretty good rapport before I sprang this idea on her.  Even then, she said " Gene, you owe me for this one!"   

I had seen several photos of the "earth mother" idea in the past and wanted to do something with a Hawaiian flavor to it.  I found some artificial flower garlands in a "silk flower and art supply house" and, since I had a kind of purple idea in mind, I bought a couple of purple curtain sheers at my local discount store.   

The background is a Superwhite 10' x 20' space age material supplied by Custom Superlite Backgrounds by Dianne (516-746-0818).  This is an extremely lightweight background material, which has beautiful draping qualities.   

I used two Novatron standard heads with umbrellas for lighting, with magenta gels to add warmth and to keep the color scheme in the "purple" range.  Both lights were powered from a Novatron 340 Plus power pack and the output was about 150 ws each, with the intensity adjusted by moving the lights nearer or farther from the model.   

The light to the photograph's right was positioned slightly to the rear to provide some backlighting thru one of the curtain sheers that was employed as a drape around the model's waist.  This light was also positioned to skim across the background to add some highlights.  For this photo, this light became my "fill light" and is the one I based my exposure on.  I metered it and adjusted it's position to give me an f/8 exposure for ISO 100 color negative film.   

The front light, coming from the left, was positioned to be slightly brighter and was metered at f/11.  As I mentioned earlier, it was also equipped with a magenta gel to add warmth to the photo. 

When working with color negative film, I base my exposure on the "fill light", which I always try to keep at f/8 and I adjust my "key light", the one which gives the highlights to the face or figure, visually.  I do not always meter my "key light" but have trained myself to see the light. 

Who is Gene Copas?

"Notebook #1"
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