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Thread: shooting Mapplethorpe style protraits

  1. #1

    shooting Mapplethorpe style protraits

    I got hooked on LF photography a few years back, but other interests have taken me away from it. Well, it is now time to jump back in and go for it....

    Shooting Robert Mapplethorpe type portraits were fun, challanging and beautiful when they turned out well, but when they didn't ... I waisted a models time and mine (except for the experience I got).

    Question: When using flash in a studio setting, is it possible to use a spot meter and att empt working within the Zone System?

    Likewise, how do you meter in this situation so the skin looks a light grey. Mi ne often turn out with skin tones too dark or too hot, shadows too light or too dark, etc.

    Could you also give me some advice on using a flash meter in this situation?

    How would YOU do it?

    thanks. Chris

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Mar 1998
    Posts
    1,972

    shooting Mapplethorpe style protraits

    1. Yes it is possible. I use a Minolta Spot F meter, but Sekonic makes a spot am bient/flash meter as well. Polaroid will help greatly too.

    2. Try placing causasian skin tones at one stop over (brighter) than your readin g. For example if reading the skin tone gives you f/22, open up to f/16. In Zone terms, you are visualizing the skin exposure at Zone VI. Take several readings to make sure you are not reading a hot spot.

    3.) I would advise using a standard incident type flash meter (like the Minolta Flash IV or Flash V (sorry but I have little recent experience with other brands of meters, but I am sure Sekonic, Gossen, et. al. make fine meters too)) rather than a spot meter. Are you using a flash system that has modeling lights? I find these to be invalu able as they help me judge by eye what the rough ratio is between shadow and lit tones.

    Lately I have been looking at Mapplethorpe's book "Certain Women" for the first time in a couple of years. I was astonished to notice that unlike my previous im pression of this book, RM did not have one particular lighting formula. He chos e his lighting scheme to fit the subject He usually used a lot of bounced fill, some times the only light I see is light bounced from a reflector, usually two l arge soft boxes placed close to the sitter, Sometimes RM used a very soft, diffu sed, non-specular backlight/hairlight that by general portrait book standards is under exposed. So lately I have been trying this out by bouncing this light off the ceiling in my studio and metering it (with an incident meter) at one stop b elow my main light. Make up is also important, try light powder applied with a b rush not a pad or a sponge.

    The main thing that makes his portraits of women so strong, is his rapport with them: there is in many of these photos a shared momentary intimacy. plus an inc redible printing job, and reproduction thereof. BTW as best as i can tell he was using a Hasselblad, not an LF camera.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    May 1998
    Posts
    218

    shooting Mapplethorpe style protraits

    Like Ellis, I use a Minolta Spot F (F=Flash). The great thing about spot meters is that you can measure the contrast range: look deep into the shadows, look at the highlights, and understand how that range fits into whatever your film can handle.

    Sure, you can also point generally at the skin, and give it one stop more exposure. But remember that some skin will be in shadow, some will be highlight, and you have to decide what you want to look "light-grey".

    In this situation, shooting in B&W, I usually find the deepest shadow and lightest highlight (normally the lightest thing in the frame) I care about. If the range is about 6 stops, I place the shadows on Zone III. If the range is more or less, I might adjust the development (and possibly exposure). With this technique, the skin might or might not be "light-grey", it depends on the lighting.

    That metering technique is not appropriate for trannies, where you should care more about the highlights than the shadows.

    Modelling lights are, IMHO, essential. Unfortuntely, they may not be "accurate", especially if you use two or more different models. You might experiment with a fast film and *just* the modelling unts, ie no flash.

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