...Three Women in a Tub. A few of my friends know that I've been inspired by T.J. Scott's "In The Tub" series on FLICKR since August. His control and use of light to evoke emotion is phenomenal.
My first attempt was back in August with my friend Sammy and although she was prepared, I totally sucked. I used a Beauty Dish as key and thought dry ice would help create the drama and mystery while providing depth to my images. Well neither one was the right choice.
Not to give up, I called Sarah and asked if she would be willing to be my next subject. This time I figured I'd use a grid'ed speedlight as key and then a gel'ed speedlight for rim, and another as Fill. Why speed lights? They are small and the output is easily controlled in a small space. I also used a Fog Machine that I purchased for my Pole Dancer shoot. Sarah came over and we tested out the new light set-up sans fog. It looked good, so we scheduled to shoot that Friday.
Sarah wanted to do something a little different, so I picked up some Sexy Bites fangs for her to wear and three gallons of whole milk to mix with the water in the tub.
We shot with the empty tub and then decided it was time to fill it up. After 20 trips of warm water from the kitchen to the garage, the tub was more than half-filled. I started pouring in the milk and stopped after half a gallon. The water was opaque enough to hide Sarah's body. I kicked on the fog machine and continued shooting.
Finally we did the last shot, which was basically Sarah coming out of the tub. We asked my girlfriend to help out and after three attempts we got the best image. The bath water was getting cold and Sarah began shivering, so we called it quits.
The following day, I had a Throwdown shoot for a Facebook Model/Photography Group. I told the model I was paired up with that we could use the bathtub and she liked the idea. I also asked a fellow photographer/Make-Up Artist if she would be willing to collaborate, which she agreed. The theme was "Inspiration" and this time I asked the model to share with me one of her inspirations.
The image only took about 6 tries and we achieved what I think we all envisioned. Big thanks to Sammy, Sarah, Ali and Ande' for helping me out with my "Tub" series. I can't thank all of you for your patience and support.
What Did I Learn?
- One more speedlight would help create more depth between the tub and the background, especially with the fog
- Speedlights are excellent studio lights in a very small space - My studio strobes and large modifiers are excellent for lighting, but their size and power are harder to control when trying to get narrow beams of light
- Don't Give Up - I basically scrubbed the "tub" series after my shoot with Sammy, but after really looking at TJ's images, I figured what I did wrong
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