A friend of mine rented some Arri SkyPanels for a short film, but before returning them she was kind enough to let me experiment with them on some portraits of my best friend Kwazee (for anyone who might not know what an Arri SkyPanel is, it's a very high quality and powerful LED light panel that's often used in high production filmmaking. It also gives you full custom control over the color of the light output). Kwazee is so naturally and ridiculously expressive with his body and face and is so fun to work with, making him the perfect muse. It's so nice to have a good friend who is so talented and so willing to get in front of my camera without questioning my vision, but also brings his own unique talent to the table.
There were only two SkyPanels to work with, so I also used the modeling lamp from one of my Neewer strobes to create a third light source as a second rim light (you can tell which light source this was, because it didn't fully match the brightness and richness of tone of the other Arri light also being used as a rim light). These LED panels are honestly really amazing, and I can see why they are so integral to many filmmaker's setups. They also work decently for still photography, but I prefer using strobes because I can use narrower aperture settings for a wider depth of field; conversely these would be a useful tool for photographers who would want to use artificial lighting while also being able to retain a wide aperture setting for a shallow depth of field without having to use a ND filter. That said, the ND filter paired with strobes is the more affordable option in most cases instead of buying these particular LED panels if you're looking to render a shallow depth of field with studio lighting, and color gels over strobes would also be a more affordable option if you're wanting colored lighting.
Shot using the original Canon 5D with a Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro usm lens attached, set to f/5, 1/160th sec, ISO 1000. A silver reflector was used to add a second catch-light.
Nov 24, 2020 at 02:28 AM
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