I’ve said this before, but I will say it again. I’ve found myself drawn to images like the one below. It’s just Nico, nothing else. The proper way to make these images is with a studio backdrop and lighting setup. I don’t have access to a studio or room in my house to build one, so I’m forced to “fake it until you make it.” To get these shots, I position Nico far enough away from anything in the background that I can use a powerful flash to isolate him. Light falls off or dissipates following the inverse square law, which means that if you double the distance between a subject and a light source, you’ll end up with one-quarter of the light. So if the background behind Nico is sufficiently far away, dramatically less light will be available to illuminate the background than that hitting his face, which means he’ll be properly exposed, and the background will be dark. With a little additional adjustment in post-processing, I can bring the background down to pure black. And I bet you would have never guessed that this shot was taken in the middle of my living room. One of my goals is to build a studio space to get even better at shots like this.

Many thanks to my Patreon supporters for making this series possible. Support through Patreon allows me to explore new ways of creating images for this series and invest in the gear necessary to capture this series.

Gear Used For This Shot

Sony A7RIV - Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM - Godox AD300 Pro - Godox X ProS - Godox 1D-S60S

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