What to Wear Wednesday...with Craig Stidham

Heyyyyyy yall! It's WTWW and we have the amazing Craig Stidham in the house today to continue our studio theme. He's putting a spin on things (as he normally does:)!"It’s a WTWW for the photographer, in this Studio addition.  Lets talk a bit on lighting.  Studio trends for this year are coming out in two different styles. First is a really editorial approach to your lighting in the matter that your are creating a high contrast don’t care, Toss your PPA member ship out the door and let it fly. Lots of movement and raw interpolation of your subject.Here is an example of Film Actress, Abbie Summers, She plays a roll on television that she is a rebel detective.  So on that scene I was hired out to shoot her new promo pics.  Here our team went for a female version of James Dean himself, the original rebel.In the above images we use a really narrow and hard light source, this way the contrast in our images was boosted.  Then I shot the images in Black and White using Tmax 3200 Film Profile.  This is a one light setup.Again, for another example.  Here is Pro Model Parker, BMG Models- NYC.Again the same one light set up but in this case we lite the background to become Light gray and render us a higher key image. Now to move onto the second lighting setup, this lighting set has become popular in the newer fashion ads of some one like Michael Koors and other Glam products. Here you get the feeling the lighting is that of a white Beauty dish with a sock.  You would be close but the fall off is greater.  It’s really just an old tool with different technique.  Here the lighting is really from a 5’Octo bank with Grid, and is approx. 4-5 feet in front of the model so that your just using the very edge of the light.  By using the very edge of the light and placing it in a butterfly lighting pattern I am allowing the lighting pattern to fall down and create the shadows.  These shadows are really what are making the pop in this image.Here is another example: Same one light same model.So in short, by not really worrying about your lighting in the manor of multi light setups and really just not over thinking the studio your creating a free feel to the images that are defiantly getting away from such attritional lighting patters and moving forward.Thanks,Craig StidhamFashion Photographer"Thanks so much for the studio tips, Craig! It's always a pleasure to hear you talk about how your create your art:)Stay Stylish!Megan