The Optical Spot

The weekend of November 16^th, I got a little ambitious and did four sessions to test out the Lindsey Adler Optical Spot.   I originally rented the optical spot from LensRentals, but that session had to be rescheduled; however, I didn’t want the rental to go to waste, thus a TFP weekend.

For this session, I used:

Photography Equipment	Props/Miscellaneous
Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 2 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 1 Optical Spot 2 strip boxes 1 bell reflector grids 2 C-stands 2 light stands Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Fashion Grey Seamless Gobos Gels Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Star filter	Red Curtains Posing stool

The set up

While I did four shoots in one weekend, the lighting setup was basically the same for all four sessions; what changed was the gels and the gobos.  I started with a fashion grey seamless background.  I then placed gelled FJ400s with strip boxes and grids on either side of the background very close to the background stand.  I used the two strip boxes to provide rim/edge lighting and color to the image.  I then placed a Phottix strobe with a small bell reflector at the right corner of the seamless, closest to me, pointed away from the model and up towards the ceiling.  This light acted as a general fill to ensure the shadows weren’t too dark.  The fourth light, also the main light, was a Phottix strobe with an optical spot on it.  The main light started along the center line of the set behind me, raised high, and pointed down towards the model.  The only light that moved during all the sessions was the main light.

Camera Settings

I used the same camera settings for all four sessions.  For the camera setting, I used ISO 400, with an aperture of F9 and a shutter speed of 1/200s.  I went with ISO 400 because I didn’t want to push my flash power too high, as the optical spot tends to trap heat.  Also, this allowed me to get richer colors from the gels on the FJ400s.  Lower flash power gives a richer color when using gels.  My focal length varied from 24mm to 105mm, with the most common focal length being 70mm and 105mm.   

The Photos

Normally, I would talk about individual photos and how I edited them.  In this case, since I’m covering four sessions, I’m going to skip the discussion of editing and only talk about some of the highlights from the session while showing a few photos from each session.

Let's start with the first session of the series and the lovely Anastasia.  The theme I went with here is a mix of the actress and femme fatale.  As this was the first session of the day, I added red curtains to the background to give the set the feeling of being on stage and a little bit of drama.  I also used orange gels in the two strip boxes, which went great with the gold dress and helped make the red curtains seem more luxurious than they were.  I also put a variable star filter on my camera to get little starburst effects off the sequins.  The variable star filter allowed me to go from no starburst to a four-, six-, and eight-point starburst with a turn of the filter.    In the first photo, I used the blades within the optical spot to create a slice of light that runs down the model's face, allowing most of the image to be in shadow.  I’m a little mad that both rim lights did not fire but it works for this image.  Then, in the second image, I opened up all the blades and worked with a direct spotlight.  You can see the outline of the spot just behind the model.  The hard light of the spotlight and use of the star filter helped create the little starburst off the sequins to add a bit of glamor to the image.  If you are interested in seeing the whole set you can see them here: The Starlet.

The next session with Sanj was all about the glitter and the color blue. For this session, I started with one strip box with a blue gel, the other having a magenta gel, and the model in a tank top.  While it looked nice, it wasn’t dramatic enough, so I added a long strip of blue tule to the mix and played with the power levels of strip boxes to create drama.  This first image I had the strip bod with the blue gel up higher than the magenta, while using the optical spot blades to create a strip of light to light the model’s face.  I did also tone this image slightly using a blue on blue color grade to help pop the blues. While in this second image the purple overpowers the blue.  But what I like about this shot is how the spot acts like a frame around the model, and in a tight crop of that same shot it looks like an ad for sparkly lipstick.  You can see all the images from this session here: Glitter.

The next shoot was with the lovely Valery, who worked with the make-up artist Tanya Castro to create a beautiful look that I paired with a silver dress from Ewa Jobko.  For this look I went with two pinkish-purple gels while focusing on slices of light from the optical spot and the use of gobos.  My favorite image is the first one below because it evokes, at least in my mind, either a space opera or something along the lines of “Bladerunner”.  I like this last image because of the model’s expression and the way the strip of light comes down the center of her face.  I purposely desaturated this image to make it softer, giving it a more ethereal feel.  You can see all the images from this session here: Silver Noire.

 

The last session was a cosplay session with MelPool and focused on the whole body.  In the earlier sessions, I was focusing more on ½ length and beauty images.    Because I was focused on the whole body and the charter is supposed to be a little gritty, I settled on using a defined spot rather than slices of light and gobos.  The spot worked well for this first image as it highlights the pose while framing the model’s face.  In the second image, I use a slice of light to give the image a bit of a gritty look, allowing the edge lighting to stand out.  I used a purple-pink color for the gels based on the internet images where the legs appeared more purple than blue.  I should have switched the gels out to a deep blue to better match the cosplay.  You can see all the images from this session here: Mirko.

Final Thoughts:

The optical spot is an interesting lighting modifier and has its place.  I do wish the blades were a little easier to move and adjust.  I spent a lot of time trying to get them in the proper orientation.  I also wish the sample gobo included with the modifier had a little more variety; I don’t need two types of circles.  I really wish I had a single-slit gobo and possibly a triangle.  The question is, would I use it enough to make it worth spending the 500 dollars for one, or is it better to just keep renting one when I need it?

The variable star filter I bought for the sessions was interesting to work with, as it could do different types of stars just by rotating the filter pieces.  I will say it took me a few times to figure out how much to rotate it to get the starburst, but once I figured it out it was good.  I really like the versatility of the filter, and it is a lot better than buying three separate filters.  I feel like I can also get some interesting starbursts that are outside the norm, depending on how far I rotate it.  The only improvement I would make to the filter would be to add some notches to say when you reach each starburst pattern so you could set it ahead of time.

Overall, I like how the images from each session turned out.  These sessions let me focus on being a little more creative with the lighting, even though I used the same setup for all four sessions.  I also finally figured out how to mount gels in my strip box; gaff tape to the rescue.

Credits:

Models: Anastasia (@brunklestein), Sanj (IG: sanj.femme),

   Valery (IG: @valeryleng), MelPool (@melpoolcos)

MUA: Tanya Castro (IG: @tanyacastromakeup)

Silver Dress: Ewa Jobko (IG: @ewa.jobko)