Glamour Lighting Tutorial: The Cover Shot
This is part four in a series of excerpts from ESSENTIALS: Studio Lighting for Nude Photography, by Dan Hostettler. Dan has been a professional beauty and nude photographer for more than 15 years and has been internationally published and featured in GQ Online, The India Times, FashionONE TV, GoodLight Magazine, MUZE Magazine, FOTOdigital, and many more.
–MM Edu
During the shoot with Melisa – we were producing the last material for my lighting guide – I suddenly got the idea that we are in need of creating some additional imagery: The Cover Shot.
What’s It For?
For that day, I had the cover production with Melisa on my plan and in my mind. In addition, I already had the series with Jenni Czech ready to put on the cover: the bright seducing one that now decorates the front page.
So while shooting with Melisa, the concept for the cover image was to produce – as an opposite to Jenni’s image – a shot on dark background with a similar pose, just mirrored.
In the last minute of that day, I decided to shoot another “last set”; in front of this painted, structured dark grey wall. The setting was simple with a gridded beauty dish and an additional stripbox with grid for some rim light.
The beauty dish was already in place from the fast-glam shoot and we just had to move tech and model from one blue wall to the other grey one. This, including the rim light set up, literally just took minutes.
Melisa got a quick touch-up and I decided to go with a bright creamy net outfit as a lovely contrast to her tanned skin and against the dark wall.
Impeccable!
Setup
The gridded beauty dish narrowed the light beam perfectly and only lit up Melisa while creating a nice light fall-off around her. This helped to get a more dramatic and “dark” look – the model simply stands out.
Rim light from behind right helps to nicely separate the body from the background and additionally creates a decent glowy atmosphere.
We simply nailed it. Thanks to an amazingly free-flowing shoot that took us less than 10 minutes!
Video Tutorial
Tech Sheet
- 2x 400 Ws Monoblocs
- Key light: Beauty Dish Ø2.3’/Ø70cm & Grid, powered around 300 Ws
- Rim light: 1x Strip Softbox 1.3×6’ (40x180cm) & Grid, powered around 170 Ws
Credits
- Photography: Dan Hostettler
- Model: Melisa Mendini
- Hair & Makeup: Aneta Lozkova
- BTS photography: Jan Prerovsky
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ESSENTIALS: Studio Lighting for Nude Photography – by Dan Hostettler
If you liked this article there’s much in Dan’s 280 page book, which features Jenni Czech and Melisa Mendini, delivers the perfect “one size fits all” access: theory, showcases and exercises photography newcomers, amateurs, aficionados and versed pros.
And, Model Mayhem readers can get a 25% discount by using the promo code: MAYHEM25
Dan Hostettler
Dan has been a professional beauty and nude photographer for more than 15 years. He is Swiss born and currently living and working in Prague (Czech Republic). Dan founded his flagship business, StudioPrague, which includes a dedicated production company that has received international recognition and offers private, high-end workshops. Aside from his own creations, Dan has been internationally published and featured among others on and in GQ Online, The India Times, FashionONE TV, GoodLight Magazine, MUZE Magazine, FOTOdigital. His book,ESSENTIALS: Studio Lighting for Nude Photography, is on sale now.
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June 24, 2015 at 1:25 am, Jim Wolff said:
Why did you feel the need to censor your pictures and even in the video. If you realize that only people who are adults would want to look at this in the first place, you would realize you don’t need to censor the pictures. There are literally thousands upon thousands of sites showing explicit nudity and acts of sex. No one cares if you show a little nipple or privates of the female body. That is not why people come to your site. I feel your decision to censor your pictures and videos truly takes away from the overall product you put out. If you are that concerned about someone taking offense to seeing a nudity that is not censored, but is in good taste and well done, then don’t show it at all. Use a model wearing suggestive clothing, bikini, etc. Or even suggestive nudity would be better. Seriously Dan!
June 10, 2015 at 5:01 pm, Jamison A. Johnson said:
Haters gonna hate. I felt the cover image that was produced was well done and the negative comments were exaggerated. I appreciated the tutorial. I am sure there are things that could improve the composition and would work better with the lighting, but the strip light for separation and the main light got the job done. My only criticism is that the rim light should have been more feathered across the models face or possibly the light could have been done at a lower setting to remove the obvious shine on the model.
June 10, 2015 at 2:08 pm, Kristian Colasacco said:
This is a terrible tutorial as something that’s to be featured. The poses (seriously a hand-bra?) are amateurish and the lighting just is only okay most of the time but sometimes it’s bad. It seems like it was done by a guy with a camera just wanting to see naked girls.
June 10, 2015 at 5:34 pm, Valentine2013 said:
Hi Kristian would love to see your work, I find it interesting that most people that trash others usually produce below amateur work.
June 10, 2015 at 2:04 pm, Unga Munga said:
Light and model expression are really weak in this shoot.You totally lost any suggestion from the background, light is not consistent with the eyes, also rendition of the skin in dark areas is not good. The rim light can be done much better, adding for example a Rosco or Lee beauty frost to Your strip to compensate CT. The make-up is also weak, a better color palette could help and hair are totally a mess and absolutely not well lighted. I strongly suggest to try again.
June 10, 2015 at 1:49 pm, Art Wong said:
Thank you for another great tutorial. I really appreciate the multiple views of the lighting set up from all the various perspectives. It’s incredibly helpful.!!