Marcus Isaac
- Mar 11, 2018
- 2 min read

Gels & Muscles

Updated: Jul 28, 2018

Concept:

Finals:

Camera Settings: 1/200 sec, f/5.0, ISO 64

Setup:

Key Light:

Here's a photo of a studio strobe with a 27 inch beauty dish attached to it, to light up the subject's face

Main Light, Profoto D2, and a 27" Impact Lighting Beauty Dish

For the main light I used a 27" beauty dish on a strobe. I placed it to camera right and angled the center of it directly onto the model. On it was a grid to narrow the light to the subjects face.

Fill Light #1:

Here's a photo of a studio strobe with a blue teal colored gel attached to it, to light up the subject's torso.

Blue Teal Gel on Strobe with Barn Doors

I added a blue teal gel onto barn door's on a strobe, and directed it onto the model's torso. The height of this strobe was placed below the Key Light. The barn door's helped to narrow and direct the light on the model's chest, stomach, and arms.

Fill Light #2

Yellow Gel on Strobe with Barn Doors

On the 2nd fill light, which is on camera left, I put a yellow gel. I placed them onto barn doors again. Note, you can also use a 7" inch reflector if you don't have barn doors. The general idea is to completely cover the flash of light with color. I used a silver reflector to bounce the color of light onto the model's shadow area. As you can see in the finals, above, how it illuminated him.

Background Light:

This photo has a 5 foot octabox on a strobe, which is being used to light the backdrop

5' Octabox on a Profoto Strobe

The background light was a 5' Octabox on a Profoto D2 strobe. It was placed behind the model, and provided a subtle in-camera gradient due to the close proximity that it was to the backdrop. This light completed the 4 light setup I was going for.

Equipment:

Nikon D850

Nikon-designed back-side illuminated (BSI) full-frame image sensor with no optical low-pass filter.
45.7 megapixels of extraordinary resolution, outstanding dynamic range & virtually no risk of moire.
Up to 9 fps continuous shooting at full resolution with full AF performance. See more.....

Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 DI VC USD G2 Lens for Nikon DSLRs

Fast F/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range
VC anti-shake mechanism with 4-stop advantage
Full time manual focus (FTM)
See more....

Profoto D2 1000Ws AirTTL Monolight

Adjustable in 1/10 f-stop increments over a 10 f-stop power range
Bursts up to 20 flashes per second with flash durations up to 1/63,000 of a second.
High Speed Sync upto 1/8,000s.
Shoot in TTL or manual mode. See more....