So you may remember Brittney from a previous shoot at the end of last year. You may also notice that she looks a bit different now!

Fresh out of surgery, Brittney wanted to show off how different she looks. What a great opportunity for a “before” and “after” style shoot! This time with the added benefit of having makeup done by Stacey D Makeup Artistry, all she had to do in preparation was sit back and relax!

The first set we shot on the bed. It was a great chance to give my stripbox (90cm x 30cm) another go and learning about it along the way. During the test shots I was finding that it was way too bright (unfortunately with two heads on a single Ranger RX pack, I’m limited to a 2:1 ratio of lighting). So a quick addition of a small disc reflector, that I usually use on my beauty dish, and we’re in business. The key light for this was my 70cm Beauty Dish.

Not much else to say about the bed shots except that we were limited in poses, due to the surgery being so fresh, Brittney was a little sore, so I didn’t want to push her too hard and do some damage.

The second set was a bit of an experiment. It was lit with a single light (18cm reflector) in the bathroom bounced off the wall to cause the backlight. Unfortunately the wall directly behind Brittney was an extremely dark colour, so to counteract this, the light was probably a bit bright causing loss of detail on her shoulder and arm. It was a very good lesson, and a technique I will play with again in the future. As an interesting side note, while post processing this, I noticed the highlights and shadows were backwards to how they normally are, with the shadows in the middle of the limbs/face and highlights on the edge. Makes sense when you think about it, but your brain seems to correct for this to a certain degree.

The final set was done in the doorway to the bedroom. The key light was once again the 70cm Beauty Dish, but after a couple of shots, I noticed the bedroom behind was a bit dark. A speedlight on slave mode placed on the floor fixed this up quite easily.

As a final note, make sure you Vote for Brittney in Zoo Weekly’s covergirl competition!