Permanent Tourist

Rahel, Swiss Strobist day in Bern

Portraiture
Tuesday, 5th May, 2009

I know, I know. It’s been ages since I last posted to the blog. I’ve been really busy these last couple of weeks organizing a meetup in Bern for friends in the Swiss Strobist group of photographers, who meet occasionally to learn from each other and share ideas relating to photography using off-camera flash. Between organizing the day, finding volunteer models, updating the Swiss Strobist blog and trying to have a day job and social life, time for blogging here has been scarce. But things are quietening down again now and I’ll have a bit more time on my hands.

The photos in this post are of Rahel, one of our models for the Swiss Strobist day with whom my group worked through the morning. We used the almost totally black interior of the Wasserwerk Club in Bern and that was a real test of lighting and photographic skill: a woman in a black dress, on a black sofa, in front of a black wall! The original idea was to fill the background with coloured light, but tests showed that the black matte curtains sucked in so much light that the colour all but vanished. So, instead, we settled on a simple setup: one warmed light from high and to the left of Rahel, and one in the back right to put some shine into her hair and separate her from the background. A little light Photoshop processing to balance the tones and the photo you see here was the result: a good starting point to the day and one on which the other group members could base their own, individual shots. Later, we moved to an old external staircase below the minster gardens to complete the morning’s shooting, where the latter of these shots were taken.