Playboy Model Kelly M. was photographed at an infinity-edge swimming pool, located at one of my favorite locations in
the U.S. Virgin Islands. She was illuminated with a 22-inch Hensel beauty dish fitted to a Hensel Integra 500 Pro Plus
monolight. The red from the sky comes from the custom white balance before the shoot—as the beauty dish was fitted
with a Rosco Cyan gel, the opposite of red. When coloring flash with this technique, you begin by making a custom white
balance; the camera will then add the exact oppositecolor to the entire image. Whatever is lit by the flash (here, the sub-
ject) will record as neutral—but since the flash doesn’t
light up the sky, the background will take on the color the
camera adds through its white balance setting (in this
case, red to balance the cyan flash). The duration of the
flash controls the exposure of the model, while the cam-
era’s shutter speed controls the saturation of the color in
the sky. This image was captured toward the end of the
sunset, thus the wider aperture and slower shutter speed.
The final image was postprocessed in Adobe Photoshop
using Nik Software filters; first the Dynamic Skin Softener
filter, then two passes with the Bleach Bypass filter. (CAM-
ERA:Canon EOS 5D fitted with a Canon 85mm f/1.2L USM
lens. SETTINGS:85mm effective focal length,^1 / 30 second
shutter speed, f/1.8, custom white balance, ISO 100)
greg delong
(Greg DeLong)
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