18 DIGITAL CAMERA^ OCTOBER 2019 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
Lights, camera, action
For this setup, I used two light sources. The first was
the back side light, which highlighted the water drops
and also sidelit the model. The second light was the
on-camera flash, which filled in some of the shadows
on her face. For the on-camera flash, I kept the power
at around 1/8 power, to highlight a little detail back
into the face that would be lost in shadow.
Once I switched the hose on, I just needed to get the
umbrella in the right position to capture the best rain
drops and make lots of spray and drips. Try and focus
on the eyes. Your camera’s autofocus system may
get a bit confused by the moving water, but keep
checking and shooting if you haven’t got it spot-on.The editing part
I first imported all of my final images into
Lightroom and converted them to mono.
In the Edit tab under Presets, there is a Lift
Shadows setting in the Curves tab. I then
tweaked Exposure, Contrast, Highlights,
Shadows, Black, Whites and Clarity^1.
Next I went to File > Edit In Photoshop and
cleaned up the background of the lead image,
using speckled parts of rain sourced from
another image. Simply cut out the part you
want to use, import as a new layer and blend
using a Layer Mask^2. You can also use the
Clone Tool to copy parts into another and
dodge and burn to get your desired effect.
As the black background sheet in the
garden was a little small, this was a necessary
part of the process; but if you want to avoid
editing in the background, simply find a
bigger background drop than I did!f you’re keen to do a rainy-day
portrait photoshoot, don’t wait
for the weather to change – the
best way to do is to fake it! For
this photo shoot, I headed into
the back garden and used a hosepipe taped
in position on a tripod, plus a black
background to make the rain sparkle.
For a shoot like this, you don’t actually need
much in terms of lighting kit. I used one external
flashgun and my on-camera flash. If you use an
external flashgun, instead of whacking up the
power to the highest setting, keep it slightly lower
and increase your ISO instead. (Try it at around
400.) That way the recycle time on your flash
is much faster, meaning you can shoot quicker
in-between shots to capture the moment.
Although I was using water, this was still
a relatively safe shoot for my kit! The only
piece I protected was the flashgun positioned
behind the model, to ensure it didn’t get
drenched! I did this using a plastic bag
and some tape.
Although I used a white plastic bag for this
job, afterwards I realised that was a mistake:
a black bin-liner would have worked much
better, as it would have been less obvious in the
background at the editing stage. Live and learn!Fake rain
Don’t wait for the rain: fake it
with a hosepipe in the garden,
says Charlie Marshall2 | PORTRAITSI
12Charlie^ Marshall