By simply setting my white balance to 6000K, I’ve tricked my camera into
believing that my light source is cooler than the traditional flash or daylight
Kelvin temperature of 5000K or 5500K. The camera only understands what
I tell it through the manual white balance settings, and it will adjust the white
balance accordingly. Since 6000K is cool, the camera adds warmth to my sub-
jects. On cameras that don’t allow you to manually set your white balance,
try the cloudy day or shade setting. This technique helps create that Maxim
look in your images.
While the practice of white balancing to a cooler light to create warmth
came from the digital age of cameras, this technique was done in film by simply
80 LIGHTING FOR GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
I don’t always have that luxury of
working in a studio, so I look for
light first, then make a location work
through proper lighting and lens
selection. For these two images of
Shelby, I simply had her stand near
the opening of a patio door. Both
images were lit with a Hensel Integra
500 Pro Plus monolight fitted with a
Chimera Super Pro Plus medium soft
strip box with a Lighttools 40-degree
grid on the front. I powered the flash
down to ensure I’d be able to use a
low aperture to help blur the back-
ground. The main difference be-
tween the two images is that I
positioned Shelby insidethe doorway
on the first image and outsidethe
doorway in the second image. I then
found the right angle to create im-
pact with the elements in the scene.
Because the brick wall in the second
image is quite masculine, I moved
my light back to give me less output.
This resulted in an even lower aper-
ture that would help the background
blur even more. I also positioned the
camera at an angle to the wall, creat-
ing leading lines toward the model’s
face. Nik Software’s Bleach Bypass
filter was used in postproduction to
give both images greater impact.
(CAMERA:Canon EOS 5D Mark II fitted
with a Canon 85mm f/1.2L USM lens.
SETTINGS FOR IMAGE 1 :85mm effective
focal length,^1 / 25 second shutter
speed, f/5.6, white balance at
6000K, ISO 100. SETTINGS FOR IMAGE 2 :
85mm effective focal length,^1 / 25 sec-
ond shutter speed, f/4, white bal-
ance at 6000K, ISO 100)12