believe.) Traditionally, light would be passed through a gobo, which had a
pattern, and this pattern would be projected onto the background or even
onto the subject.
Gobos basically control light by blocking, diffusing, or coloring some por-
tion of the light before it’s reflected back to the lens.
Photographers often confuse the term gobowith flag.Flags are traditionally
made of a black fabric stretched over a metal frame. They are used to “flag off”
light to create shadows more than anything and are usually attached to the
heavier light stands known as C-stands.
When shooting outdoors, especially
during the hottest and brightest part
of the day, I look for areas with over-
head obstructions—basically, natural
gobos. Here, Tess is sitting on a golf
cart. The overhead of the cart, plus
the trees it was parked under, cre-
ated plenty of open shade. Open
shade however is cooler, lower-
contrast light, so I illuminated Tess
with a Hensel Integra 500 Pro Plus
monolight fitted with a 22-inch
Hensel beauty dish with a white inte-
rior. The final image was post-
processed using Nik Software’s
Dynamic Skin Softener and Foliage
filters. (CAMERA:Canon EOS 5D fitted
with a Canon 70–200mm f/2.8L IS
USM lens. SETTINGS: 200mm effective
focal length,^1 / 500 second shutter
speed, f/3.5, white balance at
6000K, ISO 200)