Location and setup
I wanted to create a vibrant hair whipping flour portrait, and one of first things I thought was how messy it would be. I knew I did not want to do it indoors, so I opted outdoors. Ideally, I wanted an enclosed, spacious, and deep outdoor location, however I found the next best thing - a low pedestrian traffic underpass, spacious and long enough to cut out enough ambient light. One of the challenges was having a back drop that was tall and wide enough to make this work. It was about finding the right combination of subject distance from the back drop, and shooting distance to subject. I needed to maximize the subject's distance from the back drop in order to keep as much flour from hitting the background, while keeping our subject, Alyssa within backdrop frame. I opted to compromise a little of both and shot at a relatively short focal length. I would worry about any background cleanup in post. I wanted the key light to be as close to the subject as possible. Because of that I was able to run it with low power to prevent minimal light spill to the backdrop.
Lighting setup - 26" Westcott Lighting Octabox gridded on right, with 3 kicker lights. Red, magenta, and teal gels.
Maximizing the amount of flour
Whipping up a lot of four was difficult for the standing position because a lot of it simply fell down to the ground. We simply had Cynthia assist in holding, and cupping the flour in Alyssa's hair before the shot. I would remove her arm in post during the background clean up.
Cynthia helps hold flour in Alyssa's hair before whipping it back for the shot.
Editing the photo
Straight out of camera, unedited photo.
Final image edited with the background cleaned up.
Behind the scenes setup. Settings: 1/200s f/9 ISO 100
An edited image with vibrance and hue shift.
No wincing. Alyssa did a great job with a relaxed graceful expression. Facial expression is not to be overlooked for a flour shoot.
This was a very enjoyable shoot, which produced great results. It was also relatively easy to setup and light. About half a 5lb bag of flour was used, and was surprisingly easy to clean up as most of the flour was contained on the backdrop. A simple wrap up and carry away. Having Alyssa as the subject/model was a pleasure as she made all the movements fluid and easy to capture. However, the aftermath of cleaning all the flour out of her hair was unknown to me. Hopefully it wasn't too bad.
