Architectural & Interior Design Photography, Corporate Commercial Photography, Advertising & Portrait Photographer | Ottawa | 613-558-7585 | justin.vanleeuwen@gmail.com
David was how I introduced the series, and I’ll finish it off with him too. David was one of the few I shot for this editorial series who, when I walked into the location (his home), I had two spots to use. The first you saw last week, his official office-space, light and functional. David admitted to me, though, a lot of his inspiration came to him at night, and he’d often work on his laptop in the bedroom.
It’s not every day I as a subject that I wanted to get his wife into bed, but I thought it would be a subtle way to incorporate his novel and showing a setting that might be a bit too familiar in his home. Even though it was the middle of the day, I wanted to re-create a night-time setting. We closed the blinds and decided to use an un-gel’d Ranger Quadra through a 135cm Octa at camera left to create the “cool” night-time “cool” tones to light the bed (by shifting the white-balance in-camera to tungsten, the bare-flash bulb balance went blue). We then added a gridded and CTS gel’d speedlight to cast some light on her face coming (sort of) from the direction of the bedside lamp. Trying to light David proved a little more difficult, with the wall and a book-case exactly where I needed both the camera and a light. We put a CTS & 1/2 on a gridded beauty dish for a warms and controlled light to light his face and body. A speedlight was Justin clamped at camera right at very low power and pounced off the wall to light the books he used as reference. The lamp itself contributed to the exposure, lighting the desk and the keyboard.
Dave Hassar and I had great time chatting with David and his wife, working before lunch, we ended up discussing my favourite local restaurant Back Lane Cafe. Which we quickly headed for after dropping off all the gear at home. Great minds thinking alike, David and his wife were also eating there – asked us to join them, and the good times went on.
You can see this image bigger on Flickr.