How to get the skin of my model to really look good ("pop!")

Question:

I recently had a photo shoot with a warrior princess theme. And used oils on the models skin to define textures...my results were not the best to get her skin to really look good ("pop!") I rented plenty of lights for this shoot for a total of three off camera strobes. I just can't help but think my camera and flashes settings were wrong- do you have a starting point with your flashes to start and then adjust?

I enjoy your videos. I understand your theme is nude art; which is different from mine-but I also understand that whether the subject has clothes on or off... you still need good lighting!

Don

Answer:

Light from an angle that makes her 3 dimensional, for instance from her left and right sides. The angle between your lens and your lightsources can be 90 degrees or more (backlighting). The bigger the angle, the more interesting the light gets. Don’t setup your main light right next to the camera. That will usually produce flat results.

Make soft light by using big lightformers, like shoot-through umbrellas and get them really close to your model, lie 2 feet away. The highlight transfer area and the shaddow transfer area, meaning the parts of her skin on which the light fades into the shade, is getting bigger when your light gets softer. It will facilitate 3 dimensionality and thereby making the lights more “pop“. In order to boost this: Care for enough contrast (2 stops) between hightlights and shadows.

Yes, oil is excellent. Use more oil than you would use in real life. A model that is looking pretty oily in reality, is usually looking just fine on glamour photos. For extra credits: moisturize the skin with a water spray bottle before applying oil. It makes the skin looking even healthier and more shining.