How does a smoke machine affect the light on the model? Swedish blogger and photographer Stefan Tell knows. He decided to bring one into his studio for a portrait session of the Swedish music band, A Swarm of the Sun. Here’s the result.
Stefan Tell considers a smoke machine to be a really cheap and easy way to turn a small photo studio into an infinite one. As a matter of fact, he didn’t change much of the lighting settings at all. The effect of the smoke made the portraits feel totally different.
For main light he used a Profoto D1 250 Air, equipped with a Softlight Reflector White and grid and was placed diagonally from the top left of the camera. He attached a Profoto Acute Ring Flash to his camera, connected to the Acute B600R, and equipped with a WideSoft Reflector. On the opposite side, behind the musicians, stood another Profoto D1 500 equipped with a Magnum Reflector and created an edge light and illuminated the smoke/fog from behind.
“By using three Profoto lights I was able to get a nice portrait light as well as highlighting parts of the haze in the studio so that also became a visible part”, says Stefan.
Head over to Stefan’s blog for a more detailed story, more images and lighting diagram.
