London Bedroom Shot

My London workshop last year was held at the Park Plaza Hotel, just over the Westminster Bridge across from Big Ben. We rented a penthouse suite on the 15th floor to photography in, it was furnished in a clean contemporary style.

When I create photos, I try very hard to tell some sort of story. Doing so, helps define your choice of lighting and the overall mood of the image. The image above was shot in the master bedroom of the suite. I wanted to create a photo of this young lady getting ready for an evening out on the town. Directly in front of the model seated on the bed is a frosted glass door which leads into the bathroom. When I see frosted glass, I think super soft light. I placed an SB-800 behind the door for the key light. This light was gelled with a full CTO, which means that my white balance on my camera was set to...... you guessed it. Tungsten.

I decided to shoot with this white balance because I had a small amount of daylight coming in through a window camera right of the model. I wanted to invoke a evening feeling to the scene. I also placed an SB-800 on a Justin Clamp on the headboard of the bed, this strobe was fitted with a barndoor. That light was not gelled so it was daylight balanced and therefore, cool in color temp. because of my white balance on my camera. Here is a diagram to help show you how it was set up.

My camera position was outside of the bedroom down the hallway. Using a longer lens, I was able to include the bedroom door which added an interesting reflection on the left side of the image.

I have a few more spaces available at my May 14th Small Strobes, Big Results workshop here in Denver. You can click HERE for more information. DT