A Low Key "E"

Low Key is all about lighting.

I decided to use the Olympus macro lights I have which are two very white lights on flexible stalks so they can be angled in any direction. They fit onto the flash hotshoe on my camera. My 45mm (90mm in real terms) “portrait” lens has the largest aperture of all the lenses I own (f1.8) so I plan to use that. Igor my trusty assistant is also my model for the shot and the garage is empty and dark.

I got some reasonable shots but they weren’t right. The light source wasn’t close enough to the subject and I can’t get it any closer because it’s attached to the camera. Eventually I have a brilliant idea. Igor also has an Olympus OM-D so I can attach the lights to his camera, put his camera on another tripod and move it wherever I like. The results were much better.

The rest was just playing around with ISO, shutter speed and focus point. Igor made a few suggestions (I bet David Bailey didn’t get that much input from any of his models) and eventually I got this shot, which I quite liked.

It’s converted to B&W using Nik, Silver Efex software and has a vignette, also added in Silver Efex.

The chord of course is “E”