MORGANA IN A BATH OF MILK!

•  Morgana In A Bath Of Milk! – (or The Things we do to Models!) Last month Ian Brierley had Sarah dunking her head in a bucket of water at the Summer Show, and Katie Green was there, telling us about a forthcoming assignment involving baked beans! On the day she got off lightly – Jon Gray shot her beautifully using the new Bowens Ringflash Pro , without covering her in foodstuffs! A previous girl in front of the ring wasn't so lucky. Photographer Chris Reeve got fetish model Morgana to bathe in milk for Bowens! The shoot was for a promo pic to demonstrate the new updated unit. (There's an entertaining behind-the-scenes video of the proceedings on YouTube.)
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Annie Leibovitz made a similar portrait of Whoopi Goldberg. (Goldberg would joke that cats followed her for weeks afterwards!)

Ring flash is used a lot by fashion photographers. You'll recognize the distinctive look (or the unique circular catch lights in the model's eyes). It's like projecting an even sheet of light directly from the front. With it, shadow can be a dark aura delineating the subject. (Martin Parr has made use of this quite a bit.) It can be exploited for some pretty neat effects, like creating an outline round strands of a model's hair when she tosses her head.



Walk into any fashion photographer's studio and one of the first things you'll notice is a ring flash hanging on the wall. The Bowens Ringflash Pro is a top-end piece of kit that's smaller, lighter, and more portable than the previous model. It's compatible with all current Bowens generators, but you do need to have one of these to use it. The camera support bracket can be mounted to the Ringflash Pro in either portrait or landscape position, and a large comfort grip enables hand-holding the unit.

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ANNIE LEIBOVITZ -Life Through a Lens

•  Annie Leibovitz – Life Through A Lens! – Last week BBC One screened the one-hour biopic Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens. If you missed it, today is your last chance to watch it on the BBCi Player!

Life Through A Lens was screened as one of BBC One's Imagine series of programmes, presented by Alan Yentob. The film-maker was Leibovitz's own sister, Barbera. Her film traces Anna-Lou's progress from art school to Rolling Stone, and then to Vanity Fair and later Vogue. It shows her gradual development from fly-on-the-wall rock photography to elaborately staged celebrity portraits assisted by large crews.

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