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Thursday, July 24, 2008
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.) [expand story >>>]
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.
• Bowens launch new lighting publication! – BOWENS have launched LiteBook, a new bi-monthly publication about studio lighting. The publication is available freeonline, or printed copies may be picked up at BOWENS dealers. Robert Cook, Marketing Manager for BOWENS, stressed that LiteBook will always be a publication packed with attractive editorial, and never just a product brochure. [add comment]
• BOWENS BRING OUT NEW RING FLASH! –Bowens, the Clacton based manufacturer of the British lights that have been the de facto standard in photo studios for decades, have brought out a redesigned model of their venerable Ring Flash. [expand story >>>]
At over £800 it's probably fair to say it's a high-end model aimed at fashion and advertising photographers. Portrait people who like to emulate that fashion look could go for it too.
The new model is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, and uses just one neat power cable. It comes out not long after Bowens launched another ring flash product, their Ring Lite Converter, which produces a similar effect when fitted to a monobloc. [add comment]
Hi! I'm Simon Towler. I'm the Editor of PhotoWeek! – the UK's free weekly email newsletter for the photo trades! And THIS is our BLOG!
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