Challenge 1 Dan Mold
To introduce a variation, Dan asked Hamish to don his peaked cap, and for a second we thought we had found a portal back to the 1920s, as Hamish had now gone full Peaky Blinder. Adopting a different approach for this shot, Dan used a 90mm focal length and got a little closer to the action, filling the frame for his portrait. Hamish looked fantastic in this get-up, and would not have looked out of place on the Peaky Blinders set.
Says Dan: “I wanted to try something really moody and atmospheric, and there was actually another light from across the room that was bleeding into my shots and giving them a green colour cast. This gave me the perfect excuse to shoot in mono and drain the shot of all colour. To see the mono effect in real-time using Live View, I went into the camera menu and set the Picture Style to Monochrome. I kept the lighting style simple with a single Rotolight Aeos 2 positioned at 45º to the front of Hamish and waited for him to strike a pose where the lights created a pleasing catchlight in his eyes.”
Expert opinion
One of the unique selling points of the Rotolight Aeos 2 and Neo 3 LED lights is the photographer’s ability to dial in an extensive range of colours from the rear panel or – coming soon – via a smartphone app. So this conversion into mono might seem odd, but it staunched a light bleed, and it works.