Bx2

When looking at those twinkling little lights in our small Christmas tree I thought they would make a nice backdrop for a head-shot in the studio, I wanted them to show up in the "bokeh".

I thought that 150 mm, f:2.8 would make a nice starting point, but as we had 2 amazing and very beautiful models, f:2.8 would not produce enough DOF so that the 2 faces would easily be in focus at the same time...

First shot i took was at f:5.6 but i did not like the look so I went for f:4 and tried to keep those 2 pair of eyes in the focus plane

Exif for these series would be about 150/190mm, f:4 , 1/100th, ISO 200 (used lens was the Nikkor 70-200 f:2.8 VRii )

The main light was the big JS Wescott Apolle Softbox with a 600Ws Monobloc inside, as the light is on axis it produces rather flat light but when light sources are this big, it is usable, very usable.

We had to throw the Christmas tree lights a little bit farther away to the back, because some light from the softbox hit them and lighted up the wires between them, as we moved the little lights farther away they also got more out of focus :-)

For these next shots i wanted some lens flare and a radiating white background, so I put the white seamless background at f:16, the light shining in the lens was at f:22 on the models shoulder, i made sure it was shining in the lens when choosing my composition.

The front side of the models was lit with a large octabank, Exif for this series is 100 / 150mm, f:8, 1/125th, ISO 200

Added a bit of soft-focus in Post ...

As we had some time left i thought it would be nice to shoot some more fashion style pictures ...

They fit together very well don't you think?

Thanks to:
Tamara & Jolien for posing
Valérie De rouck for the amazing make-up, hair and styling
Kevin De Raedemaeker for his active assistance