Time to shoot! The color Black.

With the studio set up and ready to go, it was time to start shooting!

First up was the model Natasha Gerasimova, who represented the color black. During my previz for this shoot, I knew I wanted to focus heavily on the depth the color black brought to my subject. I pulled a ton of reference images on the mood I wanted to create with the model in mind…

Mood board for the color black shoot

First thing to do was to set up a black drop to use for the majority of the shoot. This was actually a pretty simplistic shoot to set up. I used a variety of elements with this black drop such as flowers, plexi and makeshift Gobos to get the desired look. Using a black drop, stool and the right lighting really goes a long way in creating stunning images.

Black drop with a stool and black tulle.

My last setup for this shoot was creating the smoke for the images. After a ton of research I landed on using a smoke grenade specifically made for photography. It consisted of having someone set off the grenade, run it behind the model and then run out of frame. What all of us didn’t realize was how irritating the smoke would be to our eyes…lesson learned! Her watery eyes in the image below is a direct result of this….Natasha was an incredible model and went with it!

Teary eyes from smoke grenade.