Modified light

When I go to sleep my best ideas pops up. It’s hopeless, because more than often I forget the other day. Nowadays I always have a notebook and a pen on the night stand to write down all the crazy ideas that goes around in my head. 

A while ago I had the idea of making a portrait with a very harsh direct light. Preferably black and white. I wanted to have that movie look from a big drama from the 50’s. With a limited budget, read non existing, and a limited space I wasn’t sure how to do it. Then it struck me. Why not use a long reflective tube on a speed-light. Exactly like a tube from a Pringles package. It’s aluminum foil on the inside and easy to take the bottom out.

I talked to a friend and model about the idea and explained to him that it might work, and at the same time maybe not. He was up for it so together we sat it all up. We did it in my living room at home with the windows in the background.

I found a big cape in my wardrobe that I’ve used years ago at a Halloween party and put it up over the windows with two clamps. We poured the crisps in a bowl and wiped the Pringles tube clean. With a small saw, we removed the bottom. I attached the tube on my Nikon SB-900 with some black gaffer tape. Linus, my model, sat down on a kitchen stool in front of my black cape. The flash I triggered with the built in flash on my Nikon D800.  The set looked really amateurish. We put on some moody music to get the right feeling, and poured some of my lens solution in Linus eyes to have him look sad.

Except my camera gear the only thing I bought was a package of Pringles, and voilà, a great cinematic photo!