{"id":18101,"date":"2013-11-25T00:37:37","date_gmt":"2013-11-25T04:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=18101"},"modified":"2022-08-28T13:23:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-28T17:23:30","slug":"photography-homage-regal-portrait-with-ferret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/photography-homage-regal-portrait-with-ferret\/","title":{"rendered":"Photo homage: A regal portrait with a ferret"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo homage\u00a0– Regal Portrait with a Ferret<\/h1>\n

While on a trip to Denver, I had some time free to meet up with my friend,\u00a0Lynn Clark, one of the\u00a0best boudoir photographers in Denver. I had asked her to be a subject for my next book,\u00a0Lighting & Design<\/a>, and she indulged me. I want each portrait to reveal something of the person I am photographing, and also have some interesting snippets of info for anyone who dips in the book, and of course, for anyone who follows the Tangents blog.<\/p>\n

So while Lynn is an accomplished boudoir photographer, I didn’t want to go with the obvious idea of doing a boudoir photo session of her. I met up with Lynn, and our mutual friend, Petra Herrmann in Lynn’s studio. (You may remember Petra as a recent guest on Tangents –\u00a0increase your sales in boudoir photo sessions<\/a>.) Lynn’s boudoir studio is home-based, with two large rooms that had been converted in shooting space. I spent some time looking around, and figuring out angles and lighting and backgrounds. The usual things we need to juggle when we consider the setting for portraits.<\/p>\n

I liked the one direction where I knew I’d be able to compress the perspective with a 70-200mm lens, and shoot from the adjoining room. Then I could use the red drapes in the background, and throw the chandelier and the rest of the room out of focus. So far, so good. This would be good for a basic portrait. Solid, but not engaging yet. Lynn and Petra and I bounced some ideas around.<\/p>\n

Lynn and her husband runs a Ferret B&B in Denver, CO<\/a>. They take care of ferrets when their owners are on vacation. Lynn and her family also keeps 6 ferrets. So there are ferrets \u2026 and they are adorable. In chatting with Lynn and Petra, they mentioned that Queen Elizabeth had been fond of ferrets, and there was a portrait of her with a ferret. And then the idea clicked!<\/p>\n

Throwing the chandelier out of focus and keeping it in frame, we’d have a glowing halo of light above Lynn. The red drapes worked too. Then \u2026 the costume. We didn’t have anything nearly as ostentatious so we went for a tiara and some bling jewelry.<\/p>\n

And then we added Elliott, the energetically curious ferret you see in the photo.<\/p>\n

The final portrait of Lynn is whimsical. There’s an absurdity about it. Hopefully the portrait is also quite cute and amusing. I do think it shows that playful aspect of Lynn, though she insists she’s actually a serious person. This impromptu homage to the portrait of Royalty with a pet ferret, was certainly fun to shoot.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the inspiration for the idea – the portrait of Queen Elizabeth with a ferret, (which the artist had given spots.)<\/p>\n

And of course, the pull-back shot to show the setup and the lighting:<\/p>\n

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Lighting here was with\u00a0an\u00a0LED video light<\/a> (affiliate<\/em>), which is handy in that you can continuously change the color temperature to match that of the available light. I wanted that bit of a spot light on Lynn, but with the light feathered up a bit to just highlight her face and the ferret.<\/p>\n

I adjusted the power of the LED light to not have the background too bright or too dark. In the end, I had the LED light at full volume, and pulled it away to that specific distance. I had the color balance of the LED video light set to the warmest setting, which according to the spec sheet, is 3200K. I changed the LED light’s color temperature to very warm, because I wanted the chandelier behind her to just glow warm, and not be a pool of orange light .<\/p>\n

I originally did test shots of Lynn at f\/2.8 to really blur the chandelier behind her. But when we added the ferret, I needed a touch more depth-of-field.<\/p>\n

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Camera settings & Photo gear info (& equivalents)<\/h2>\n