"Game of Thrones" Themed Photoshoot

Because I am a bit of a lighting geek, when I see a photo that I like, I will study it and try to reverse engineer how the lighting was done.  I've done it since I was in college.  Back then, if you had found a hypothetical copy of Playboy in my dorm room, there were lighting notes scribbled in the margins next to the photos.  Hypothetically, of course.  Serious geekiness, what can I say...

And this geekiness applies to TV and movies as well.  I will totally lose track of the plot because I get caught up in studying how a scene was lit. Fortunately there are DVRs, On Demand, and YouTube, so I can go back and get the plot points I missed.

A couple of months ago I was watching scenes from "Game of Thrones", and I noticed how they use color casts (white balance) to accent certain locales.  Scenes that take place in the desert usually have warm yellow/orange tones,  while scenes in "the North" (especially Winterfel or Castle Black) have a blue cast that emphasizes the cold.  And I thought "I know how to do that!"  That was where the idea for this shoot was born.

This was a bigger production than the personal photoshoots I've done in the past.  It was a challenge to pull together everything I needed for this shoot:  A red-haired model who was interested and available, a location that could pass for a castle, appropriate clothing and props, and of course, snow.  As it turned out, the biggest problem was the snow (or rather, the lack thereof)!  Even though it was officially winter, the weather here in Pittsburgh didn't want to cooperate.  We had lots of warm weather and lots of rain, which resulted in a lot of flooding and landslides in the area.  As the weeks passed and we got closer to spring, I was about ready to give up on being able to pull this shoot off.  Then a freaky series of storms blew through, and we had snow!  It wasn't going to last though, so I had to scramble to schedule the shoot on short notice.

A special shout out to my model, Hope Marie.  It was our first time working together.  She came prepared, ready to shoot, and didn't complain about the miserable weather conditions (25 degrees, no sun, and 20 mph wind gusts).  A true professional who was a joy to work with.  I look forward to working with her in the future.

For my fellow lighting geeks, here's the technical details. Godox AD200 main with Full CTO, 1/2 CTO, and a MagSphere. Godox V860ii-N rimlight with 1/2 CTB. Both lights full power. Nikon D800E. 80-200/2.8 at 135mm. ISO 100, 1/250 sec at f4.5. WB 2200K, tint -30.  Pullback for the first shot included above.

Recreating a Sunset Using Flash

One of the problems we have as wedding and event photographers is that we usually don't have any control over the environment we are shooting in.  If the church uses their Kindergarten room as their bridal room, you can't ask for another room.  If the weather isn't to your liking, rescheduling the wedding for another day isn't an option!  You have to play the cards you are dealt, and still capture the day the way your bride wants to remember it.

Off-camera flash (OCF) can be a powerful tool in these situations.  You can use lighting to accent some things, and de-emphasize other things.  You can use both the intensity and color of lighting to create a specific mood for your photos.

Last year I was second-shooting a wedding the same weekend that the remnants of Hurricane Harvey blew through our area.  The sky was solid overcast, and I knew early on that there was no way we were going to get any sort of nice sunset.  The venue had a small pond with a dock that stuck out into it.  It was a great setting, but the bland available light wasn't going to do it justice.  Nothing that adding some flashes couldn't cure.

I put my most powerful flash (a Godox AD200) on the shore near the dock, facing the couple standing on the end of the dock.  This was going to be my "sun".  I didn't raise it up too high, because I wanted to mimic a low sun right before it dips below the horizon.  I put a Full CTO (Color Temperature Orange) gel on it to give a warm glow.  I had a second flash on my camera to provide  a little fill, so the side of the couple facing away from the "sun" wouldn't be in complete shadow.  I used a 1/4 CTO gel to warm it a little, but not as much as my "sun".

The resulting photo had a nice warm romantic feel to it, but the sky was still an ugly gray.  I lowered the white balance of the image from normal daylight (5500 degrees Kelvin) to 4000 degrees Kelvin.  This cut down the orange somewhat, but it added a wonderful blue tint to the sky and water.