How I Lit It #2 - From Indian Lakes

For tonight's post, I thought I would show you a really easy lighting set up.  Ad when I say lighting set up I mean that there isn't any set up, its all available light.


The photos were taken on a shoot with From Indian Lakes at The Vault in Hollister, CA.  


From Indian Lakes is an amazing young band from Yosemite Valley, CA. This is what Blare Magazine says, "From Indian Lakes could easily be handpicked as on the best alternative rock bands most people have never heard of. The California quintet blend intelligent and touching lyrics with entrancing rock to create a musical organism that sounds like Brand New's poetic, yet darling, little brother."  Way better than I could have ever put it.  


The Vault is a new venue in Hollister, converted from an old bank, hence the name.  It has so many fantastic little spaces to shoot in I could literally spend days in there, and its a beautiful place to have a wedding or a party.  Eric Swan, the general manager, is a cool guy, he'll take care of you and make sure you get everything you need.


Enough with the plugs, lets talk about the lighting.  So here's the photo:

The image was made very simply.  We were on the second floor in an area that is used for theater productions.  There is a small stage, some stage lighting, a bar and I was trying to figure out how I could use this area for the shoot.  And I looked towards the windows which were covered with these old, heavy red velvet curtains.  They were blocking so much light except a little sliver that went down the wall and across the floor.  Jackpot.


So I took my exposure off of the little slice of wood shown on the left side of the frame then I arranged the guys to make sure there heads were as close as possible.  I did this by flip flopping them.  Every guy is actually laying a different direction than the guy next to him.  The result is an image with a massive amount of dead space, which could be used for text of any kind, i.e. posters, CD inserts, web pages.


Then I layed each band member down in the light and photographed them individually.

I like the results, what are your thoughts?  How can you use this technique in your work?  Keep the questions coming, I have several good ones that I'll be answering soon.  Thanks for checking back.