"The Countess Of Monte Cristo"

 

"The Countess Of Monte Cristo"
© David A. Ziser

The Count Of Monte Cristo has always been a favorite movie of mine.  I enjoy these period pieces because of the imagery and the story lines. This image seems to hint at about the same time period in which that story took place.

Here's what I was a seeing in my mind's eye as I surveyed the scene.  I loved the large, old looking, over sized lighting fixtures on the wall.  More exciting to me was the lighting patterns they were casting on the wall in all directions of randomness.  I just somehow needed to see how I could work a subject into the Moorish feeling scene.

Our model was dressed in such a way that I thought would compliment the rest of the scene perfectly.  I asked her to stand in the doorway pushing against the walls.  I positioned my camera so that I could frame her up nicely against the background avoiding any compositional distractions.

Now all I needed to do was light her.  I chose my very directional Z-Ray Brinkmann flashlight to do the job.  The Z-Ray illuminated her face perfectly without spilling out elsewhere onto the surrounding scene. The subject's expression was exactly what I wanted for this image - a smoky direct gaze right back at the camera.

More importantly, look at the composition of this scene.  Notice how you eye travels through the image - bouncing from one of the three dominant lighting fixtures to the next finally resting on our subject hanging out in the shadows at the base of the image. I like it.

Camera specs:  Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 18mm, F5.6 @ 1/30 second, ISO 2000.  Enjoy!  -David