"Touched By The Light"

"Touched By The Light"
© David A. Ziser

Here is an image I made last month during our Sedona Experience.  In surveying the location around the Tlaquepaque shopping area in downtown Sedona, I found this secluded area.  The lighting was simply amazing! 

I asked Alex, our model, to just take a seat on the bench. Here long graceful figure fell easily into this stylized pose.  Next, I needed to determine the direction of light.  It was clearly coming in from camera left.  If I had Alex turn her head to the camera, I would have split lit her.  I opted instead for the profile view witch gave me this gorgeous loop lighting pattern on her face.  I also had Alex drop her hair over her right shoulder.  Her hair was so full, it offered a nice background and gave me a clean, beautiful profile view without distractions in the otherwise blotchy, green leaf background.

You know, profile views are not so popular these days and I'm not sure why.  For me, a profile view is a beautiful view of the face for a portrait study.  You eye gets to enjoy the beautiful subject illuminated with light that just wraps around her.  It's the play of the highlights and the shadows in this image that give it it's visual impact.

Camera specs:  Canon 7D fitted with 18-200mm IS lens at 100mm, F5.6 @ 1/125 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David