Parachute
Parachutes may be fun to jump out of the sky in, but what happens when it gets torn? Instead of throwing one away, Jordan’s friend donated a massive parachute to him. We decided to put it to use in our apartment. I used a reflector stand and extended it’s arm all the way horizontally (~8′), then hoised up the parachute on it. Once up, it completely blocked off access from our living room into the dining room/kitchen, but sacrafices will have to be made.
So, this thing makes a killer backdrop. It can be lit from behind, in front, and from the ground. Being white, we can easily transform it into whatever color we wanted through the use of gels. In the photo to the left, we used a Vivitar 285 with a red gel on the ground directly in front of the parachute. Because the light is so close, it gives a lot of contrast to the wrinkles in the chute. It also allows us to work at a lower power. The light on Jordan is a Vivitar 285HV on a light stand up and camera left. It’s aimed at a sheet of white foam core that’s just out of frame to his right. As a result, Jordan has a very soft light coming from his left. I used the foam core instead of an umbrella in order to reduce background contamination. This was a few days ago when all I had was one light stand and only a shoot-through umbrella.
I next tried lighting the parachute from behind. In this shoot, the Vivitar 285 was half gelled red, and half orange. This technique creates a more colorful look while still only using one flash.
Same setup as above with the front light and subject (me!) added in front.
This time, I had my new gear. I recieved a new light stand (Bogen 3373) and a 45″ reflective/shoot-through umbrella. For this shot I had the Vivitar 285 on a light stand directly behind me with 2 blue gels on. In front of me, I used my Vivitar 285HV with the new umbrella half covered to prevent spill to the backdrop. I placed it very close in to me which creates a broad light source and reduces the amount of light that can make it to the background.
The setup shot does a better job of showing things off. This shot was easy to take since there was a 5D Mark II with a Canon EF 15mm fisheye hanging around. You can also see that there's a sheet of white foam core offering just a little bit of fill.
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