Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I might get to the barn later, but I stay longer, and that’s what counts.—Bob Baffert
Barn doors are an attachment fitted to the front of lighting equipment that’s used in film, television and still photography. The attachment consists of four or more leaves that allow shaping the light’s output and prevents any light from scattering into areas where it’s not wanted. Trivia: In parts of the UK, barn doors are referred to as “Harris Flaps”[
Closing the Barn Doors
When shooting with LED lights like Rotolight’s Anova Pro, barn doors are a good way to control its output quality and quantity. Rotolight barn doors use a metal six-leaf design that folds flat for storage and includes mounting hardware along with a wrench for adjusting and tightening the leaves. In my studio, the barn doors were helpful whether I was trying to focus the light on a subject, allowing it to go more low key by keeping light off of a dark background or when trying to replicate a vintage Hollywood lighting effect as I did with the featured portrait.
How I made this portrait: This image was inspired by a 1940’s photograph of Rita Hayworth even though my subject, aspiring model Laura May Bachmayer, is too young to remember Ms. Hayworth’s impact on popular culture. This image was shot in a 4×5-foot area just outside my home studio. In fact, she’s leaning against the studio’s doorway.
A high ISO was used mostly because the Anova was placed inside the camera room and barn doored down to focus on the subject’s curly hair. I had to make sure the light itself was not in the frame. A 32-inch reflector was placed at camera left to provide fill.
The camera used was a Canon EOS 60D with an EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens (at 50mm.) The exposure was 1/8 sec at f/5 and ISP 1250. Originally shot in RAW+JPEG mode with the camera set in the Monochrome Picture Style so I could preview the image’s look. The color RAW file was used to produce the final image because it’s easier to retouch a color file than a black and white one because there are more color tones to work with. I made the monochrome conversion with Silver Efex using its Full Spectrum (harsh) preset before applying the Glamour Glow and Vignette Blur filters from Color Efex to give the image that old Hollywood look.
Black and White photography. especially as it applies to making portraits, is one of the topics of the Friday the 13th edition of the Pixels, Grain & Cookies podcast, where Barry Staver and I come to a startling and perhaps erroneous conclusion about monochrome photography. You can find it on my YouTube channel now.
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My book Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography is full of tips, tools and techniques for glamour and boudoir photography and includes information on all of the cameras used as well as the complete exposure data for each image. New copies are available for $40.32 with used books starting around thirteen bucks.as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.