The Photo Asylum - Photography by Steven Hlavac

My first feature portrait assignment for Lake & Sumter Style Magazine was muralist and glass artist Dennis Graves. Dennis has many large public displays of his work in Central Florida, and I felt this gave me carte blanche as far as where to pose him and under what lighting conditions.

One of his showcase murals is this large festive scene on an outside wall of the Rialto Theater in The Villages, Florida. While it appears nice enough during the day, it is much more dramatic-looking at night. So we decided to do a night shot, but that automatically made the photo much more complicated from a technical point of view.

It was important to me that the vibe of this portrait fit Dennis' personality: relaxed and laid-back. I wanted the viewer to feel as if they were passing by and simply paused to look over at Dennis and his mural, seeing him there nonchalantly looking back with the slightest of smiles. I did not want the lighting to distract from this feeling.

After first scouting the spot by myself one evening, I began to plan the shot. The artificial light on the scene, bare tungsten bulbs in hanging street lamps, would do an ok job of generally lighting things, but it would not be enough to really showcase the mural, and certainly would not light Dennis in a flattering way.

Also, I really wanted to catch the last bit of the glow of dusk in the background, to add depth to the shot and a nice blue tone to compliment the overall warm lighting, so that became a factor as well.

I decided to light the general scene with a combination of fading daylight and streetlights, and light Dennis and parts of his mural seperately with electronic flash. And so this deceivingly simple shot was eventually lit with nine different light sources blended together: daylight, four streetlights, three flash units, and one reflector.

Interestingly enough, although it's the least prominent element of the shot, the overall exposure of this portrait depended on the blue twilight. I had to set the camera to nail that hue, as it was the only light in the scene that I could not control.

It also gives you an idea of the pressure I was under, for my entire shooting window between first darkness (deep blue sky) and no light at all (black sky) was roughly twenty minutes. Yikes!... :)

So, with the gear all set up well ahead of nightfall, we waited for the sky to darken and the artificial light to illuminate the scene. You can see the lighting diagram on the right and compare it to the shot at the top of the page.

In a nutshell, the key light (on Dennis) is a flash in a large softbox. A reflector opposite him serves as a fill (softens the shadows on his face). A large black light panel blocks the key light from spilling onto the wall. The four street lights serve as basic illumination for the wall, and two gridded spot flashes light specific areas in the center of the mural. Because the white balance in the camera is set to daylight, the light on Dennis and the wall spotlights appear more natural, while the tungsten street lights read as a much warmer yellow (which compliments the deep blue of the sky nicely).

A piece of cake... :)