As a photographer, personal projects are important to always keep trying out new things and practicing one’s craft while helping to maintain the passion in the art. If we are not constantly experimenting then how are we going to improve? If we are not constantly testing the limits of our comfort zone then how we will discover new areas of interest? If we are not constantly pushing the envelope of our work then our work will become stagnant and “stagnant” is not a description you ever want to assign to your art.
This shoot by Donatella Nicolini came from just that type of thinking.Nicolini is a photographer who mainly works in studio and for this shoot she wanted to find a way to incorporate outdoors and natural elements into her already amazing motherhood portraits. She sees pregnancy and motherhood as the most powerful and primordial force and beauty, as nature itself, which is why she wanted to combine the two. These portraits were taken right after she got her new medium format Fujifilm GFX50S a few months ago.
“It works extremely well with natural light and high ISO allowing me the freedom to experiment with the available light I have in my studio, coming from the windows, and also mix it with strobes.”
Photo 1: Elodie and Ascanio
For this image, Nicolini used real ear wheat, placing it at different distances. She also attached some to a few light stands and placed one very close to camera while others behind the subjects. The trick is to create different levels of depth, to add dimension and interest to the image. She chose to light the backdrop with a 90cm octa + grid to bring out the beautiful texture of the hand painted canvas without influencing subjects. The main light here is a Profoto B1 diffused with a rfi 5” octa and feathered to get a soft, painterly look. The color of wheat matches the color of the fabric she chose to dress the mom and also matches some of her hair.
Photo 2: Lera e Luce
The name of the baby girl “LUCE” means “Light”.
Nicolini wanted to create something ethereal and bright for this mother and child. She chose white as a color for both the flowers and the mom’s dress. She then used real cotton flowers, placing them on light stands at different distances, portraying depth like the previous image. The backdrop is also a hand painted canvas, with a light and delicate color, the main light is natural light coming from the windows behind the backdrop.
Photo 3: Chiara e Giada
In this photo Nicolini balanced studio lighting with natural light to change the backdrop color with color gels. The beauty of Profoto strobes is that you can turn the power very low so you can balance studio light with natural light seamlessly. This way she was able to change the color of the backdrop from gray/green to purple directly in camera using a purple color gel to match the color of the flowers, which means less work in Photoshop after the shoot. She then also added a fan to create a natural movement to the mom’s hair, resembling the breeze you’d find in an open field.
All the photos were color graded using Infinite Color Panel.
Equipment List
- Tripod
- Profoto D2 + Purple Gel
- Profoto B1 + 90cm octa + grid
- Profoto B1 + Profoto rfi 5” Octa
- Hand painted canvas backdrops by Artery Backdrops and Milano Backdrops
Lighting Setup
Image 1: Elodie e Ascanio
Profoto B1 diffused with a 90cm octa + grid to light up the backdrop without influencing the subject Profoto B1 diffused with rfi 5” octa used as main light. She feathered this light to achieve a soft and creamy painterly look Image
Image 2: Lera e Luce
Main and only light is natural light coming from the windows behind the backdrop. The windows are high and angled at 45” Image
Image 3: Chiara e Giada
Main light is coming from the windows, behind the backdrop. Backdrop light is a bare Profoto D2 with purple gel at a very low power so she could balance it with the natural light and change the color of the backdrop without affecting the subjects
Closing
Photographer: Donatella Nicolini (instagram | website)
Hair and make up: Valentina Paolillo + Greta Roncoroni + Martina Ginisi
Assistant: Luisa Galisai
Images used with permission of Donatella Nicolini
old school trick...and good results
Lee, it's not worth it. I got into the same discussion with this guy a few weeks ago, seemingly he only comes on here to trash softboxes and tell other photographers how little they know about scrims.
err, I would say that this is an effect of the Square Inverse Law, not the tools being used. If you had a softbox farther away from its diffuser you would theoretically get a similar quality of light.
What an excellently detailed explanation. Disclaimer: I only picked up a DSLR for the first time 4 years ago, but have spent considerably more time learning lighting theory than I have taking photos. I knew that I knew what I was talking about, but it's very nice to have someone with so much REAL WORLD experience confirm it to me. There's so much nonsense regarding lighting floating around the internet. Thanks for clearing up some myths!
Nice images, I was doing that just today. Not with mums and babies but with chairs and beer. Not as soft and romantic but the depth trick all the same :)
Photo #3. Cringeworthy editing. I mean, is it CGI? The title of that one should be "How I used a computer to make weird looking versions of people"
I think that's what people want to look like these days. This is the filter generation, they're more used to looking at augmented photos of themselves than they are looking in the mirror. I heard it's common now for people to bring 'filtered' photos to plastic surgeons as a reference for what they want to look like.
Lola Melani does this pretty much every day.
You guys are blind. Harsh lighting? What?? These are absolutely amazing! Thank you Donatella for being so generous with your information, I've learnt much from this!
Nice work. Original for that kind of images. Thanks for sharing.
The shots with the natural window light behind. Was there fill from the front?