It all started with a cross-country flight from Florida to LA to do this concept shoot I had been planning for weeks. We had the perfect location, the perfect model and we were set to have a perfect shoot. We get all the way out there and at the last minute the location bails on us. At this point, all signs were pointing towards the shoot not happening. At best, we’d have to settle on a crappy, rushed location that wouldn’t do anything for the story. But I had seen this image in my head for months and I didn’t want to settle. So in the last few hours before the shoot, I scrambled…calling other photographers, scouring the web until I found this location: Cape Dume. It was perfect. The geometry in the landscape, the jagged texture…and we would have it all to ourselves. As we arrived at the location, I realized how strange this situation actually was. It was the middle of the night, we were in the middle of nowhere, it’s 45 degrees, pitch-black, no cell-service and here we are: 2 guys about to meet a girl who drove out here by herself and had never met us. We packed our gear and headed down toward the water. In addition to it being impossible to see where we were going, we had to climb a steep staircase down about 50 feet to get down to the sand. But once we did, our eyes began to adjust to the inky blackness and the full-moon’s light began to illuminate the landscape, revealing one of the most beautiful and moody locations I’d ever been in. This location was exactly where this concept shoot was supposed to happen. After I metered, I thought “Okay, ISO 400, f/4, 5 seconds…good thing I have a tripod…wait…I’m photographing a person and it’s 45 degrees out…oh god…” But to Sophie’s credit, she held perfectly still while conveying so much emotion and together, we made this photograph. A shoot that shouldn’t have been possible ended up being one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
Nikon D750 + 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II + Godox AD600 in Malibu, California
I like the lighting here. Gives you a sense it is moonlit (maybe it is). There appears to be a dark patch under the model's eye, from editing?
Thanks man! The lighting on the model is from a strobe and the background is half natural light (exposure drag) and a little bit of spill from a kicker light hitting the model.
As far as that little patch, I opened up my high-res file and it's partly the model's actual face interacting with the directional light and I think it's exaggerated a little bit by the compression (not sure if it's because of LR or this site's compression)