Photo taken for a lighting seminar assignment at a cinematography course.
The seminar focused on lighting for cinema with its variations of key, fill, backlight, and background light in portraiture while also leaning on how to create expressive shots of hands. The aim was to practice lighting and framing for compelling close-ups in filmmaking.
I wanted to somehow create a narrative with this picture and to use the light to help me with that. The idea behind it was to have an image that suggested some kind of search for salvation that is also represented by this ‘divine’ glow. The fingertip’s accent light was placed behind the finger for this reason since it brings a different glowing texture when it goes through the finger as opposed to just bouncing off of its surface.
This picture was taken on a 5D mkIII with an EF 24-105mm f/4L lens at 55mm and f/4. The lights used here were continuous tungsten lights. I had a light bouncing off of a big bounce board on the left (4x4ft) and another bounce board on the right to catch the key and create a dim rim light on the right. The accent at the tip of the finger was done with a small dedolight (150W) with a projector attachment.