Cirque du Soleil - how it was shot
This was my attempt to shoot a “Cirque Du Soleil” type image.
It was shot in my family room “studio” (which has a cathedral ceiling) against a 12 foot wide black paper backdrop.
I shot it on a Canon EOS 5D MKIII set at 1/125, 45mm and f20 to give shallow depth of field so that the backdrop would not be seen.
The model is “hanging” from the studio ceiling using a bolt of silk fabric I had purchased from a fabric store in the garment district of New York. It was impossible for her to hold the pose, so she is standing on a black box that I photoshopped out in post-production. I also had to photoshop her toes back into a natural (hanging) position.
The background spotlight is a Canon 580 EXII Speedlite fitted with a Flashbender rolled up to make a snoot.
The model was illuminated with a pair of Canon Speedlites. One was positioned to illuminate her torso and face. The second was fitted with a red gel and positioned to illuminate her legs and feet
I bought a smoke machine to give the shot some atmosphere.
In post-production I extended to silk to give longer flowing lines, eliminated the box the model was standing on, straightened the model’s toes and enhanced the smoke effect.
The really hard part was to make it believable, that is, that the model was really hanging in the big top, so every aspect had to be just right.