For this photoshoot with Diego, a dancer from the Basel Ballet, my main intention regarding the light was to recreate the strong spotlight - like on a big stage in a theatre. Therefore, the first light shaper I set up was a P70 standard reflector equipped with medium grids and placed it some 5 meters above the floor. It was directed vertically down on to the dancer.
This dominant and high-contrast main light created many very dark shadows; fill-in lights were essential. I did not want that these additional soft lights make the dark areas too flat - I rather wanted them to shape the muscular body of the dancer. I finally placed two Softboxes (90x120 cm) left and right of the model. They were positioned almost behind Diego (this is the reason for the darker area in the centre of his body) and almost on the floor to avoid additional shadows on the black background.
The picture is shot with a digital medium format camera at ISO 100 and a focal length of 90 mm. The shutter time was 1/90 s (while the flash duration was much shorter at around 1/3000 s) and the aperture f/16.
