Since global pandemic has taken over, it has brought additional challenges to photography industry.

Lockdowns and moving restrictions created severe limitations in creative expression. However, I decided to take it up as a challenge and venture into self-portrait to express the surreal fashion angle that is my main avenue.

Photographing self-portraits at home means having to single-handedly tackle a vast variety of things- light set up and control, managing a surreal set in a limited space and even having to take care of your own make-up and hair.

For this shoot I have collaborated with Rocky Star brand and with a talented stylist Sallony Mahendru who remotely styled the gorgeous outfits that Rocky has provided. My make up and hair I have done myself.

I wanted this project to be about pushing the boundaries of what you can do at home and how light can be used to create the set. To overcome the space limitation I have come up with a wonderful hack that I am willing to share- shooting the reflection of a set in the mirror instead of shooting the set directly.

Reflection adds around 40% of additional distance and makes even confined spaces look larger with more depth. It also allows to play with light effects and texture by introducing some coating, like oil over the mirror which disperses the light even more.

My major inspiration for the shoot in terms of lighting was theatre and the dramatic light and color that can be found in theatrical sets.

So, for the first look I opted for a dark backdrop, adding a cloud texture over it.
Picolite has always been one of my favourite lights due to its versatility and ability to produce sharp shapes.
I used my Picolite on Mobi LED with red gel, connected to my Move L pack to provide a dramatic circular key light.
To add some color contast, but to keep it as a mild fill in a small space instead of aiming the second Mobi LED with blue gel at myself directly I bounced it off the reflective paper.

For a second look I wanted to work with a minimal set, but keep the drama.

Here, I again chose Picolite with red gel on Mobi LED as my key light, this tine giving it a narrow rectangular shape. By keeping slightly creased reflective paper below my feet I created an illusion of standing on water.
For most of my shots I kept the ISO above the usual- around 400 to 800 depending on amount of light that was in the room. It helped soften the effects of light while retaining the contrast.

Third look had me work with creation of multiple hard and soft highlights all over myself.

Picolite on Mobi LED from the front has created a tiny soft edged highlight on my face, while the other Mobi LED bounced off reflective paper gave water-like reflections on the bottom of the pant.
Open strobe of Siros L from the side was diffused using the white textile- to keep a large amount of light, yet soften it a bit.
And one Siros L suspended from top back was used to achieve a rim on my hair and shoulders from the back.

Fourth set was arranged to create an effect of theatre forest.

For that I used only two light sources- one Mobi LED suspended from the top( i kept the cover with a small triangular cutout on to limit the light stream) and one open strobe of Mobi LED from the side in front of which I kept dry bamboo branches with leaves for the shadows to take on shape.

Next set ups had me work with a mirror reflection. I used oil over it which additionally reflected the light and gave a rainy window texture to the image.

To give dramatic highlights on face and body I kept an open strobe of Mobi LED with yellow gel bounced of reflective paper at the bottom and directed it upwards towards my chin.

On the same side, but higher I kept another Mobi LED with blue gel to give a colder contast to the mood.

For the 6th set I removed the blue light and reduced the oil amount on the mirror keeping it only in certain areas where most light is falling.

Next set made me turn to two lights again, adding Mobi LED with blue gel from the top side back to get a blue rim on my hair.

Last set was the most complicated to achieve. I used two textiles connected to each other to create a box like shape of the backdrop.

This set needed a clean background, however my walls were far from it.

To tackle it I used an open strobe Mobi LED placing it sideways so that the light leaks primarily on the back and a bit on the front. I used oil on both the lens and the mirror which allowed the effect of a nearly overexposed background to appear. Oil softens the light and makes it glow at the same time spreading it wherever it is rubbed. So, by using this technique I imitated the white wall where there was none. I also made sure to keep my ISO relatively high.

For the beautiful reflection texture on myself I have kept the Mobi LED with yellow gel bouncing off reflective paper.

This shoot has given me so much experience in terms of working with limitations. It was exciting and challenging how differently you can apply the lighting in same conditions.