Milk Bath Photography

[Mister_Photoguy]

I am planning a shoot with a black woman in a bath of milk. Similar concept as Annie Leibovit's photo of woopie golberg in a bath of milk, but the angle and pose will be very different.

The problem I am having is that I am getting conflicting ideas how to get the milk look without needing to buy 50 gallons of milk or however much a claw foot tub takes.

The challenge is, even if I had 50 gallons of milk, when photographed milk actually has a blue tinge to it and is not actually pure white. I have looked at alternative things that could be added to warm water to get the same effect and one popular idea is white emulsion paint (latex paint) to warm water, but I am not sure if this is safe for the model.

I would love to hear from other photographers who have shot models in tubs of milk looking water and hear their best strategies and solutions.

 

[JerryPH]

I have not, but I know someone that did. Milk was used. That blue tinge was eliminated by using off camera lighting. They used about $10,000 worth of Profoto gear, but you could likely do it with 2 battery powered speedlights in a darker area.

I would not do ANYTHING that could harm my model in any way, shape or form.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Get her most recent book "At Wok" where she describes that shoot a little bit. Basically it required a lot of fixing afterward. She said no matter how clean the subject is, the milk very quickly has all kinds of detritus floating around. You need to clean it up in Photoshop afterward. You WILL want to light this shoot, don't do it with available light.

 

[Joves]

OK! First Milk baths are not actually all milk. They are mostly water with milk added. You could try one gallon of milk to the tub to get enough opacity to look like all milk. But bring 2 or 3 gallons with you. Also there may not be as much of a blue cast to it at a high dilution. You can always test shoot it. I sometimes use a B-Polarizer which blocks the blue end of the spectrum not sure if it will work in eliminating blue in milk though. I know it works well with the blue in sunlight. It really enhances reds.

 

[UUilliam]

or you can shoot raw then increase the temperature in post production to remove the blue

 

[RONDAL]

Wow....flashback to my past working for a dairy company.

Cream.

The higher the water content the bluer the ting the liquid will have. Using something like coffee half/half will have less of a blue tinge to it.

Personally I'd try shoot in RAW, adjusting the whitebalance to show the liquid as true white if you are going to go with a dairy type product.


My other suggestion would be to call and stunts and special effects shop, one that works on movies, TV etc. Speak with one of their S&SE co-ordinators and ask them what they would suggest.

 

[jinx]

You can get powdered milk in big boxes for cheap.

 

[EhJsNe]

Shoot in raw, get lots of shots, use your nifty flash, and edit in post.

And for the milk.......hmmmm Try using cream instead, and mixing it with water......

 

[sburatorul]

Use choc milk and a white female.

what's up with that? anyway... i am eager to see the results