Night garden portrait

[nas-matko]

Hi,
my initial goal was to create an atmospheric portrait in the evening garden with lights on. Idea was to have a darker background so the garden lights will stand out and then have a flash lighted subject that will be the brightest object in the image.
I was scouting different angles, since garden is surrounded by not very pretty block of apartments and getting ready before I bring model in.
However when I thought I got everything sorted and was reviewing an image in computer, I realised, that its confusing, its not obvious what the subject really is, is it a tree, is it garden light, or colorfull plants? Adding model into into it will just make it more busy and confusing, so I postponed it at this stage.

Setup is like this: I exposed for the garden lights and I used one flash to light up the tree and I was planning for second flash to light up the mode.

My question to you is, how would you approach task like this? How to keep garden and lights as an environment while attracting eys primarily to the model? Where would you put model? How would you recompose?

 

[smoke665]

Hello again! Always nice to see someone testing boundaries with lighting.

My first question would be model location in the scene? You've balanced the exposure on the light and the garden lights, but you need to know the model location to complete the planned placement.

When mixing ambient light of different color temperatures don't forget to use color correcting gels on the strobes and set your camera WB appropriately. How to Use CTO and CTB Gels to Change the Color of Your Background

Also when drawing the eye to a focal point, using DOF with on a busy background can keep the focus on point and still provide an element of environment.

 

[nas-matko]

My first question would be model location in the scene?

That is exactly my question, not sure where to put model. Probably I need to omit the three altogether since it is attracting too much attention.
I was hoping you can give me some tips.

 

[smoke665]

I was hoping you can give me some tips.

For me it would take some experimenting. I might start out placing the model behind and between the 1st and 2nd light (from left) in front and just left of the tree. Then light the model's face, set your Key C/L and your Fill C/R using barn doors or snoots (with diffusion), to limit spill, and let your ambient lighting illuminate the body. Doing so will throw the garden lights OOF at the front. Start with metering your Key light equal to a stop above the garden lights, and your fill equal to the garden lights, and adjust from there. Just not sure how it will play out when the garden lights go OOF. They might end up being annoying blobs, or pleasing bokeh balls. Would be interesting to see how it turns out.