The Dark Corners of the Mind – Conceptual Body Painting Photoshoot
This photoshoot was about phobias, fears and the subconscious mind, featuring the body painting artwork of Meghan Thomas (Megs War Paint) with model Claudia Rylie.
The body painting included UV fluorescent paint as well as non-UV paint. To capture both types, I used black lights mixed with strobes. To make the UV paint glow, I used six 40 watt fluorescent black light tubes, and a 400 watt UV cannon. I surrounded Claudia with the black light tubes, and positioned the UV cannon to the right of the camera, in front of the Claudia.
I also used strobes to light the fog and Claudia's face or highlight the body painting. The strobes were White Lightnings with grids and reflectors, triggered with CyberSyncs.
To see more photos from this shoot, check out this set on Flickr (Warning: some of the photos are marked as "moderate" on Flickr due to partial nudity and you must be signed into Flickr to see them).
Meghan Thomas: I have worked with Meghan many times and love her creativity and artistic skill. She always comes prepared to the shoot with lots of ideas, designs and plans for the body painting, as well as being an easy going and fun person to work with.
Claudia Riley: Claudia is a skilled model and she is also a dancer with excellent body awareness and control. It is especially challenging for black light body painting photography. First she was required to sit through about 4 hours of body painting, then pose during variety of unconventional lighting set-ups, many requiring her to to be very still due to the slow shutter speeds. She was great to work with, patient and collaborated to get some amazing shots!
