How I got the Shot
To get shots like this takes a lot of planning and a LOT of lights, 4 to be exact.
I used 2 eVOLV200 pro (AD200 Pro) units, the H200R round head attachment, and the round head accessories kit. I knew I wanted some color in the shot so I started with lighting the heavy bags blue. On camera left I used barn doors from the accessories kit and a lavender blue Rogue Gel.
Next I set up my key light on a Manfrotto boom stand. I used an Xplor 300 Pro TTL (Godox AD-300 Pro) inside the Glow 25.5” parabolic softbox that attaches directly to the Godox mount on the light without an S bracket I like this since it adds less weight to the end of my boom. I used the silver reflector and the outer layer of diffusion. Initially I had this light directly above Domenic with it basically parallel with the ground, but the rest of his body was too underexposed for my tastes. So I aimed it at about a 30 degree angle so we still got muscle definition showing but it wasn’t entirely top lit.
Camera left I used a second Xplor 300 Pro TTL (Godox AD-300 Pro) unit in a 12”x56” Glow EZlock softbox, double diffused, with the deflector plate and the grid on. This gave just a hint of edge lighting.
The last light was an eVOLV200 pro (AD200 Pro) with the round head and barn doors on camera right. I positioned it just slightly to the right of center of the heavy bag so it would not show up in the shot when he kicked the bag and it would move closer to the wall. Using the modeling light on the round head made aiming it on Domenic much easier.
The last piece of setup was the fog. It really helped separate him from the dark black background and added so much atmosphere to the shots. I purchased the fog machine from Party City.
To trigger all the lights I used the Flashpoint R2 Pro Transmitter (XPro-C).
The camera was a canon R6 with a 24-70 F 2.8 EF lens with an EF to RF adapter. I used the maximum sync speed, 1/250th of a second. The flash durations were short enough that I didn’t need high speed sync. The aperture was F 3.2. The ISO was 100.
For the shots in the ring I only used 3 lights. It was a very similar setup but instead of lighting the heavy bags with the blue light I lit Domenic’s camera left side with the blue gelled eVOLV200 pro (AD200 Pro). The other eVOLV200 pro (AD200 Pro) was set further back as a rim light. The Xplor 300 Pro TTL (Godox AD-300 Pro) was boomed again with the Glow 25.5” parabolic softbox just above Domenic’s head out of frame.
I processed the RAW image in Capture One. I used the Style Preset Color Effects – Creative 6, to give all the shots more of a “punch”. If you are interested in trying Capture One they have a great free trial program which lets you use the FULL program, nothing is off limits, for 30 days. If you want to purchase style packs, subscriptions, or purchase the program outright be sure to click on this link and use my promo code VAIL10 for 10% off.
