It is always a challenge to come up with a hip new lighting
arrangement for a new client. My shot for singer Tracy Renee
should make her look good and at the same time be different so
that her press kit for the record company would arose interest
and get attention to her record.     I had a meeting with Tracy
and told her of my plans for her album cover. It would guarantee
a second look at the cover and get someone to take out what was
inside and give it a play. I had planned on having a head shot
float on top of a close-up shot of a microphone.Both the record
company executives and Tracy liked the idea and approved it. I
was given an advance to cover  some of my expenses and told to
shoot the cover.     The first  shot would be of Tracys face.
The make-up for  this would be clean and soft and balanced for
black and white film. Her hair was tyled and blow-dried straight
with no curls. The lighting was to be clean,with no shadows on
her face and the light itself would be flat. To get the black and
whites to be a real contrast to one another. The film was shot at
a different ISO (ASA) to bring out the contrasts. The studio door
was opened up so that Tracy would be sitting in the shade five
feet into the studio. A black backdrop was set up. Two starfish
strobes were set up in front of her. The camera would shoot
between them. The trick in this set up is to have the light on
the floor 1/2 stop less than it should be and to soften the
light. Softening was achieved by placing a white sheet over the
light.     The backdrop would need light.  I use a mirror that
has foamcore shapes cut across it to give splashes of light. Hot
spots as seen by the camera and on film. The Norman power pack
was set to 400 watt-seconds with power evenly divided between the
lights at 200 watt-seconds  each. My camera is a Hasselblad El/M
with a 150mm lens for this shoot. The light was then metered
under Tracys chin, not her face. The reading for her was f/8.5.
The light on the backdrop metered at f/8 at 1/60 of a second. The
film I rated for 100ASA Now was the time for  a  Polaroid  to
check lighting, make-up, exposure and composition.     I needed
to have the shot bright so the Polaroid was exposed for f/8 at
1/60 of a second not at f/8.5. This was done on purpose to blow
out the image. The Polaroid proof was approved by the client, so
it was now time for the real work to begin.Two rolls of Kodak
Tri-X film normally rated at ASA 400 were shot at ASA 100. The
next set up was for the microphone.     The microphone was set up
in the same place as Tracy was in her shots.   Tracy  would not
appear in these shots at all. For this series of shots, I used my
Nikon 35mm camera mounting a 35-135mm zoom lens. The exposure was
the same on the 35mm Tri-X as it was for the Hasselblad. The
difference was in my distance to the subject.     The film was
then processed in Kodak D-76 developer at 70 F. for nine minutes
to give the blacks and whites strong density and contrast with
great depth to their appearance.     I then printed my shots on a
grade #3 1/ 2 paper. The head shot was enlarged to 5x7 and the
microphone shot enlarged to 11x14. Both shots were placed
together and shot on a 4x5 for one negative to be used as a
composite shot. I hope that this lighting set up and shooting tip
will work as good for you as for me and the end results I
achieved.
