Wetlook with colored gels — Portrait photography
Portrait photography in the studio: a concept shoot with light and water effects. A studio concept shoot with wet skin and wet hair, lit with colored gels.
A studio concept shoot with wet skin and wet hair, lit with colored gels. One sitting yields four visual worlds: a hard red that leaves every droplet as a specular highlight, magenta against blue from two sides, a cool blue from the right — and finally a black and white frame in which only the structure is left. Wet skin reflects directionally rather than diffusely, which is why every light here lands as a visible edge.
The hardest version in the set is the one with two colors on one face: red from one side, blue from the other, a narrow strip of skin between them carrying both. The background stays black, because any lifted surface dissolves the separation immediately.
Gels are cheaper than retouching. A color that happens in the frame wraps around the form; one calculated in afterwards lies on top of it — on wet edges that difference shows at once.
Working wet also means working in one direction. Hair and skin can be dried but not undone, which is why the order of the setups is fixed before the first frame is made.
- Setting
- Studio
