Mehndi Henna work with Preet and Claire

For this shoot I wanted to use layers of texture; so you have the model’s skin (and wind-blown hair), then the Henna work (provided again by the wonderful Preet), and then a window blind to add subtle changes in the intensity of light on over the top of that. The blind also has the benefit of adding some life to the blank wall, and draws the eye across the frame.

Obviously one way to shoot this would be to simply find a good window, and a day with nice bright sunlight for those sharp shadows, but living in Leeds this isn’t something I wanted to leave to chance. Instead I bought a window blind and suspended it from the ceiling.

to control the light I’m using a soft-box with the diffuser panels unhooked. Unfortunately this still softens the light a little (as light is being reflected off the silver sides of the box), but I wanted to control the spill onto the walls, so this seemed like a good trade-off. An black cutter would work better but sometimes you have to compromise! You can view more from the set on flickr.