CHAPTER 291: CHAPTER 291 - SHOOT DAY: EYE FOR LIGHTING

"She’s camera-ready if you want to start tests."

Devon gave approval to the photographer as, from the makeup chair, I could hear the lighting crew making their adjustments across the studio. Phrases like ’bump the key down half a stop’ and ’flag that spill on camera left’ drifted into my elevated sense of hearing.

Technical language spoken in simplified ways that would have been gibberish to me a couple weeks ago for the most part. Now, thanks to all those research sessions and the base knowledge Helene had... I actually understood what they meant.

The main light source on set, the key light, reduced in intensity with some sort of specific math number. Something about rooting squares. Then covering the excess light spilling over into an area not meant to be lit with opaque black fabric meant to shape the beam.

"Alright, let’s go get some shots in to help them finalize and make sure he didn’t miss covering any problem areas."

"I don’t miss, Sonya. You know as well as I do that last diva we both worked with scrubbed it off just to make a fuss."

It truly felt surreal seeing the same woman who’d spent my first day in the city exfoliating my skin... now directing a professional photo shoot. Though I suppose both jobs required the same attention to detail and ability to make people comfortable.

Maybe Vossden just has a surprisingly interconnected creative community? And I guess unless you are traveling, it might be hard to stay booked constantly as a photographer... and some people do have more than one passion and skill?

Vrika wasn’t sure why I was trying to defend the *plausibility* of her being here today. But the spirit also didn’t care. It knew that it was still only the beginning of a day of posing and primping, without anything much more exciting than it probably saw me do in my practice.

And since it has been a little while now since transforming, I think we are both getting just a little... sick of being apart, I guess. Since I often give the creature so much freedom to control the wolf-form when we take it.

Maybe we’ll go for a run and sleep outside the city tonight, how does that sound? No. Not inviting anyone!

Following the woman to the set, I glimpse the large softboxes on stands that created a triangle around a simple white backdrop. With reflectors and ’flags’ expertly positioned to control shadow and light. Her finger directed me to a mark on the floor.

"Stand right there. Just use natural posture for now - we’re only checking exposure and color balance on your skin tone and hair."

The lights were brighter and warmer than I’d expected, even after reading about it. But not instantly uncomfortable. Firing off a series of test shots with her camera, I found myself listening intently to the assistants and her discuss things.

"How’s the histogram looking?"

"Slight spike in the highlights, but that’s fixable. The skin tones are reading a bit cool though."

I tilted my head, watching her frown at the display. From my position, I couldn’t see the monitor showing the test images. But I’m sure that alongside it were technical readings I didn’t fully understand.

Numbers and graphs that meant something important to the process. I’d tried just a bit to understand them, but ultimately gave up in favor of perfecting my side of the current work. But I was still pretty interested.

"Could I take a look?"

The woman in charge glanced up at me, just a little surprised that they were my first words to her. But not dismissive, as she smiled and waved me over.

"Sure. It’s your first time, so getting your curiosity out of the way will help. What do you think?"

The image on the screen showed me bathed in a clean, even light. To most people, it probably looked perfectly fine. In fact, I’ve kept photos at this quality before plenty of times. But something about it bothered me if I was being honest.

"The temperature looks too cool for what we’re supposedly going for. My skin has a warmth to it in person that’s getting lost already - and likely will be worse if the clothing is dark. And..."

I paused, trying to articulate just what I was seeing. Knowing that they could probably figure all of this out by reading their fancy numbers.

"I’m certain that the key light is creating too much contrast on the left side of my face. The shadow transition isn’t gradual enough. Was the softbox intensity set correctly?"

"You’re new, right? You’ve done setting up lighting?"

The assistant sitting at the monitor looked at me like I was a mysterious creature. Which is to say... a new model that wasn’t just a pretty face wanting to see her pretty face on the screen.

Shut up, it doesn’t matter if that was also part of it!

"I’ve only been studying photography as a hobby. Mostly the practical side. If I say something incorrect, please just correct me."

"No, you’re right about the color temperature. You’re not here for a stark and cold look in the first set of outfits. And that shadow line certainly is too harsh for editorial work."

I felt a tiny surge of satisfaction that all those hours of reading had actually paid off. Sonya turned her back to me and faced her crew, all of them waiting patiently for further instructions. And all of them jumped to make the adjustments she called out.

"Warm up the key about 200 Kelvin and move that fill light in six inches. Then we’ll go again."

This time, when I hoped over without bothering to ask and looked at the result on the monitor, the image felt right. My skin looked natural and not like it was an overcast winter day... and the shadows wrapped around my features more gradually.

In a way they certainly would not outside - in real conditions, but that’s definitely not the ’point’ of modeling clothing. Impressing an ideal is the key. Which extends to lots of other fields, to be honest.

It’s why that burger in the picture at that fast food place looked nothing as glamorous as the one I actually received! But it was still tasty...

"Much better. Though I think there might still be an issue with the catchlight in my eyes. It’s positioned a bit too high - that makes them look less engaging."

The entire lighting crew was staring at me now as I confidently babbled my unrequested opinion. Though it didn’t seem to be annoyance, exactly. Sonya personally strode over and adjusted the position of a light based on that observation.

"You said it was a hobby? It sounds a lot more like a calling."

I shrugged at the praise, trying to appear casual while internally... I sat in my mindscape as my cream colored fox form just basking in their attention. My wolf stood up turned around the other way so that I wasn’t in front of it, then laid back down again.

"Taking pictures is a hobby, but the theory interests me. I wanted to understand what I was walking into today, so I studied the terms. But I’m not excellent with math so *that* is my weakpoint."

Pointing at all the actual science and technology aspect of what they do, on the one part of the screen, I received a number of soft laughs. And truly... I couldn’t help but think of the last text I got.

Because I *was* having fun.