Black on Black

Dior. Portrait of a lady. Elegance. You wouldn’t think you could achieve these styles of shots on a small budget or in minimal time, but Sue shows us how. A bit of craftiness and a lot of inspiration goes a long way in this Black on Black shoot with beautiful client and mother of two, Meghan. Professional studio photographer Felix Kunze joins Sue for a lighting tutorial to teach us about working with the Kino Flo. He sticks around to learn from Sue about posing women, natural light, and DIY Dior.

Kino Flo Demo

“What do you do when the light goes away or if you want to shoot later in the day? How do you work if your studio has no natural light? What do you do if you’re shooting in winter, or if you live in a country that doesn’t have much sunlight, or it’s cloudy or stormy? What do you do if you have to shoot in a space that has no natural light?” Portrait studio photographer, Felix Kunze, joins Sue for a lighting tutorial on the Kino Flo, and answers your most asked questions about shooting natural light vs. studio light.

Items Used:

• Kino Flo Constant Light
• Steel C-Stand

Key Things to Take Away:

• Two options: 1. Constant light with Keno Flow, what it looks like when you shoot with it, how to set it up and how to use it, what the photos look like shooting with it / camera settings using it. And 2. Where to direct the light so it’s not too hot on the face and to “wrap the light around”.
• Can use video with kino flow
• What happens when you take v-flats away
• Contouring light, bounce light around
• Sue and Felix experiment with kino flow light and v flats

Setup, Lighting, and Posing

With the live-view camera, we can see exactly what Sue sees while she shoots a beautiful client, Meghan. Sue walks us through various poses for this Dior inspired session, and Felix Kunze learns with us while she talks about how to shoot high contrast with natural light, shaping the body around the hourglass figure, and how how to dress up apple boxes to make them hidden and comfortable for your client to pose on.

Items Used:

• Apple box
• Black Velvet Backdrop

Shoot – Posing with Flowers

Description: Sue places a couple of large white flowers in Meghan’s hair to create high contrast and iconic look, and walks us through how to create simple hairstyles throughout the shoot so you can keep the flow going and your client’s energy up. Sue teaches us why she always poses the from the backline and not the belly to Felix’s surprise

Shoot – Posing with Black Fabric and Black Bow (

Description: With one simple black piece of silk, Sue shows us how she creates multiple images and poses by wrapping it differently around Meghan. We learn how to pose with a strapless dress, how to create a huge Dior style bow for $6, and the various poses you can create with one piece of fabric. Finally, learn what Felix and Sue think of “hacks” – you’ll be surprised!

Items Used:

• Black satin fabric
• Wire mesh

Up next: Film Noir