As the light levels dropped, I was looking forward to creating my signature black and white portraits. High contrast portraits at night, which I’ve done for a while at Drink and Clicks. Instead of the typical scenes at bars, however, I had a temple building in the background. As you can see, all three portraits are at the same place and with only slight variations in framing and posing.

In many of my Drink and Click portraits, I use ambient light instead of traditional off camera lighting. At this temple however, the only light was in the building behind the models. I got my friends to illuminate the women using LED lights from smartphones. A rather crude but fairly effective option in a pinch.

I’m sure this technique is not taught in photo school or online tutorials. Likewise, these high contrast black and white portraits are not what most people expect either. However, that’s why I like them. It’s different than what you typically see.

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