Making a custom Cucoloris to create dramatic portraits

Cucoloris portrait with a fresnel by Chicago Photorgapher John Gress

After being inspired by Sophie Palmer’s portrait depicting boredom with a Catholic priest inside the confession booth, below, I decided to try my hand at projecting divine patterns on model Alex Mitchell’s face by making a custom Cucoloris.

Headshots with Chicago Model Kenneth Hill

B&W Chicago model headshot Kenneth Hill Modelogic

Chicago Model Kenneth Kill is an amazing talent. He is one of the best posing models I have ever worked with and he can practically style himself on every shoot. I enjoyed working with him so much that I called him back twice!

I basically used every technique I commonly use in studio during the shoots so I’ll go over each set-up in this post.

Broncolor Siros 800 S v Profoto D1 500 AIR Review

Broncolor Siros 800S and Profoto D1 Flash

The first time I showed my old assistant my Profoto D1 Air 500 Monolights he remarked how sexy they were…. that’s all he kept saying… “these lights are so f&*king sexy!” I can only imagine his sophomoric reaction if he got his hands on the more attractive Broncolor Siros, which comes in multiple flavors from the battery powered 400ws and 800ws Siros L to the 400ws and 800ws Siros S.