Actor extraordinaire and voice over legend James Arnold Taylor whom I mentioned in the article “How to Take a Portrait Without a Face” stars in this summer’s Star Wars feature, “Clone Wars” as the voice of Obi Wan. Yes, THE Obi Wan. Sweet, right? Well…

James wanted a cool photo that he could autograph at conventions and such for fans. So we cooked up a cool idea: Light him with just the glow of his light saber. We needed the image to have a clear connection to his Obi Wan character, but still be clear it was a portrait of James and not a photo of the Obi Wan character. Follow? Hence cool pose, cool light saber, and casual attire. Extra space on the top and the right to leave room for inscriptions.

I had to use a fairly slow shutter speed for the glow to be bright enough to illuminate his visage. Sure, we could have faked it, but what fun would that be? I gelled the strobe behind him to as close of a match as I could get and slapped a grid in there to keep the beam nice and tight to draw the eye. Then it was just giving him directing suggestions for the pose and next thing you know: all done. We shot a few other set ups, but this was my favorite.

The movie opens today. Should be a big hit. Go check it out. Tell the box office Nice Photo Mag sent you and they’ll say, “Huh?”

Nice!

Del.icio.us | Technorati | Stumble it! | Digg