Cover for Esquire Philippines, September 2016, featuring the one and only Basti Artadi.

There was just so much Great Gatsby energy all throughout the shoot—location, styling, Basti himself. It was just natural that the lighting and editing would run with that theme.

The location was a lighting fixture store, and this particular floor had a lot of chandeliers hanging. There were full body sized windows by the wall, lighting up majority of the room with overcast afternoon light. With the intention of complimenting the conditions, I had a strip box set to somewhat replicate the sun but give focus and more light towards Basti. I still wanted strong shadows and so the light was positioned a little to the right of Basti and facing more towards me. A white illustration board was set on the other side to just bounce off and lessen the shadows.

My old Rimelites had a shutter speed limit of 1/160, and so that had to stay fixed; any lower would risk me of camera shake in the background. I didn’t want to get too much detail from the chandeliers, so I opted to put my aperture down to a comfortable F4. This setup left me at a fairly bright shot, so I pushed everything down with ISO 80.

Last image: before and after editing via Lightroom. It’s important to know the limits of your raw images when you take them, so you know just how much you can push in post. Editing is almost just as important (but not as important) as taking the shot.

Photography by Artu Nepomuceno, assisted by Ignacio Gador
Produced by Clifford Olanday
Styled by Anton Miranda
Grooming by Joan Teotico
Hair by Mayve Cañamo
Story by Kara Ortiga

Read more here: https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/profiles/basti-artadi-interview-a1520-20160919