Lindsay Adler was taking part in what she calls a creative “play day” (or test shoot) when she came up with the concept for this photo. Highly graphic and visually striking, it conjures Irving Penn’s or Lillian Bassman’s days with Vogue back in the 1950s, which altogether solidifies the timeless nature of Adler’s stark silhouette approach. “My style is always clean and graphic,” the fashion photographer says. “Recently I’ve been attracted to creating images that are a bit more vintage in their style, helping to make them more timeless.”

Adler set up three Profoto D1 studio strobes to start, two of which were pointed to the white background while the third was aimed with a 5-degree grid on the model’s face. Black V-flats were positioned on either side of the set to prevent the light from bouncing off and filling in the shadows. Astonishingly, “the headpiece is actually just a piece of cardboard,” Adler reveals, having asked a designer friend, Lory Sun, to make and bring a graphically structured ensemble to set, along with a circular piece of black foam core that would act as the hat—it was held by an assistant, who was eventually Photoshopped out. “Part of my experience has taught me to be thrifty, creative and to make inexpensive things really look expensive!”

(Shot with a Canon 5D Mark IV, 24-105mm f/4 lens, Profoto D1 Air 500 Watt kit and 5-degree grid, and a Profoto Air Remote.)

This is how Adler was able to break down the setup in a diagram (but also check out her own extended post on this shoot where she elaborates on the photo’s concept and how she managed the bold post-production).

Check out more Photos of the Day, and email rangefinder@emeraldexpo.com for submissions.