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Archive 2015 · Lighting for large white background

  
 
gsxturbo11
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Lighting for large white background


Hello,

I'm going to be doing a very large group in the next few months and I want to make sure I have the right lighting.

The back wall will have 10' high by 20' long seamless paper and the floor will have 20' long by 20" deep of seamless white paper.

I have 2 white lightning 1800's I'll use for the front lighting and I'm wondering what I should use for the back lighting. I'd like to stay in the white lightning family so I was thinking maybe a couple 800's with barn doors? I've seen some large group white background pictures online where the photographer hasn't set the background lighting up right so you get very splotchy bright white in some areas and grayer areas in another.

Any feedback would be great! Thanks!



Feb 22, 2015 at 03:42 PM
316shooter
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Lighting for large white background


You're going to want a very wide spread of light, and if you want a nice, pure white you want the background lighting to meter 1 to 1.5 stops over the subject lighting. In my studio we have a huge white cyc wall and my favorite way to light it evenly is to fire the background lights into 4 x 8 v-flats. Once the lights are set, I meter the wall from side to side, and make sure its lit evenly. The nice thing about the large flats is that it lights it evenly from head to toe, so works for full length photos. Of course this can be accomplished a number of ways, such as large umbrellas, or stacking umbrellas too. I do think you might have a hard time lighting a huge area with just a head with barndoor. The only head I know that does a really great job on its own is the dynalite 2040. Because it has a very wide, built in reflector. The v-flat method mentioned above is very inexpesive and works perfectly every time.


Feb 22, 2015 at 05:13 PM
Mark_L
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Lighting for large white background


Did I read right that the people are going to be 20" off the background?


Feb 22, 2015 at 05:28 PM
gsxturbo11
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Lighting for large white background


Hi Mark, no the floor is also going to be covered in the seamless paper as well a space of about 20x20'


Feb 22, 2015 at 05:32 PM
Mark_L
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Lighting for large white background


How much of the floor, ie. how far will people be off the background? This matters since you need to control the background lighting separately from the subjets so the more the better.

I second what 316shooter said about lighting that size of seamless. You want to diffuse it either bouncing into v-flats or stacked umbrellas flagged off by v-flats. Evening out seamless in post is a pain.

From here: http://www.rusticwhitephotography.com/blog/tag/cyc-wall/


How large is a large group too? For you main light you want to be make sure if it is multi-row the row in front don't cast shadows on to the row behind.







Feb 22, 2015 at 06:56 PM
gsxturbo11
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Lighting for large white background


At most there is going to be 20-25 people 3 rows, probably 6-8 feet away from the backdrop. Thanks for the picture but that's probably half the size of what I'm gonna be having I just don't know if I'll have room for the vflats


Feb 22, 2015 at 07:36 PM
Gregg Heckler
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Lighting for large white background


As Roy Scheider once said, you're going to need a bigger boat, and a lot of light.


Feb 22, 2015 at 08:55 PM





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