I'm thinking of picking up a beginner bee set up with an AB400. and a reflector. I was wondering if anyone could share some one light set up advice with me .
Try keeping the light/catchlights between 10AM and 2PM in the eyes of the person your shooting. Also, often, it's nice to see the person head (especially women) turned towards the lightsource.
Finally, you can light using various techniques... umbrella, softbox, direct strobe with a grid.
Here's a little setup I did with 2 puppets (Nightmare before Xmas figures) my gf created for me. I shot them as a thankyou card for her. It was shot and then I drew in the background. The lighting used was one alienbee with a 20 degree grid to give a very sharp lighting (and yes, I know it's not perfect considering the moon is behind hehe). A white reflector was used to soften the darker side of the face of "Jack".
I'm a big fan of one-light setups - I think you can do terrific work with next to no gear and a little ingenuity.
I don't mean to put these out there as the aforementioned "terriffic work", but both these images were shot with one strobe and a softbox. The first was a 5' Photoflex Octabox and several black reflectors, the second was a Photoflex Medium LightDome. I probably have setup shots floating around as well.
M-E-P wrote:
Thanx, those are great. I'd like to see the set up shots if you can find them.
It's not a very good setup shot, but here you are:
On either side of the model is a black reflector (one's a Westcott black/black, one's a Photoflex black/silver) to soak up some light and enrichen the shadows, underneath her is a Photoflex white reflector. Light source is a 5' Octadome from about 4' away...I'm still playing with large, diffuse light sources and trying to get comfortable with them. What might be interesting is that I actually exposed the shot with only the modeling lights, I never fired the strobe - I wanted to get a very shallow DOF.
I don't have a setup shot for the other, but it's as simple as can be - a softbox just out of frame at about the model's head-height pointed so that it's centered between the model and the wall to feather the light onto both.
The setup shots are actually being lit by the same lighting as the edited photo and there's really no shadow evident there...with a source that large and close to the subject the shadows cast are really, really diffuse and the octabox is so much wider than the model that it kinda wraps light around and behind her, filling in shadows. It wouldn't show as a defined shadow as much as just a slightly darker area. If you look carefully you can see a background light on the floor behind the model, just a bare head wrapped in a piece of #216 diffusion and pointed straight up, but I didn't like what it was doing in some of the shots and turned it off. It's used in some other shots from the same setup.
Roger -
Sorry, I don't. But like I tried to describe above, it's just a 3x4' softbox set just out of frame, just about at the model's head height and spaced between her face and the wall so that the lighting isn't directly hitting either one...both are receiving more diffuse and feathered output. I was sorta taking the opportunity to play with using a single light to create both a model's key light and a background light to silhouette the model with.
> Ilegales : so nice to see that picture again, actually I had saved it when you posted in people forum and placed it in my inspiration folder along with maxllus ones I just love the way it's lit. it's Elinchrom right ?
Larry
The strobe i use are the Elinchrom 400bx and 600rx series.
sJust under 2 years ago i started the Show us your studio thread and wanted to get some bees - but after seeing the shipping and also import tax to the U.K. i decided not to go with them as i could for a little more get the Elinchroms from a freind who goes to N.Y.C quite regular..I wanted to buy something that will last in the future. THe colour is very very nice on the Elinchroms.
sorry for going on...
on that shot i used the 600rx on a beauty dish but i think i did not use that much power as the dish was quite close to the model - i could have used the 400bx...
Malike
Wow !! My pic in the same Inspiration folder as Maxllus !!
Funny hes also in my inspiratioin folder
Elinchrom 400 and 600rx are the strobes i use.. very nice indeed
I just love the way it's lit. it's Elinchrom right ? 