A friend has two 750ws Bownes lights with stands for sale. I have a silver and white umbrella. He says I dont need a softbox, just get a diffuser like this
and stick it infront of the light.
Correct??
Also, is it possible to have a constantly white background with just two lights?
yes, you can do a white bkgnd w/ 2 lights (even 1) as long as you can manipulate
the lighting ratio between what falls on the background and subject. Make sure the
background is a significantly overexposed RELATIVE to the proper exposure of the subject.
andrew81 wrote:
A friend has two 750ws Bownes lights with stands for sale. I have a silver and white umbrella. He says I dont need a softbox, just get a diffuser like this
and stick it infront of the light.
Correct??
Also, is it possible to have a constantly white background with just two lights?
The main advantage of soft boxes, besides more even light, is the control of backscatter and spill which diminishes the directional control of the lighting and control of shadows. Umbrellas have a hotter spot in the center because they are flatter near the shaft than the edges and that is where the light is concentrated. The "hot" spot can be used creatively by feathering the light (i.e. aiming off center) to control the gradient of light intensity. The white umbrella will create more diffuse highlights than the silver. Silver is prone to causing hot spots on smooth surfaces like skin, but is ideal when specular reflections are desired, such as when photographing animals with fur or feathers. Silver will also have a different color temperature than white so its best to use two white or two silver versus a mix. They all do the same basic job of illumination, but with a different character to the light.
It's possible to get a white background with just one light: just place the subject against a white wall and flat light them both. But ideally at least two lights for key and fill are used to illuminate the foreground subject, and for anything wider than a head shot two additional lights are typically used to evenly illuminate the background. For full-length white backgrounds space between subject and background is needed so the illumination of the foreground and background can be controlled separately and so the background lights can fall off across the background more evenly. The further away the lights are the more gradual the rate of fall-off is.
That said it is possible to use one light and a reflector on the subject, and the second light on the background but control of ratio and shadows will be more challenging and you'll be required to "nuke" the center of the background to make the edges white due to fall-off of the background light. Overexposing the background will create contrast-robbing flare. A better strategy technically is to keep everything in the capture, with the exception of specular highlights like catchlights, below the point of clipping as explained HERE.
If your goal is to learn lighting technique I'd suggest starting by using the two lights on a med - dark background in a key / fill configuration because lighting on dark backgrounds requires only two lights to do well and is simpler and more intuitive than on white: the areas which are highlighted attract the attention of the viewer so you just put the light on what is most important. As mentioned, using a Med. SB on the key light would afford better control than an umbrella.
Click the WWW button for a link to some tutorials you may find helpful.
