I would kindly like to pick your brains in regard to a high fashion shoot using only two lights.
Setting: approx. 5x5m studio space.
Available lightng - 2x 600w strobes (estimate)
Diffusers: 1x beauty dish, 2xmid size soft boxes.
I would like to create a background separation, which is proving a little difficult in my head.
Is there any way to create a background falloff gradation without grids?
All I can think of is flag feathering...
You can do it without grids but you will need some sort of way to prevent lateral spill from your back ground light. Beauty dish is your key light and you side light the background. Make sure your key light exposure is either over your background for darker gradient...or under key for lighter gradient.
Hopefully that makes sense. You could also just use one light and a reflector for the scene depending on what you are shooting.
It absolutely makes sense. I got two bulbs I am considering bringing with me for rim light.
The spill is a monster I presently fighting (limited and awkward space) and of course lack of gridded diffusers.
I will of course need to flag the bulbs if I choose to use them.
As for light ratio, would having fill a stop under key and bringing down the exposure do it?
The spill you can control with a flag and using the inverse square law...the closer the light the faster the falloff. So to control the key spill onto the background you can put your key as close to your subject that will allow even exposure and the subject as far from the wall as possible.
Same applies to the background light...the closer it is the faster the light will fall off creating the gradient. Depending on the tone that you want the gradient is how you know how many stops difference you want the key to be from the background.
Your fill light will have to come from a reflector (white preferably) if you only have two lights.
You could do 1 key light and one fill as well and still create a gradient, you just won't have as much gradient direction control.
Hopefully I didn't confuse you...its hard to write it without visual aid
It's a great help! You are not confusing at all. It takes a little extra to visualise but it's stimulating .
In my previous post I assumed the beauty dish to be the fill and any other as key.
Bulbs for rims, yet at 500w I fear they will spill a lot!!!
How about Dish as your key light, feather a rim light of the hair, spill to the background, but have the background at a 45 degree angle from the plane of the camera rather than being parallell, thus providing a nice gradient on the background. The angled background will not be detectable and appear parallell to the camera.
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