A friend and I spent a few hours in the studio recently so I could try out a couple of lighting setups. Usually I rent this studio by the hour, but since he owns it he didn't charge me because I was photographing him.
Shot using a Canon 5D MKIII with a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II lens.
First setup: two lights (flash) and a white V-flat reflector. The main light is in a 65 inch parabolic white umbrella with a diffuser, positioned camera-right, aimed directly at the white V-flat reflector which is positioned to camera left directly opposite the main flash. The model was positioned a step back from where the light was aimed. The point of this is to make it so that none of the light from the main light source is falling directly on the subject, instead only using the indirect falloff light in order to achieve softer lighting, while using the V-flat reflector to bounce some of that light back towards the opposite side of the model for some fill light. The second light was used as a subtle hair light, in a 4ft gridded strip box. Since the model has a buzzed had, it had to be particularly subtle to keep the sort of moody look I wanted from this lighting setup.
Second setup: one flash and a white V-flat reflector. The flash is in a large octabox (any medium to large softbox modifier should work though) positioned behind the backdrop, but higher than the backdrop crossbar (you want to avoid letting the light modifier hang over the backdrop at all, otherwise it will cause every wrinkle and crease in the backdrop to show). The white V-flat reflector is positioned to camera left, reflecting very soft light back onto the subject.
And a couple that we did outdoors using natural light and a silver reflector, just because:
Good stuff here, Dan. I found that 4th from the last shot (close shot in colour) interesting and puzzling in how the lighting in the eyes was divided left to right. Almost vertical lighting line on the eyes and not on the rest of the face.
Jim Rickards wrote:
Good stuff here, Dan. I found that 4th from the last shot (close shot in colour) interesting and puzzling in how the lighting in the eyes was divided left to right. Almost vertical lighting line on the eyes and not on the rest of the face.
Thank you. I'm certainly not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes though. I did my best to accurately describe the lighting setup, but admittedly I am a much better visual communicator than a written one.
