Hello all,
I amp trying to achieve some rembrandt lighting. I use a square 25" softbox as the key-light and on the opposite side, as a fill light I use a big rectangular softbox ( 35" x 47" ). I am not pleased with the results. It is as I can not make a good lighting ratio ? I use the big softbox because the images are of a full length standing person.
What do I do wrong? do I have to use a different kind off fill light ( an umbrella, beauty dish)? Our do i exchange the soft-boxes ( I mean, make the big one the key-light)?
Can you post an example? It's hard to figure out what is wrong from your description; we understand that you "are not pleased with the results", but that does not describe the problem at all.
Off-hand I would say that the tell-tale signature of Rembrandt Lighting is the shadow of the nose. Using two softboxes would in a lot of cases really reduce that shadow; and that will make the illumination of one side of the face less noticeable.
You are referring to the triangular shape of light under the eyes. Softboxes particulary when they are close to the face tend to give a wrap around light. A smaller keylight will proberly do the trick or if you have the space and power, put you keylight further away from your subject.
Rembrandt lighting puts the key (main) light very high so that the nose shadow falls at a more acute angle and merges with the cheekbone shadow. This will create an inverted triangle highlight on the far cheekbone.
It's more on the split side than Rembrandt but it gives you and idea. It would probably need to be higher than what I did, a tad less to the side and have the shadow of the nose dive down a bit more, and with the size of the softbox, putting the light a bit further away to have a less enveloping light. I also had some stray reflections form a light paint wall to the right. But this gives you an idea. It's easier with some faces than others of course, depending on the size of the nose, the prominence of the cheekbone etc...
What Rembrandt lighting seems to be about, more than a strict definition, is the use of high contrast, light and deep shadows, to emphasize and define character.
Get your main light set right first, with no other lights on. Then add fill lights or reflectors to
get the ratio that your looking for. I find it's easier with an umbrella that softboxes to get this
effect. IMO.
While the shot of the bride has a sort of triangle shaped high light, it is not Rembrandt lighting...the shot of the guy would be if the light was brought around a bit from the side towards the camera position, and it should be a little higher.
Yes, that's what I explained, but is is close enough for demonstration. Although, reading a bit more on Rembrandt lighting will show that it is less about a very precise placement of the shadow than a general look obtained by using high contrast and directional lighting.
Try this link. Read up on all the pages in sections E and F.
Specifically, this page, which shows light positions, as well as photos of how the key and fill work together, with and without diffusion.
Note the very distinct Rembrandt lighting using the key light only, and the softer Rembrandt lighting with key + fill. Notice that once the key and fill have been diffused (read: softbox/umbrella/etc) the Rembrandt effect is very subtle.
careful with that setup. it looks like the center soft box is left of camera position. if it too far left, you can end up with double shadows. generally a paraount is the only lighting pattern you want to move the fill away from the camera
And here's the result. Would you consider that a good Rembrandt lighting?
The funny thing is that, I did a shoot with a real model with the same set-up and settings, but the effect was totally gone ??
I us a elichrom 1500 micro as and two strobes. the overall setting was 5.7, the key was set at a value of 245 ( the small softbox) and the fill ( the large one) at a value of 47.
For those of you who own the same material, as up today I have no clue what these settings really stand for, since very early,I lost the manual, and until today the dealer did not manage to get me another one. If one can help me out here as well, I would be very grateful :-)
