Hello all. I have a question for the studio lighting gurus. Tonight I am playing around with various lighting setups and positions to see what works best for general portriature, apart from what I usually do which is the standard camera in the middle, main light on the right at 45, fill on the left at 45 about 1 stop under the main.
In my experimentation, this is one of my favorites from a lighting perspective. Yes I am using a doll that belongs to my daughter because it's 1 in the morning and everyone at my house is in bed. Besides, the doll never moves ;-)
Now, for this one I had the main light (Alien Bees B800 into a 32 inch white umbrella) to the right of the camera at about 30 degrees from the subject, distance around 5-6 feet. The fill (Vivitar 285HV into a 12 inch white umbrella) was at almost a 90 degree angle to the subject relative to the camera on the left side, and about 6 feet above the floor, with the umbrella pointing downward at the subject. Distance from the subject to the fill light was about 3 feet. The camera was about 2 feet off the ground (me crouching down at the doll's eye level.)
First of all, am I crazy that I like the results of this lighting arrangement? Please be honest -- I won't get my feelings hurt if you tell me I'm crazy.
Second, is this a "normal" fill position (so far above the subject) or are there consequences of using this positioning that I'm not thinking about? In this position it almost acts as both a fill and a hair light which is why I think I like it.
This is not an unusual way of lighting portraits, we used to call it the 'semi-clip'. You are starting to light the hair from this angle and give some depth to the face. It can be quite a useful trick with spec wearers (although you'd have to move the front light wider too). For more mood you can move the light further round the back and increase the power a bit to give more 'clip' effect.
dhphoto wrote:
This is not an unusual way of lighting portraits, we used to call it the 'semi-clip'. You are starting to light the hair from this angle and give some depth to the face. It can be quite a useful trick with spec wearers (although you'd have to move the front light wider too). For more mood you can move the light further round the back and increase the power a bit to give more 'clip' effect.
Great -- glad to see I'm not totally off base here. I'll experiment some more like you suggested. Thanks!
Todd: First of all, I'm not lighting guroo, heck I can't even spell gooru. Anyway, did you meter you lights with a flash meter? I'm not sure I see the 2:1 ratio. I like the clipping idea, but the fill light puts a catch light in one eye, but not the other. It seems to me you might want to either go for both eyes or neither. Also, what if you reversed the distances of your lights from your subject? That is, move the main light in and back off the fill. Again, I'm no guru, but I'd play around with it some more. Post more, please.
Todd, I'm just learning as well and what I'm beginning to realize is that there are a lot of different styles and techniques out there and there is no longer a 'norm'. Just browse the different photography websites and you'll get all kinds of great ideas, they just depend on what you are trying to achieve. Instead of worrying whether some setup is normal, just continue to experiment until you like what you see. Just this last weekend I shot about 400 test shots with my 10D in my makeshift basement studio and would change lights and ratios about every 10-15 shots. Most turned out pretty crappy but I found 3 setups that I really liked but they're probably not 'normal' or they would violate some guru's idea of the right way to shoot.
Experiment.....!
Lighting set up has no limits.
Working on the world of fashion and portraiture, I learned not to use another light sourcelight to act as a fill light. Just reflectors. The shades are so important to create mood, texture, 3d...
Your picture is okay. Good light on every model. The point is: do your client will request a more commercial approach or something diferent?
Anyway, did you meter you lights with a flash meter? I'm not sure I see the 2:1 ratio. I like the clipping idea, but the fill light puts a catch light in one eye, but not the other. It seems to me you might want to either go for both eyes or neither. Also, what if you reversed the distances of your lights from your subject? That is, move the main light in and back off the fill. Again, I'm no guru, but I'd play around with it some more. Post more, please.