I was just thinking the other day about a standard setup for head and shoulders type of school portrait, when photographers do LOTS of people. I was curious to know what kind of lighting setup do they use for that? I know there can be millions of answers with different combinations of light setups that vary from how many lights you have. A friend of mine wanted me to help with a project they are taking on so thats why I started thinking about it. They are mainly doing it, but if I learn some useful things I could always pass it on.
Here is what the yearbook photography company that I worked for used (I can't use their name):
Softbox, slightly above head (sitting) level, camera right and 45 deg. off the subjects eye-line. Reflector camera left, (silver) right next to the subject...literally right next to. Hair light directly above the backdrop, about 5 feet behind the subject. They chose to gel the background with a light that sat off to the side of the background...I think this is not the best way to do it and attribute it to them not wanting to spend more money. I would just throw a strobe on a background stand (short) and directly behind the model, put a shovel modifier on it like the ones that alien bees makes.
Thats what that company did. But like you said, there are tons of ways to do it.
For the last couple of years I have used 2 AB800's, one about 45 degrees to camera right or left and one directly above camera for fill. I have never had the luxury of having enough room to have the backdrop more than about 1-2 feet away from the subject, and have never used a background light. Now I have 2 more lights (WL X1600's) so on the schools where I have more room I will add the background light. I am also thinking of trying butterfly lighting, but am not sure about that yet. I find that while the first setup produces technically better portraits, a lot of parents seem to like the butterfly lighting better.
I have only shot preschools, but this year I have added 3 elementary schools and one middle school to the mix.
Tim got any shots of your setup, two lights is probably the same thing my friend will be using. Do you just use umbrellas or softboxes or both? I think they only have umbrellas.
No, I don't have any shots of the setup, sorry. In the past I had used a brolly box for the main and a bounce umbrella for fill. My borlly box has now broken so I will probably use either a 60" shoot through umbrella or giant octabox for the main and an umbrella for the fill. If I try butterfly lighting I will use either the 60" shoot through umbrella or octabox.
Most school shots are taken full-face. While that is seldom the most flattering angle for most it makes the lighting predictable because the eye sockets, which need light in them, and the nose, which casts a distracting shadow, are in the same orientation to the key light for everyone.
The most important relationship in lighting is the position of the key light relative to the bridge of the nose, which dictates the lighting pattern.
A full face pose is symmetrical and is best complemented with a similarly symmetrical lighting pattern where the key light is raised above the camera (in line with the nose) to cast a downward, symmetrical shadow pattern. It has been given the name "Butterfly"for the shape of the shadow created under the nose by the nostrils. A single light diffuse can suffice for this and is the typical set-up for Mall operations at Christmas which take photos of kids with Santa. It's also a configuration commonly used for fashion and glamor, typically with a second light near or slightly below the eye-line of the subject for fill to precisely control shadow tone.
A face turned full to the camera can also be flattered when the key light is placed about 45 degrees to the right or left of the centerline of the nose and higher than the eye line. The goal in this "short" lighting configuration is to get light in the eyes, hide the nose shadow down along the side of the nose (modeling it naturally) and highlight only the FRONT of the face to make it contrast well with a darker background. This configuration requires a second fill source from near the camera to lighten all the shadows the camera sees.
Highlighting just the front "short" side of the face makes a wide face appear slimmer and is thus usually more flattering for most people. But the pitfall in a rapid-fire production line situation is the need for precise alignment of the nose to the key light to keep it in BOTH eyes and avoid a dark distracting nose shadow hanging out sideways. The position of the nose shadow is controlled by two variables: angle of nose to the light and height of the light relative to the bridge of the nose. Ideally the key light would be placed to the right or left depending on which were more flattering with its height adjusted to match the height of each subject for the most flattering pattern and nose shadow position. But that's not practical in a production line situation.
The most flattering combination of pose and lighting for most faces is the oblique angle with short lighting. As with the full face pose the relationship of nose to key light remains the same, about 45 degree s from the nose and higher than the eye line. Since the nose is turned about 45 degrees to the camera the key light must move with it to maintain the same flattering pattern, and winds up about 90 degrees to the camera axis, behind the subject (relative to the camera). The camera sees the shadow side of the face. Again the darkness of the shadows is controlled by placing a second light over or near the camera lens. the only place it can illuminate ALL the shadows on the face the camera sees. Fill to the side will create shadowless voids in low spots such as smile lines and the base of the nose if the cheekbones or hair shade it from other parts of the face.
The oblique / short combination combines to make the face look slim and symmetrical, the two variables which add up to flattering appearance. The face can be oriented right or left to the camera to hide any natural asymmetry in the face. Finding the "best" side is simply a matter of looking at the face profile-to-profile before shooting and determining which looks most flattering. Once the orientation to the camera is known the light can be placed on the right or left. This of course is too time consuming for any production line situation with studio lights, but is the approach leading to the most flattering results for most average faces, which tend to be wider and less symmetrical than those of professional models.
All things considered, the butterfly option is the simplest and yields the most predictable and consistent results when there isn't sufficient time to analyze the face and select the most flattering combination of facial angle and lighting. With Butterfly - key light above the camera - the angle of the subject's face to the light or camera isn't critical making it easier and faster to pose. Not needing to worry about alignment of face to key light allows more attention to be given to coaxing a pleasant expression from the subjects. Butterfly is also an effective choice for groups for the same reason: it is even across the entire group, all faces are in the light, and distracting ill-placed shadows are avoided.
when I was doing preschool photography few years back.. I was using one light system.. 3 feet to the right of the camera. 6' high. about 45 degree down.. or the light pointed at their nose area. I used a softbox. cant remember the size. the light was about 7 feet away from the subject. 3 to 4 feet from the background to the subject. Normally angle their face toward the light so you can a nice clean bright shoots. sometime i miss those days.. such easy money.. but so much work.
Glad to see people who are using good setups for school portraits.
I remember the guys that used to come to my elementary/middle/high school for portraits.
They'd throw an umbrella here, and an umbrella there, badda bing, badda boom. Crappy setup and crappy portraits. Too bad I wasn't into photography when I was a kid in school. I could've laughed at their utter lack of skill.
How does this sound if you only have two strobes....
One up front 45 degrees of to the right or left. then a reflector for fill on the opposite side and then the 2nd strobe back right 45 degrees off with umbrella for hair light?
dmldl123 wrote:
How does this sound if you only have two strobes....
One up front 45 degrees of to the right or left. then a reflector for fill on the opposite side and then the 2nd strobe back right 45 degrees off with umbrella for hair light?
I am not a lighting expert and until recently have never tried a hair light. But, what I have noticed when playing around with my lights is that an umbrella will probably spill over way too much lighting and end up on much more than just the hair. I think a grid or barn doors would work better for a hair light. Just my thoughts.
dmldl123 wrote:
How does this sound if you only have two strobes....
One up front 45 degrees of to the right or left. then a reflector for fill on the opposite side and then the 2nd strobe back right 45 degrees off with umbrella for hair light?
Reflectors placed to the side of a face will produce shaded fill: cheek on shadow side will block fill preventing it from reaching lower areas on front of face resulting in dark unfilled smile lines, mouth, and dark distracting shadow around the base of the nose which are less flattering than even frontal fill provided by a fill light placed over the camera. Just try it both ways and compare..
Very flattering light can be produced with a basic overlapping key / neutral fill configuration: place key about 45 from the center line of the nose to get light in both eyes and define the front "mask" of the face with highlight to contrast it strongly with everything else, then place fill directly over the camera where it will reach all the low crevices on the front of the face and fall off naturally front to back which also helps the highlighted front of the face contrast more and keeps distracting features like ears in the shadows. There is no compelling need for hair light unless there is no visual separation between a very dark background and dark hair. To be effective a hair light must be precisely aimed, which isn't practical in your situation. The simpler solution for subject / background is to choose a medium tone background.
As previously mentioned butterfly pattern with key high and centered over camera axis and fill just below it is a more practical scenario for production-line portraits. When the key light is placed to the side alignment of the nose to the light both horizontally and vertically is critical to produce a flattering lighting pattern on the face. That requires changing the height of the key light to the height of each face for best results: not very practical in that situation. Butterfly is much more forgiving with regard to precise alignment and vertical orientation of the face to the key light. Keeping the lighting simple means more attention can be given to pose and coaxing a pleasing expression out of the subjects.
I shot for Lifetouch for about 10 years, ending about 10 years ago. For K-11 they used a 3-light setup with main & fill into umbrellas. The back light used a typical reflector and they'd rigged a little bounce from the back light to a silver reflector over the kid's head as a hair light.
For seniors (12 grade) I used an 800ws 4-light setup. I used a 3:1 ratio and short-lit 90%. Main was a Westcott Halo (although I'd also use a Chimera soft box from time to time); fill was a 60" umbrella; hair was a little Chimera soft box and the back light was a typical reflector. I used Photogenics, a real workhorse, but the brand is not the primary concern as long as it's reliable and you ALWAYS have spare flash tubes, model lamps etc.
I had white, grey & black backgrounds and used Bogen gels to vary the background color, depending on the look I was after. I also used silver, gold, & blue "space blankets" and used them with gold & blue gels when shooting close-ups which were very popular for wallet-size prints.
If you place the fill directly over the camera with a boom, you can move the main from shot to shot to preserve the angle of the flash relative to the face and get a lot more variety in your posing.
