| Photography Forum: Photography Help Forum: |
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Q. Advice on lighting a shot
Asked by Jon O'Brien
(K=11321) on 9/21/2007
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Hello - I came across this photo in a magazine and would like to re-create the lighting. I have done some fooling about with it, but am not really getting the same effect. Can anyone suggest what the lighting set up would have been for this shot?
Thanks,
Jon
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Harry Brown
(K=817) - Comment Date 9/21/2007
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Jon,
A dark (black) backdrop, no backlighting and a single large softbox slightly to the left of center.
I really don't know what they used in this photo, but the above should be close.
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Dave Holland
(K=13074) - Comment Date 9/29/2007
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Jon, this looks to me like Paramount lighting, with a reflector underneath and a little to the camera right to soften shadows. Large softbox up top, giving a tell-tale butterfly shadow under her nose. To soften the shadows underneath, most use a reflector or second light. I suspect the photographer photoshopped out the double catchlight from of her eyes to give the impression of a single light. To darken the background, it's probably a backdrop. But the real secret there is to work at light exposure well above ambient, and also to keep the light close to the model so that you take advantage of that inverse square law of light fall-off. Anything behind goes jet-black, so even if there is ambient lighting on the background you end up with a black, unobtrusive background. He's followed the rule of matching clothing with the background, so that the viewer's eye is drawn back to the face.
Dave
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Jon O'Brien
(K=11321) - Comment Date 10/15/2007
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This is what I got (a self portrait test session). A bit more burning-in than I wanted (I had hoped to do it as a straight shot) but I don't have a soft box so I was using a translucent shoot-thru umbrella. AND - my space is not that long, meaning that my background wasn't as far back as it should have been to make the light fall off most effectively. Other than that... not bad. Thanks, eh.
Jon
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Harry Brown
(K=817) - Comment Date 10/29/2007
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This looks good John. Play around with the lighting a bit and you won't need so much Photoshop work. Actually, I don't have a softbox. but use some wire frames to hold a big square of translucent nylon in front of my strobes. Workng in a tight space is difficult, but with a digital camers, I just play with the distances, the power settings and the placement till it looks ok.
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