At 07:58 1/17/02, Brian Swale asked:
Would you care to tell a bit more about these two flash techniques, or tell
where they can be read about?
Brian
I'll do my best and then provide a couple of sources. What I've learned
about it wasn't from a classroom, but others answering questions and
guessing at it from context. First some common terms used:
Key or Main light: the primary source of light.
Fill: secondary, lower powered light source(s).
Hair light: small light above the subject(s), usually with a "snoot" to
make it a small spot that illuminates just the top of the head.
Low key: dark in color and/or lack of light
High key: light in color and/or abundance of light
Kicker or background light: small light behind the subject(s), usually on
the floor and aimed upward at the background to illuminate it; often needed
for high key background to rid any shadows
Specular: a small point source.
Broad side: the side of the face you see most of (assumes subject isn't
directly facing you)
Short side: the side of the face you see least of (assumes subject isn't
directly facing you)
Broad lighting: key light illuminates the broad side
Short lighting: key light illuminates the short side
There are additional terms, but these should be enough for here.
General Studio Design:
If walls, floor and ceiling are flat black, there's less bounce and deeper
shadows. If walls, floor and ceiling are a light neutral color (e.g. light
gray or white) there will be bounce and shadows will be filled by it. How
much depends on how light and how far away the walls and ceiling are. The
farther away a light source is, even with a light box or umbrella, the more
specular the light becomes. This makes shadows sharper. Closer has the
opposite effect. Umbrellas can also be adjusted; closer to the strobe head
makes for more specular light and farther uses more of the umbrella to make
it less specular. If you have access to a studio some time, turn just one
on and play with its modeling light using some 3-d object. Adjust its
distance from the subject and if it has an umbrella adjust how far it is
from the strobe head.
Rembrandt lighting:
Key light is oriented about 45 degrees from subject front (for living
creatures it's the face) and at about 45 degrees above the
subject. Whether fill is needed/desired depends on the studio and the
photographer's vision. Light is adjusted from this starting position to
connect the shadow of the nose with the corner of the mouth under the
cheekbone on the opposite side leaving only a triangle of light on the
cheekbone. This barely illuminates the opposite eye (mostly around the
bottom eyelid). Sometimes called "triangle" lighting. The only lighting
more dramatic is "split" which is directly from the side at approximately
eye level (adjusted slightly to move the light that barely spills across
the nose bridge to a pleasing location).
Loop lighting:
Key light is oriented to the front at about 30 degrees in both horizontal
and vertical planes. Need for fill is same as with Rembrandt. Light is
adjusted from this starting position to make a small "loop" shadow of the
nose on the opposite side. It illuminates more of the face and the
opposite eye. Loop with good fill on the opposite side is considered nearly
"failsafe" lighting.
You can read more about Rembrandt, loop, and two more, split and butterfly
(a.k.a. Paramount) here:
http://www.ncc.commnet.edu/tv/LawOfLight.htm [scroll down to section 4]
http://www.garageglamour.com/tips/lightf.shtml [download PDF's for light
locationtdiagrams]
Lighting decisions for the amaryllis:
I found shooting flowers outdoors that a low key background works better to
isolate the blossom. Flowers tend to be high key and unless there is
strong, harmonious color contrast high key or medium background it doesn't
work. In natural surroundings a compatible green from distant (very out of
focus) leaves or grass sometimes works, but rarely can this be duplicated
in a simple studio. In this case, his studio has light, neutral colored
walls with much bounce. Fill for the lighting I was going to use isn't
generally needed. Decided to use a pure black backdrop for as low key as
possible; simplicity of subject and complete isolation. Set up a small,
short stool and extended the backdrop out across the floor to cover
it. Moved the stool as far away from the wall as possible to enhance light
falloff and keep it from being illuminated by the light. To avoid any
sharpness to shadowing I moved the light in fairly close to the flower,
about 5 feet from it with a 3 foot umbrella fully extended. Closeness
doesn't affect texture as much as softening and eliminating "cast"
shadows. It effectively eliminated shadows from the stamens. Originally
started with "loop" lighting at about 30 degrees to the left and 30 degrees
elevated, but the petal texture contrast was still slightly soft. Moved it
to a 45 degree Rembrandt and noted texture improvement. Also realized this
would reduce the amount of light reaching the backdrop (bounce or direct)
and reduced the risk of a flower shadow falling within view.
Cross Lighting:
This is what I call it for lack of knowldge about a formal name for
it. It's my friend's normal setup and he uses three lights. The first two
are both usually at the same intensity and form the key lighting. They are
placed on the left and right sides of his backdrop about 4 feet in front if
it, elevated to ceiling height, and are aimed directly at the base of the
opposite wall. If they were lasers you would see an "X" about 4 feet in
front of the backdrop. His subjects (people) are placed just behind them
so that plenty of light spills across the front without casting any shadows
on the backdrop. From talking to him, this provides some hair lighting
(albeit in a nontraditional way) and illuminates the backdrop eliminating
the need for a kicker. The third light runs much lower power as fill and
is located right next to where he normally stands when shooting. It
elevated to ceiling height and aimed slightly downward toward the center of
the backdrop. This lighting style fully illuminates the backdrop and
provides a lot of modest facial highlights (forehead, cheeks, nose, chin,
etc.). Also allows turning people's faces without much lighting
adjustment. Zuga.net has a pretty good description of a similar style
demonstrated there for photographing "people of color" . . .
http://www.zuga.net/freelessons/people_of_color.shtml
Also allows him to do "profile" lighting by moving the subjects forward and
turning the key lights without changing their locations (this style
requires thinking about flare prevention):
http://www.albumsinc.com/dg/doug6.htm
-- John
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|