Striplight

I built a striplight using one of the many DIY guides on the internet, and wanted to try it out. It's best used when you want to light a cylindrical shape/object. The light comes out evenly from a long, thin softbox. Had I used an umbrella (round light source) in this same way, the "raking" of the light would not have been the same.

Here are the setup shots:



Settings:
2 Vivitar 285hv
main flash at 1/4 power,
at telephoto zoom,
through a striplight (20x90cm),
Striplight was at 2.5 meters height,
directly overhead subject.
background flash was at 1/16 power,,
wide tele zoom setting with fresnel diffuser,
light stand was at 1 meters height,
directly behind subject,
aimed up at background.

The goal for this kind of setup, was to create rake lighting on a body. Rake lighting is where the light comes from an extreme, near-perpendicular angle to the details, so that they are revealed by light and shadow. This is one reason that on camera flash is so ineffective. It lights the details from a parallel angle, hiding shadows.

This goes back to my lighting video. The lightsource affects the object based on it's size and distance. You have to imagine a sphere, it's center on the subject, and it's radius the distance between the subject center, and the surface of the light. The size the light takes up on the surface of that sphere will dictate the light's look.

On this shot, I wanted to reveal muscles. With a less harsh light, I wouldn't look nearly this defined. An umbrella would have put a lot more light coming from further forward, filling in the shadows, and ruining the rake affect. This lighting setup would also be very affective for a reclining pose, since the light would run along the length of the body. It's best to think of striplights as better for lighting cylindrical shapes, when you want to reveal volume evenly.

This example image should show the difference in how a round light source behaves compared to a long thin light source.



And one more from the shoot:

Forest portraits

I'd been wanting to try something in the small copse of trees in Reykjavik for a while, but hadn´t had a chance till last night. I consider the shoot an educational failure. I had a more specific look I was going for, but I didn´t mess around enough to get it. I did learn something, so it was educational.

Settings:
2 Vivitar 285hv
main flash at 1/16 power,
at normal telephoto zoom,
through tiny softbox,
light stand was at 1.8 meters height,
light was 1 meters to left and slighting forward from the camera,
aimed directly at subject head,
rim flash was at 1/8 power,
through 1/4 Windows Green gel,
normal telephoto zoom,
into silver umbrella,
light stand was at 1.2 meters height,
light was 3 meters to the right, even with subject.

The main problem with the shoot, is that the subject is too well lit. I should have pushed the umbrella back further behind the subject, so that it only contributed rim light, and I should have snooted the main light, so as to only hit the face. I do like the spill of the rim light/umbrella on the ground greenery, and my attempt to use cool colored gels worked well. In that I'm happy.

I like how the tree helped give more foreground for the subject to sit in, but I'd have preferred to find a spot with even more layers. Right now there is just the subject space, then the background. One closer tree, and perhaps a further layer before background would have worked well. A third flash set to spray the trees in the background would probably have worked for that.



I used the slow shutter speed to let the background burn in, but with this longer lens, I have the problem of a kind of "cut out" affect, where the subject doesn't look like he belongs in the scene 100%. A tripod, or starting earlier when there was more ambient, would have fixed this.

My favorite from the night doesn't even show the surroundings.



I like how the only part of the main light you can see is on his face, and a bit on his hands. In this case it's because his black hoodie just doesn't pick up much light, but I could easily emulate that with a snoot in the future, to restrict the main to just the face. Then the green rim light reveals the back portion so he doesn't go to shadow. I've always enjoyed profile shots.

Gróto again

Settings:
1 Vivitar 285hv
flash at 1/2 power,
through 1/4 CTOrange gel,
at normal telephoto zoom,
into silver umbrella,
light stand was at 2 meters height,
light was .5 meters to left and even with camera,
aimed directly at subject.

Whenever the sunset is looking nice, I am always tempted to run down with any available subject and do some portraits. This past Saturday I gave in to the temptation and raced down. It was quite windy, so I was limited in where I could place the umbrella. I had my left arm straight out, holding the light stand. I gelled the flash slightly, so that in post, I could adjust the WB to be a bit bluer, but still retain a warm look to the subject. I started at my max sync speed of 1/250, got my flash settings right for the subject (I started at 1/4, but had to bump up to 1/2), then I lowered the shutter till the background was the brightness I wanted.

I sat Agust in such a position to put him in line with the leading lines of the telephone poles. This would compositionally balance the image and give something else to look at in the background, at a place of power. Unfortunately it left grass in the scene. Originally it was very bright, yellow, and distracting. I just used Lightroom 2's new adjustment brush to quickly darken, green-ify, and reduce contrast, so that it could be there as another layer of foreground, but not be as distracting. I also added green to the sky, pinked up the sun poking through, and made a mask for Agust's face. I used that mask to de-saturate a little, bump exposure, contrast, clarity, and sharpness. I do that often now on faces to make sure they are the most clear and attention drawing element of the scene.

Overhead light part 2

I wanted to try the same light setup, but with a softer overhead light. I don't like the affect as much, but it's soft, while being directional, so I'll keep it in mind for future shoots where it might be more appropriate.

Setup shot:


Settings:
2 Vivitar 285hv + morris slave flash
Overhead light at full power with morris slave velcroed to top,
at wide telephoto setting,
into silver umbrella with white diffuser,
light stand was at 2 meters height,
light was .3 meters in front of subject and directly above,
aimed directly down at face,
underlight at 1/128 power (hacked vivitar),
through 1/4 CTBlue gel,
at telephoto zoom setting,
light stand was at minimum height of .5 meters,
dead center of frame, aimed up at face.

The dead overhead direction gives it a definite harsh feel, even though the light is extremely soft. I changed to a blue gel, and one of less saturation, because I felt the coolness of the blue would match the softness of the main light better, and I want to start using less saturated gels for more subtle affect.

One more, with a less serious expression:

Overhead light

In 3D (my original artistic passion) lots of lighting is done in this style. Overhead light of perfectly neutral color, and strongly colored underlight to define volume and show areas in shadow without overcoming the contrast of the main light. I wanted to try it with a real person.

Setup shot:


Settings:
2 Vivitar 285hv
Overhead light at 1/4 power,
at normal telephoto setting,
into tiny softbox,
light stand was at 2 meters height,
light was .5 meters in front of subject and just barely out of frame left,
aimed directly down at face,
underlight at 1/64 power (hacked vivitar),
through sunset red and 1/4 CTOrange gel,
at telephoto zoom setting,
light stand was at minimum height of .5 meters,
dead center of frame, aimed up at face.

I took one with just the overhead light to make sure I was getting it the way I wanted. I could have put the light on my boom arm to get it perfectly overhead, but I liked the way the slight asymmetry fell on the face, mainly because it illuminated one ear while leaving the other in shadow, and it revealed a bit of cheekbone. I also used a shutter speed of 1/200 and aperture of f/11 to kill the ambient, giving me black shadows. The softbox widened the light a bit, so that it wasn't as harsh as a barebulb.

I asked Agust to lean forward and to "glower" at me, in order to have his head pose and facial features match the theme of this lighting. It's a dark, contrasty, and fairly unflattering lighting setup, so it's only useful for graphical applications, not really as a portrait.



Then I turned off the overhead light, and started messing with the underlight. I wanted it to be dark, but visible. I left my camera settings alone. This gave me a chance to see if the light was the color I wanted (I guessed right with my gels), and to ensure it was the right ratio (by leaving my camera settings alone, I know how bright the main light will be. I just need to adjust this light to fit). I started at my lowest setting (below 1/1024, unsure of the exact amount) and saw it was way too dim. I upped the flash power 2 stops, still too dark, 2 more stops, good to go. I kept this light perfectly centered. First because it was easy, since it was below. No stand to get in the way. And second because I wanted the nose shadow to be aligned, so as not to block the eyes at all.



Once I had the underlight and main light ratio set, I turned the main light back on, and started trying to get my final shots. it was just a matter of evoking the right expression from the subject, and making sure I liked the image on the LCD after. The setup and ratio figuring took about 5-10 minutes, getting the final shots took less than 2. One thing that helped, is that after I got one or two good ones, I showed it to Agust. This gives him an idea of the look I'm going for, and he can adjust mentally to emote appropriately.

Headshot

The last type of shot I did on this particular shoot was the headshot. I like doing horizontal headshots and including a bit of environment.

Settings:
1 Vivitar 285hv + moris slave flash velcroed to top
Both flashes full power (GN of 144, bare 285hv is GN of 120),
at normal telephoto setting,
into silver bounce umbrella,
with white nylon diffuser on front,
light stand was at 2 meters height,
light was .5 meters in front of subject and .5 meters to the right of the subject,
aimed directly at face.

I wanted an extremely soft light, which is the most flattering light. The dark environment would give me rich shadows with a bit of blue cast. Because the main light was so bright, in order to allow in background light, I had to slow the shutter to 1/13 of a second. This worked great to show his hair in motion from the wind, and I think adds a lot to the portrait. It feels like it's on the coast, with the lighthouse, ocean breeze running through the hair. I also didn't use a gel at all, to keep the light very neutral. I wanted the focus to be on his face and features, rather than the color. If I would have gelled at all, I would have used a 1/8 cut CTblue to match the environment. I was lucky in that the glasses didn't pick up any of the flash at this angle.

This shot was a happy, on-location accident, that I will repeat to fuller affect in the future. I love the trail from the hair, and the feeling it gives. The flash's intensity freezes the subject completely, eliminating the need for a tripod or steady hands.

To expound on this further. The sensor is taking in light the entire time the shutter is open. Normally this means you have to keep a fast enough shutter to prevent hand, or subject movement, around 1/60 or faster depending on subject movement speed, lens mm, etc. When using a flash though, the flash is only "on" for a fraction of a second. My vivitar's are around 1/4000 of a second or so, depending on the power (the higher the power, the shorter the duration, as you power down, they get faster). This means that any object that the flash is illuminating, will only have light coming from it for that fraction. It essentially makes the shutter speed of that object, the speed of the flash, freezing it in time.

This is why his hair is blurry (it was moving the entire 1/13 of a second, blacking out the brighter sky wherever it blew), and the face is crisp and sharp (it was only illuminated when the flash was on)

Crosslight

Settings:
2 Vivitar 285hv
rim light at 1/4 power,
at telephoto zoom setting,
through 1/2 CTBlue gels,
1 main light at 1/2 power,
at normal zoom setting,
through 1/4 CTOrange gel,
into silver bounce umbrella,
rim light stand was at 1.5 meters height,
light was behind subject and 3 meters to the left of the subject,
aimed a bit up to feather downward,
main light at 2 meters height,
2 meters to right of subject and in front,
aimed up a bit to feather the light.

After doing the standing portraits, we moved over to the boulders nearby to do some sitting portraits. I decided again to use the warm/cool combo of lighting, but wanted something soft for the front light. That's why I shot into the silver umbrella. The blue rim light made sense with the coolness of the background.

One cool thing, is that I was able to use 1/20 of a second exposure. This allowed the background to burn in (get bright enough), then the strobes froze and lit the subject. A nice side affect is the movement of his hair. It had time to darken the background as it blew in the wind. This gives it a very nice whispy feel. I want to try this again with a female subject with longer hair to really capitalize on it.

My biggest regret with these shoots, is using too strong of a gel. I think a 1/8 blue and 1/4 orange would have worked much more subtly. I want the lights to blend with the scene, not look out of place.

A few more from this set: