Photography News issue 26

Photography News Issue 26 absolutephoto.com

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Technique

Perfect white background For a perfectly white background, as found in many modern portraits, you ideally need two lights fitted with large softboxes, angled across the backdrop and at an even power, so that the light is even. Of course, if you only have two lights, that leaves you with nothing to light the subject. But it’s also possible to get a perfectly white background and well-lit subject with just two: just use one of the softboxes as the background itself. What you need to do is position the light behind the subject at the same height as their head will be and point it back towards the camera, then control the power so it’s not too dominant. Of course, you need a fairly large softbox, and the subject needs room tomove around; we used an 85cm octa softbox and the edges did creep into some shots, but when the light is on and the background is white they’re easy to paint out in Photoshop. The closer to the softbox the subject stands, the easier to fit them in. In our shot, Harri stood around 2ft from the softbox behind her. With the background light in position, set your other softbox to the front of the subject, a little higher than eye level, anduse a reflector to fill shadows on the opposite side. The light behind should be around a stop more powerful than that from the front. It’s easiest to meter the light on the subject’s face, thendial in a stopmore power on the backlight. With the light on Harri set to ¼ power, we metered at f/11 at ISO 200, so set the rear light to ½ power. Take a test shot and watch that the light from behind isn’t overexposing any part of the subject. If it is, turn it down or increase the distance between the light and the subject.

Just right

No backlight

Too bright

Above A white background needs lighting to stay white, otherwise it will come out grey. For a large subject you’ll need two lights on the background to get it looking white. For a head-and-shoulders shot try turning one softbox around, placing it directly behind the subject facing the camera to give a white backdrop. Care must be taken not to set the power too high or it will flare and overexpose the edges of the subject. Just make sure it’s around a stop brigher than the light on the subject.

With hairlight

No hairlight

Hair lighting The purpose of a softbox is to diffuse light, reducing and softening shadows, but diffusion spreads the light across a wide area, so it’s less controllable. True, a softbox’s opaque sides and reflective inner make it more easy to direct than other softeningmodifiers, like shoot-through and bounce umbrellas or globes, but if you’re working on a shot that requires areas of shadow, it can be tricky. That’s where grids or honeycombs come in, allowing you to get soft, controllable light in just the spot you need it. In this third setup, we wanted to use the second light to accent the shadowed side of Harri, creating separation from the background. The light’s spill had to be controlled to keep it off the background. A spill-kill reflector and honeycomb grid could do this, but the light can be very hard; a softbox gives a broader, softer look. For this setup, we positioned the key light to Harri’s front and had her turn towards it. A reflector was also Above Although softboxes create diffused lighting, you can still use one as a hairlight, creating a broader and softer look that when using a spill-kill reflector in the same position. A grid helps channel the light.

Nextmonth More creative lighting set-ups to enjoy. Thanks to This month’s Lighting Academy model was the brilliant Harriadnie Beau (harriadniebeau.com). used in the fill-light position, to keep the lighting full and the shadows few, but you can do without the latter if you want the lighting to have a more ‘split’ look, with shadows between the lit elements. At ¼ power the key light, around 3ft from Harri, gave us a meter reading of f/13 at ISO 200. The second light’s octa softbox was fitted with a grid and positioned at the opposite side to the key light, but asimilardistanceaway. It could thusbemetered separately, and because of the grid it won’t be picked up by the reflector. Powerwas set at the same level as the key light, making it slightly brighter, This caught the texture and lightness of Harri’s blonde hair very nicely.

Above Adding a second light to the rear of the subject adds definition and helps to separate them from the background, especially if it’s dark, like the black cloth used here. Using a grid on the softbox means that output is more directional with much less spread so you get a pool of light.

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