Can I improvise with indoor lighting

[Crtm]

Hi,

Don't know if this is the right forum so if not I apologise.

I have been given a project and my twist to that project is taking photographs of a model as if in the 1950/60s (Black and White): I have the model which I know and should make it a bit easier for my first time photographing someone other than family, she is not a professional, an indoor setting and some props etc, it's just the lighting that I am really worried about.

Now I could make life easy and not go this far but I want to try and learn and do something different for me. After all if you don't stretch yourself how do you learn.

I want to know if you can still take good quality indoor photographs with a retro feel without all the fancy lighting. I hope on the day there will be good natural light from a large window and lighting from table lamps and over head lights. Can any of you give me some constructive advice and if there is a way of perhaps utilising other lighting which I might not have thought about.

I look forward to your reply's.

Carol

 

[DemiLion]

If you have decent lighting from a big window (and no off camera flash of your own) then I'd go for the following:

Fill the frame with the model as much as possible so that you don't have to mix light sources.

Use a reflector to give yourself a second light source. They aren't expensive (about £50 for a standard one) and can make a big difference. In the worst case scenario (ie you're broke) experiment with a roll of Bacofoil!

Without knowing the room, I'd possibly look at leaving the overheads off and just having table lamps as fill, but it's really impossible to say without knowing the set up.

 

[Crtm]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for coming back to me regard my question I realise there are many different factors to take in to consideration. I do have a reflector which I had forgotten about so I will utilise that. The room is very big with several large windows its actually an old hunting lodge which has been turned into a private hotel, the ceilings are high and room is very airy. I have been offered a Canon Flash Light which has a swivel head that I could use but not sure how that would work. I will take your advice and keep my fingers crossed that I get one decent shot.

Cheers Carol

 

[Garry Edwards]

What's your camera like at very high ISO?

The reason I ask is that although window light will certainly be usable and can easily produce quite acceptable results, you need to be aware that back in the 50's/early 60's pretty much all studio lighting consisted of photoflood bulbs mounted in fairly shiny reflectors. They were hot, dangerous, very limited in what they could do and I'm glad that they're a thing of the past - but they produced exactly the look that you want to produce for this project.

So, my advice is to forget about window light (for this) and use anglepoise lamps or similar instead. The light output will be very low, so you'll need high ISO. The colour will be hopelessly wrong, but that won't matter with black and white.

And get your model to wear really dark lipstick, a lot of the portraits taken back then were on orthochromatic film, reds rendered as an unnaturally dark shade.

 

[DemiLion]

Good thinking Garry - I'm not old enough to remember that far back!!

 

[Crtm]

Hi Garry,

Thank you very much for that I will try my best and hope to show the results if ok.

Carol