How was this shot lit? A new challenge

The catchlights in the model's right eye are not equal suggesting maybe a strip box and an angled soft box in front of the subject. I also feel that there is possibly a hair light above and to the models left (camera right), set back a little so not producing any reflected catchlight. Might be a reflector though?

Or probably not...
 
Finste said:
Ok, I'll have a go here. Judging by the catchlights, two strip softboxes from the front or one wide one with a black bar down the middle. Gridded hair light from top camera right. Only thing bothering me with this is that her right shoulder is darker than her left one althought this might be due to PP

Regards...
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I think is probably closest.

It's actually two large softboxes directly facing each other, about 3 feet apart, with the model 2-3 feet behind them in the shadow transition zone. Then either side of the model are a pair of large black panels. The hair light is from a standard reflector fitted with barn doors.

I think this setup - even without the black panels - produces a softer light with more rapid falloff than using two strip boxes would, but I haven't yet done a direct comparison. It is particularly sensitive to the position of the model though.

@Finste, care to post a challenge?

lighting-diagram-1449395053.jpg
 
juggler said:
@Finste, care to post a challenge?
Click to expand...

My best efforts with flash are straight up copies of other peoples photographs done purely for my own enjoyment. (That's not to say I haven't learned a lot from doing that. I have) Its just that there would be little to work out from them that couldn't be found out by using google for the videos showing how. And that's assuming they were not instantly recognizable.

Regards...
 
Finste said:
My best efforts with flash are straight up copies of other peoples photographs done purely for my own enjoyment. (That's not to say I haven't learned a lot from doing that. I have) Its just that there would be little to work out from them that couldn't be found out by using google for the videos showing how. And that's assuming they were not instantly recognizable.

Regards...
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That's one of the primary ways in which most people learn, and then they up their game by experimenting.
The whole point of this thread is that people study the photo and deconstruct the lighting arrangement, which helps the learning process, so it's absolutely fine to post a photo that has simple lighting origins.
 
Hi Simon. Are the black flags there to chanel the feathered light into the model or to stop light reflecting ? Sorry but a tad confused.

Gaz
 
Softboxes left and right in front of bottle (Left smaller or further away), black card flags near the bottle for the dark edge. Bottle on a perspex sheet, backdrop (With light aimed at it from below / above with grid spot) on the background, with the backdrop paper hanging below the perspex to ensure reflection ?
 
Denyerec said:
Softboxes left and right in front of bottle (Left smaller or further away), black card flags near the bottle for the dark edge. Bottle on a perspex sheet, backdrop (With light aimed at it from below / above with grid spot) on the background, with the backdrop paper hanging below the perspex to ensure reflection ?
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One aspect partially correct.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in this so I will explain it now. Strip softbox camera right angled toward camera and through a diffuser to create a graduated highlight. White reflector to camera left. Look at the top to see how lopsided this turned out. The bottle is sitting on a piece of metal that has been polished to a mirror like finish. Background is a strobe with a background scoop through a white diffuser. Angled to produce the reflected effect in the metal. Finally a snooted and gridded strobe to highlight the label.

Who is next to post an image?

Regards
 
You're right, there isn't much interest in this thread - just 371 posts in nearly 6 years - I started this thread to try to get people to think about lighting, because lighting is what photography is actually about, and as I see it, if people look at light and shadow they can very easily "deconstruct" any image (that hasn't been photoshopped to death" and dramatically improve their understanding of light - but so many of the threads, and so much of the interest, seem to be about whether people should by a junk flashgun for £39.99 or an identical one with a different name on it for £1 less, whether Neewer is better or worse than Godox (same thing) or whether a light stand on Ebay that costs £6.99 can be found for any less - because £6.99 is a lot of money to spend on a light stand that's supposed to support a £400 light safely. Lighting is about knowledge, creativity and experimentation, not gear.
 
Hi, my first post in this part of the forum so Hello all.

Let start by saying I am very new to artificial lighting although I have been taking photos for 50+ years, mostly on film and still mostly on film.

I have been reading the posts and following threads on this part of the forum for a few months now and it has been enormously helpful in getting me interested in the subject. I do not post because I am real green recruit to the subject but I have taken notice of the recommendations of books and online courses like Strobist: Lighting 101 plus the wisdom dispensed here and have and and are working through these things. It takes time, I suddenly got old after retirement and a couple of small strokes but this section has enabled me to play around the house with my camera and flash. I have now got a couple soft boxes and it is all starting to make some sense.

So I would like to say I appreciate the posters in the section and when I gain a little more confidence I will be asking questions, like what sort of studio lights do I need to get reasonable depth of field with my 5x4 gear?

In the mean time thank you for all your efforts there are likely many more readers here than there are posters so please do not be disheartened as one needs quite a bit of confidence to step in among the regular experts.........

Andrew
 
Finste said:
One aspect partially correct.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in this so I will explain it now. Strip softbox camera right angled toward camera and through a diffuser to create a graduated highlight. White reflector to camera left. Look at the top to see how lopsided this turned out. The bottle is sitting on a piece of metal that has been polished to a mirror like finish. Background is a strobe with a background scoop through a white diffuser. Angled to produce the reflected effect in the metal. Finally a snooted and gridded strobe to highlight the label.

Who is next to post an image?

Regards
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Polished metal? Look at Mr Fancy! ;) I typically have to rely on cannibalising picture frames for sheets of glass to use if I want a reflection , it's a right faff. How shiny is the metal plate? I know that seems like an odd question, is it mirror-like, or a dull chrome ?
 
Denyerec said:
Polished metal? Look at Mr Fancy! ;) I typically have to rely on cannibalising picture frames for sheets of glass to use if I want a reflection , it's a right faff. How shiny is the metal plate? I know that seems like an odd question, is it mirror-like, or a dull chrome ?
Click to expand...

I find that mirrors tend to give a double reflection around the point of contact. I got the metal from here;

http://metaloffcuts.co.uk/shop/sheet-metal.html

Look down the left hand side for "Stainless Super Mirror". Gives a lovely single reflection.

Regards..
 
Finste said:
I find that mirrors tend to give a double reflection around the point of contact. I got the metal from here;

http://metaloffcuts.co.uk/shop/sheet-metal.html

Look down the left hand side for "Stainless Super Mirror". Gives a lovely single reflection.

Regards..
Click to expand...

Many thanks! I too observed the same, hence the glass approach. With mirrors you get the glass reflection, then the silvered backing reflection, it's a right mess.
 
You know the annoying thing about the Internet, when you find good resources and then there are "not found" images there. I have been enjoying looking around and thinking about the images in this thread in particular. For a very long time I avoided flash lighting, and it is only fairly recently I embraced it. I would like to thank all the contributors for a great thread.
 
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