Lighting large format portraits

Andysnap

Andysnap

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Andy Grant
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Possibly a bit of a longshot but has anyone any experience with lighting a large format portrait shot?
I do have a large softbox (ooerr) with a controllable continuous light with 8 bulbs and I want to try some portraits but tbh I have the gear but no idea.
I keep seeing that continuous lightning is no good for portraits and this might be true if you have modern digital camera but I would have thought that with karge format the opposite would be true.
So, thoughts, ideas, set ups. Ta.
 
Natural light not good enough?
 
simon ess said:
You need flash really.

Can you trigger a flash from the LF camera?
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That seems to be the consensus but I don't like flash, too complicated, I just want to be able to set up a light/lights to get a sort of moody look. I'll try and find some examples of the sort of thing I'm after.

RaglanSurf said:
Natural light not good enough?
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Usually I would say yes but as above, I'm after mean and moody with a black background.
 
eg

 
Andysnap said:
Possibly a bit of a longshot but has anyone any experience with lighting a large format portrait shot?
I do have a large softbox (ooerr) with a controllable continuous light with 8 bulbs and I want to try some portraits but tbh I have the gear but no idea.
I keep seeing that continuous lightning is no good for portraits and this might be true if you have modern digital camera but I would have thought that with karge format the opposite would be true.
So, thoughts, ideas, set ups. Ta.
Click to expand...


Why do you think the lighting for large format would be any different to any other format?...lighting is lighting.
Back in the day, we used continuous lighting, mostly large spots, and what would be called today very large heavy metal beauty dishes. Soft light was rarely used for portraiture. This is what we bought and this is what all studios had at the time. People liked Hollywood lighting and this is what was needed to produce it.
However use what ever you like and can cope with.

If you go back even further Day light studios were the norm. and today studios fitted up with flash are what is mostly used. In some ways continuous lighting is the easiest to set up as there is no guess work, but it is heavy and it it hot and cables are a hazard.
 
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Andysnap said:
eg

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The catch lights in he eyes seem to be lying, as more than one hard light was used as there was a fill light or reflector and more than one light for the hair and rim.
What ever was used was very heavily snooted, or burnt in on the print, as there is almost no light on the central portion of the hair, yet we can see the scalp through it.
 
I don't think that the lighting is different just the means of producing it. I dont have a decent flashgun and if I did I have no means of triggering it with the equipment I have and i prefer continuous lighting.
I dont want to spend any money on this so i want to use the equipment i already have, I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts or tips on how to light a portrait.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
The catch lights in he eyes seem to be lying, as more than one hard light was used as there was a fill light or reflector and more than one light for the hair and rim.
What ever was used was very heavily snooted, or burnt in on the print, as there is almost no light on the central portion of the hair, yet we can see the scalp through it.
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Yes, Ernest Hemmingway had a famously obvious scalp. :D
 
Andysnap said:
I don't think that the lighting is different just the means of producing it. I dont have a decent flashgun and if I did I have no means of triggering it with the equipment I have and i prefer continuous lighting.
I dont want to spend any money on this so i want to use the equipment i already have, I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts or tips on how to light a portrait.
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I guess the question is... what you got?
 
steveo_mcg said:
I guess the question is... what you got?
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Black backdrop with stand, 2 reflective umbrellas, and an 8 light continuous lighting head with a large softbox and some other covers to diffuse the light. You can use all of the lights or just a few, I think they are in banks of 2.
I've done a bit of t'internet research and it seems like if I set up the large softbox slightly above the subject and have a lower powered light pointing up toward them then this will give a 'classic' portrait shot. I just need to mess about with the power levels and the positioning really to find a setup that gives me the look I want. Waste a few shots of Fomapan on it that's the way. :D
 
Andysnap said:
Black backdrop with stand, 2 reflective umbrellas, and an 8 light continuous lighting head with a large softbox and some other covers to diffuse the light. You can use all of the lights or just a few, I think they are in banks of 2.
I've done a bit of t'internet research and it seems like if I set up the large softbox slightly above the subject and have a lower powered light pointing up toward them then this will give a 'classic' portrait shot. I just need to mess about with the power levels and the positioning really to find a setup that gives me the look I want. Waste a few shots of Fomapan on it that's the way. :D
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You don't necessarily need a lower power light below, a reflector will do just as well (some may say better) - anything can be used as a reflector too, from a piece of cardboard with/without tinfoil to an expensive tri-flector. If you have a second light source it may be better to use that to provide separation between the subject and the background.

If you have any form of digi cam, you could use that to setup the lights (to get the look you are after) without wasting film ...
 
Andysnap said:
Black backdrop with stand, 2 reflective umbrellas, and an 8 light continuous lighting head with a large softbox and some other covers to diffuse the light. You can use all of the lights or just a few, I think they are in banks of 2.
I've done a bit of t'internet research and it seems like if I set up the large softbox slightly above the subject and have a lower powered light pointing up toward them then this will give a 'classic' portrait shot. I just need to mess about with the power levels and the positioning really to find a setup that gives me the look I want. Waste a few shots of Fomapan on it that's the way. :D
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Sounds like you're sorted for gear, so its just basic photography: Light is constant, adjust aperture to get dof and then shutter speed for "correct" exposure.

I know its not that simple, aperture will need to be smaller than one would like unless you are very hot on focusing and you'll never get a shutter speed you'd like but if you've a good sitter I expect you can go down as far 1/2 second exposure and be okay. Reciprocity should also help get your black back ground as the exposure for the shadows should be much longer than the body of the photo if you've managed to light it correctly.
 
PaulButler said:
You don't necessarily need a lower power light below, a reflector will do just as well (some may say better) - anything can be used as a reflector too, from a piece of cardboard with/without tinfoil to an expensive tri-flector. If you have a second light source it may be better to use that to provide separation between the subject and the background.

If you have any form of digi cam, you could use that to setup the lights (to get the look you are after) without wasting film ...
Click to expand...

Good point about the reflector, I'll try that. I do have a Fuji X-T1 and a Nikon adaptor so I could use my wife's 28mm lens to see how it looks. Ta
 
Have you considered window light with a black background? If you want it diffused then some plain voile type of material over the window will diffuse it a bit.

Reflectors help with getting light where you want it to go. White paper is quite good and a lot less bother than flash. Silver foil can also be used. There are plenty of cheapo chinese reflector kits about. One of those would do as well. It's an old trick when having a passport photo taken to sit with a piece of white paper on your lap so that you lose some of the under the chin shadow.

I was about to suggest just hitting the test button on the flash at the same time as hitting the shutter button on the LF camera then I remembered why that was a daft idea :D
 
srichards said:
I was about to suggest just hitting the test button on the flash at the same time as hitting the shutter button on the LF camera then I remembered why that was a daft idea :D
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Actually if you've got enough flash power that would work. Open shutter in bulb, fire flash, close shutter. You'd need to make sure your aperature was such that there would be little to no ambient light recorded though.
 
I didn't realise LF cameras had any kind of shutter. I thought they were all the kind you had to start moving a dark slide out and hid under a bat cape to operate. If it's got an actual shutter button then it's a piece of pie ;)
 
srichards said:
I didn't realise LF cameras had any kind of shutter. I thought they were all the kind you had to start moving a dark slide out and hid under a bat cape to operate. If it's got an actual shutter button then it's a piece of pie ;)
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Nobody said it was a button.....
 
Andysnap said:
Excellent, very interesting. Thanks for that Simon, I shall peruse it in more detail when I have some time.
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It's worth noting that the setups I describe in that article won't give you results much like the one you posted. @Terrywoodenpic is on the money, i.e. a variety of hard lights, flags and snoots. The positioning will be broadly similar to the article but you'll need to be much more precise with your lights.
 
juggler said:
It's worth noting that the setups I describe in that article won't give you results much like the one you posted. @Terrywoodenpic is on the money, i.e. a variety of hard lights, flags and snoots. The positioning will be broadly similar to the article but you'll need to be much more precise with your lights.
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That's fine, I can see that the only solution is to get someone to photograph and practice with different set-ups, apertures, lights etc until I find the best fit. Thanks for the advice.

Andy
 
The Hemingway shot would have been taken with a large spotlight. Most studios of the time had at least one 2KW spotlight which could be defocussed as necessary. if you look at the nose and shadows on the eyelids you will see they are only very slightly softened. a small 500W spot would have been harder, even if flooded.(defocussed)
The studio I worked in had Five of the 2KW ones all with their own dimmer (rheostat), we also had numerous 500 w pups basically for effects and de-wrinkeling (Used very close to the camera lens.)
They would take 20 years off a female portrait, but sill give the Hollywood style lighting from the main light.
The same lights were used for Full length glamour shoots. However only the film studios could afford to take such lights and their generators on location.
So we used full sun and flash and reflector fill. to give a very similar look.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
The Hemingway shot would have been taken with a large spotlight. Most studios of the time had at least one 2KW spotlight which could be defocussed as necessary. if you look at the nose and shadows on the eyelids you will see they are only very slightly softened. a small 500W spot would have been harder, even if flooded.(defocussed)
The studio I worked in had Five of the 2KW ones all with their own dimmer (rheostat), we also had numerous 500 w pups basically for effects and de-wrinkeling (Used very close to the camera lens.)
They would take 20 years off a female portrait, but sill give the Hollywood style lighting from the main light.
The same lights were used for Full length glamour shoots. However only the film studios could afford to take such lights and their generators on location.
So we used full sun and flash and reflector fill. to give a very similar look.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see some of your work from that era. Is there any in digital form that you'd be happy to share?
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
The Hemingway shot would have been taken with a large spotlight. Most studios of the time had at least one 2KW spotlight which could be defocussed as necessary. if you look at the nose and shadows on the eyelids you will see they are only very slightly softened. a small 500W spot would have been harder, even if flooded.(defocussed)
The studio I worked in had Five of the 2KW ones all with their own dimmer (rheostat), we also had numerous 500 w pups basically for effects and de-wrinkeling (Used very close to the camera lens.)
They would take 20 years off a female portrait, but sill give the Hollywood style lighting from the main light.
The same lights were used for Full length glamour shoots. However only the film studios could afford to take such lights and their generators on location.
So we used full sun and flash and reflector fill. to give a very similar look.
Click to expand...

That's interesting Terry, I've just been asked to do some shots for a friend of her kids (not young kids fortunately) and she wants to do them outdoors.
 
juggler said:
I'd love to see some of your work from that era. Is there any in digital form that you'd be happy to share?
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I am afraid that they probably no longer exists It was never my copyright. in those days it belonged to the client, or to the employers if it was taken on spec. The last of my old stuff got soaked when stored with my house hold goods in an outhouse after my move north. I have only saved my family snaps. which were indoors.
The Glamour stuff belonged to Russel Gay, and always carried his mark whoever took them.. here is a link to an article about him written at that time. The studio shots were taken with the kit I described above in his Tottenham court road studios.

These sites contain wobbly bits.....
http://nylon.net/sabrina/pages/mag-ArtAndPhoto-may57.htm
And
http://nylon.net/sabrina/pages/nude.htm

He published a number of salacious pin up magazines at the time, including QT and four square, and a number of others for Nudes. Every morning we would be taking test shots of new girls that had come through the door seeking fame. The real work was after lunch till about 7.30 most evenings. Mostly he was not to be seen in the studio till late afternoon.

About your Kids shoot, the sun has to be quite low to emulate studio shots, but it is the balance that is more important. also you can't move the sun to light the faces so you must move the models to get the shadows right. reflectors are better than flash as it is always in the right proportion, but use giant ones.
 
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