Lighting set up to create shadows either side of models face

Colbo

Colbo

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Col
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Morning everyone, thank you for any info you can offer on this subject. Appreciate any help!

OK so the image attached ive seen a lot but cant figure it out the set up? Its pretty much perfect exposure on the face in the middle then faded off either side to the ears towards darkness. Ive practiced a bit having the light in the middle and placing card just off camera to block the light but cant quite get the shadow to fall off right. The light seems to creep to the sides. I dont want a really hard contrast light and hard shadows and seen this effect on some very soft lighting. I did try with just a 18cm Reflector but too harsh for me and the look im after.

Thanks again for any advice you can offer.

Cheers, Col

hoff.jpg
 
Could be Butterfly lighting, either a strip soft box or the light very close so that it wraps but falls off quickly?
 
The catchlights in the eyes and the shadow under the nose tell us that there was a single light, almost certainly a square or rectangular softbox, high up and central. There was of course another light playing on the background and its possible that black absorbers were also placed each side of the face.

Not really easy to tell in such a low resolution image.
 
a quick search on tin eye shows the earliest version as
medium_gl_5048c68c-b66c-42f7-8373-53fd0a0b0910.jpg


and then it gets messed up as

2f36e611a4e1edfc51f923ff44c253bc.jpg


The beauty of crap editing

Mike
 
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It's shot by Platon so I'm 99% sure it'll be an umbrella (or an octa) directly above and behind the camera. The rest as shown by @mike weeks is done in post, although if I wanted to do it all in camera I'd flag the main light as needed, add two polyboards either side to minimise any extra light from the key to the background, and then light the background with another light.
 
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Aaaaah so cheating :) Thanks everyone. To create in the camera rather than editing i thnik ill just go with light to one side creating fall off on one side, then a flag to stop the other. Almost the same but a lot less in post. Just the same way this guy put it together:
View: https://youtu.be/9rhpQKBc9U8
- minute 5:18

Again, thank you for looking!!!
 
Well, that bigger and (more) original picture helps a lot, it now looks like 2 umbrellas side by side, although I'm not sure why. . .
It's shot against a grossly overexposed white background that is so bright that it has destroyed fine edge detail in the hair and created wrap on the shirt. At the end of the day, a bad shot is still a bad shot regardless of who produced it or of the subject, this isn't personally a shot that I would try to emulate.
Colbo said:
Aaaaah so cheating :) Thanks everyone. To create in the camera rather than editing i thnik ill just go with light to one side creating fall off on one side, then a flag to stop the other. Almost the same but a lot less in post. Just the same way this guy put it together:
View: https://youtu.be/9rhpQKBc9U8
- minute 5:18

Again, thank you for looking!!!
Click to expand...
Think about it, most natural light comes from above the subject, so excluding that approach in favour of any other specific approach will seriously limit your options. What we all need to do is to use the lighting that works for the specific situation.
 
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