Portrait lighting: How would you replicate something like this?

[TimSandhu]

Just a quick one really, regarding the image linked below - I love the lighting and was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to offer advice on how to produce similar results? What equipment would you use (i.e. no. of lights, a reflector)? Distance from the background etc..

Link http://1x.com/photos/portrait/22447/

Thanks
Tim

 

[AliB]

It's a low key image and is lit by a softbox (you can see the square reflection in his eye) from that reflection you can tell the angle and distance so it's camera left but only just. The distance from the background does not really come into it, you can still achieve an effect like this with a white background if you like. The shutter speed and aperture can isolate the subject from the background completely.

At f5.6 1/100 sec pretty much only the focal plane i would be recorded. (That's a bit rough, I'd need to try settings around that)

Hope that helps.

 

[TimSandhu]

Thanks Ali, that gives me somewhere to start

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

This look typically like a single light shot. In the past a very large 2 to 3k spot would have been used. in this case it may have either been a soft box or window light. Its direction is from slightly above eye level and from the nose shadow only slightly left of central to the face This with a bit more frontal fill light is a very traditional lighting set up... where you always shoot the shadow side of the face.
This lighting nearly always catches the near ear, so in this case it was either blocked with a shade. or burnt in on the print.
If you look carefully there is a second shadow below the nose going down to the corner of the mouth. This light is mainly on the forehead but has just skimmed the lower eye lids and also the fingers. It must have been positioned nearer and higher than the first light but more or less on the same line. exposure was kept to the minimum letting the deepest shadows fill in.