Playing with Light

[BruceKingston]

I'm doing some experimenting with lighting for an assignment. My kids have allowed me to do the early experimentation on them. This is one of the early attempts.

_DSC2253-Edit.jpg (60.71 KiB) Viewed 2607 times

[BruceKingston]

...and another (earlier) attempt here

Sam after Volleyball.jpg (196.33 KiB) Viewed 2602 times

[Birma]

Hi Bruce, I really like #1 - very atmospheric - I can imagine a scene from James Bond or 24 . Not so sure about #2?

[aster]

Hi Bruce,

I think you achived what you were going after. She appears to be floating in an undefined space...while I like the way his right eye caught the light and looks very liquid...



Yildiz

[Dr. Harout]

Bruce, the first shot reminds me of a movie, though I don't remember which. Very dramatic.

[sury]

Bruce,
The first one has ethereal quality to it, drawing me to the subject immediately.
Could you describe what "toys" you have used to "play" with the light?

Sury

[BruceKingston]

Could you describe what "toys" you have used to "play" with the light?

Sury

Hi Surry, the set up was as follows (as far as I remember):

1. We were in a reasonably (though not altogether) dark room.
2. I set my white balance for daylight and got her to sit on the floor leaning against a coffee table and load something that was mostly white on the screen. (Important because if anything is going to be illuminated by the ambient light coming off the screen, it will be what the model is leaning against so you want something low)
3. Exposed for the light on her face as the ambient light so that anything in the background faded to black. At this point a few test shots wthout any flash will give you pretty much what you need. I can't remember what the shutter speed was but I had my camera on a tripod so I could go as low as I needed to - don't want to be too low though because you want everything else to disappear - and, in any event, every circumstance will be different. You'll be OK though if you follow the principle of using shutter speed to get exposure for ambient light right.
4. I set up a remote flash in manual mode with two CTO gels (to give the orange key light) and a snoot to concentrate the light. The snoot was really simple (a bit of black cardboard rolled into a tube that fits over the head of the strobe will do the job. The settings I used on the flash were around about 50mm zoom and 1/4 (or maybe 1/8) power. The flash was (obviously) camera left and above her high enough that it caught the right side of her face but not so high that it also caught the notebook. A couple of pops using the test button on the back of the flash to make sure it was pointing in the right direction then another couple of test shots to get the aperture right for the exposure of the flash and we were right to go.

Not so many 'toys' involved - only a bit of cardboard and two strips of organge plastic!

I hope that was explanatory enough for you.

Since I've had a few questions about this, I've posted some more detailed instructions in the Discussion Forums on my blog (link in the signature) under the Lighting with w Notebook topic if anyone is interested.