Lighting Diagrams – August 6

After wrapping up shooting with Jordan, I realized this would be a good time to do a quick lighting diagram for you guys, and show you all how I set up some of my shots from that afternoon/evening.  Unlike my first diagram post, this one will cover a few shots with a few more setup/before-after photos to better clarify what I’m working with.  Click through to see all the juicy details.

The first setup I’m going to explain involves the photo above.  If you look closely, there’s 4 light sources in the image.  The obvious one is the light coming from the right, which is a bare strobe set to about 1/4 power.  This is just to add some dynamic, give her a little hair light, and give the barn wood some good texture.  The second main light is coming from camera left.  It’s a strobe with a large, gridded octabox (my weapon of choice!) set about 7.5-8 ft high.  This is Jordan’s main light, and the octabox gives very soft, directional light.  Notice the light falloff down by her hands and legs.  The last light is a bare strobe set behind the wall.  You can see the light from it peeping through the cracks in the image below.  It’s literally just there for that light and to boost the effect of the fourth light, aka the sun.

The crude diagram below explains a little better how the lights were set up.  The main light, like I mentioned is posted up high, while the two fill lights were about eye-level with me and the model.

Moving on to the second diagram from Wednesday’s shoot, we have the wonderful Jordan in a swimming pool (much jealousy ensued on such a hot day).

Looking at the photo, there’s again 3 strobes involved, although this is a bit more subtle.  The setting sun was also out, but the I set the power of the strobes high enough to offset the sunlight and give a feeling of near-darkness.  On the opposite end of the pool, two bare strobes are set 45 degrees to the left and right of Jordan…this is what gives that bright highlight that’s kissing the edges of her arms and hips.  The main reason for these lights is to create separation from her and the dark background.  It makes the image feel more three-dimensional.  The main light is once again the gridded octa, except this time sitting on camera-right.  Check out the three images and diagram below for a better illustration.

Finally, for this last shot below, we removed the octabox from the last shoot, and repositioned one light right behind Jordan, and the other two directly at camera left and right.  If you think that’s the sun in the background, you’re sadly mistaken…although it also means I accomplished what I set out to do with that light.

Not too much explanation here, but here’s the diagram.

Well, that’s about it for today’s lesson.  If you guys have any questions about any other photos of mine, or have something you want me to photograph and diagram for you, please let me know!