Last weekend, I shot my first wedding for some friends. It was pretty interesting and I’m still working through all the photos, getting the good stuff separated and touched up where needed. Aside from a little bit of tweaking, most of the shots turned out just how I liked them and I was graced with some great sunset light since the wedding was outdoors. I’ll put those up sometime eventually.
That’s not what I’m writing about today. Last time I started throwing down with the first step of off-camera lighting, actually taking the damn flash off the camera. Logically, there has to be a next step and a next step after that. As the post’s title would dictate, this is the first next step. I started digging a little deeper into what I could do with what I have. Basically, I have one actual light, a bunch of white foamcore posterboard, a table, a white wall, and a pineapple roughly the size and shape of a human head. What can I do with these? Let’s see!
These images are all straight out of the camera with absolutely zero tweaking. First, I put the client (pineapple) on the edge of the table with the flash standing on the ground between the table and the wall pointing up at the back of the pineapple at an angle of roughly 75 degrees. I put a piece of foamcore behind the flash to keep light from spilling onto the background. What I got was pretty much a rim (separation) light.
After that, it seemed like a good idea to try to light the front of this thing but I only have one actual strobe. o noes, what iz i to do? Foamcore reflectors to the rescue!!
Alright, granted it’s not the prettiest solution because there isn’t a lot of light hitting it to reflect but you can see a difference. I held a big piece of the stuff about a foot above and to the left of the client to get a little front lighting.
After this, I got the nerve to see if I could do something with a high key background. I fired my strobe at the wall from the floor, upward at the same 75 degree angle. I should have set it up higher instead of on the floor but the idea is workable. Then it’s time for more reflectors. Larger one on the left, smaller one on the right, and then both together as close as I could get them without having them be in frame.
Then it was time to take the expensive electronic equipment off the floor. All the rest of these were shot using my ghetto-ass softbox I built for the purpose of seeing whether I liked using a softbox before dropping cash on one. I do, and this one works fine for costing all of $4 to make.
I pointed the softbox directly at the client on camera left at about 45 degrees and a range of a foot and a half, give or take. There was a reflector up on the opposite side (camera right, if you’re playing along at home).
I moved it in closer and dropped the power, albeit a little too far. Whoops!
After this, it was time to turn the softbox so that the edge of the light was feathering across the client ever so slightly.
Then I wanted to see if I could make the background totally black so I pulled everything away from the wall by about another foot or so.
Looks like I can! Remember, that’s a white wall. Of course this is really basic stuff but I’ve never done it before so screw you buddy! I’m having fun here!
Then I decided to actually take a crack at broad light and short light. Short light is when you shoot from the unlit side of a subject. Broad light is the opposite. Split light is where you shoot from the exact center, and then there’s butterfly light which is really hard to practice with a pineapple. Anyway, below are short and broad, using a big piece of foamcore as a backdrop:
I’m putting in work on these because I want to get comfortable enough shooting live humans in these ways. This holiday weekend, I’m going to have an opportunity to shoot in a very low pressure one on one situation. I’m starting to visualize specific shots I want and thinking about how I want them lit. I will get to borrow a second light. Armed with two actual lights, some reflectors, a big house with some north facing windows, potentially very fun locations, and a lovely willing model, I fully intend to create some great stuff.
