Why Three Lights?
Three lights is the standard
middle ground for studio photography. It's generally considered the most basic
"full" setup to properly light a subject (key, fill, rim/hair), but
it can be overkill, or it can be not enough, depending on your target look and
subject.
The three-light setup is very
versatile and can be adapted to just about any environment or shooting style.
Portrait One
For this shot, use a 5' octa as a background, as its size
makes it convenient. Use 2' soft boxes as white backdrops before, but it's
difficult keeping people within the sides. The octa allows for some flexibility
of subject movement. The internal baffle spreads the light across the surface
effectively, and the power level is around a stop or two under the key light.For the clamshell lights, use two
1x4 strip boxes for a full wrap. This gives a more even, flatter light than soft
boxes or a beauty dish. Use the top light as the key, setting the power a stop
higher than the bottom one, which improves modelling and shading for a
beauty-type shot, where you want even lighting but don't want you’re subject to
look flat.
The Shot
The shot is a fairly straightforward headshot, clean, no
makeup.
Portrait
Two
Since it would be very difficult to do this shot on white
without five lights, do it on a black background. The two strip lights are my
rim lights, illuminating the edges and sides of the subject, and key is a
gridded beauty dish boomed up about eight feet, more or less directly in front
of the subject, pointing slightly below the face. Use the directionality of
this to illuminate the subject in a tightly controlled area, without worrying
about spill onto the background.
Set the edge lights about 1.5
stops higher than key; add half a stop to the Einstein to make up for the grid
eating light. Go two stops under on the key, which simulates the behavior of a
sensor when exposing for a sky backlighting the subject, while still retaining
detail. The beauty dish provides a semi-hard light source with a nice
constrained feathering from the grid, so it's gritty and directional, but not
unattractively harsh.
The Shot
The post work is reasonably heavy, but quite clean. It's
mainly dodging and burning and curves, working with the lighting and adding
drama.
Portrait Three
This is fairly similar to the last
one, but going to rotate the two strip
lights 90 degrees to light up the background evenly. First set both strobes to full power and dial in aperture
until the seamless is just clipping, the blinkies on the LCD fairly well
defined. Then set key to an appropriate power based on that.
The Einstein has a 5' octa on it,
boomed to about 3 feet off the ground, for broad, beautiful, soft lighting that
still has a dimensionality and directionality to it. A 3' octa would start
introducing too much shadow around the edges of the subject, needing a
rearrangement and an added fill light, where a 7' one would be too flat and
start losing the "presence" of the subject.
The Shot
This is a sort of catalogue fashion
look, perhaps even magazine for certain segments. It's clean, but vibrant;
flat, but dimensional.
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