and any hairlight, backlight needed? and if i need another lighting for the backdrop?
any suggestion will be mostly appreciated!
thanks!
cmyk
how to achieve this old portrait lighting style
- Thread starter cmyk
- Start date
and any hairlight, backlight needed? and if i need another lighting for the backdrop?
any suggestion will be mostly appreciated!
thanks!
cmyk
hey CYNMK..
not an expert but heres my two cents
If you use fluorescent lights it will give you a very soft light and little shadows..as for the shadows on the backdrop i think the distance you mentioned is ok.
you might also use one light on the backdrop...but with fluorescent lights,you will not have shadow problems as compared to hard lights.
not an expert but heres my two cents
If you use fluorescent lights it will give you a very soft light and little shadows..as for the shadows on the backdrop i think the distance you mentioned is ok.
you might also use one light on the backdrop...but with fluorescent lights,you will not have shadow problems as compared to hard lights.
Cryogenic Filmworks
New member
Perhaps a Not Safe For Work tag needs to be added to the title of this thread..... Just for those who work in jobs that frown on nudity.....
Try diffusing the tungsten..the best advice i can give you is...just experiment,play around with the lights..start with the 650w diffused,see if the image is good enough,bounce etc.Just play around with the lights!
Try getting answers from here http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=46
Giallogreg
New member
It looks like a fairly toppy and very soft key light. Something about 4'x4' or 6'x6' would probably do the trick, if you have a grid/eggcrate for it that will help directionalize it a bit and keep if off the background. If not, you could skirt it with duvetyne or place it as close as you possibly can to the subject, just out of frame. This will make you subject super bright and increase contrast in the scene. Other than that just add a fill light to taste and you should be pretty close.
jambredz
New member
Just use a large diffused source close to the subject and flag off light where necessary and use some sort of eggcrate/grid as the above poster said to control spill. Vary the distance of ur model to see what is acceptable to not get shadows....but with the large source i dont see the shadows as being much of an issue. u wont need much or any fill cuz the large source will have a "wrap around" effect that wraps around the subject providing a nice fall off in contrast. use a hairlight.
gco
New member
This is really interesting. It is obviously modern in that it is in color. BUT, deceptively old looking by virtue of the hair and the ethno-european look to her face. Who ever did this got it right. I mean if it was in black and white with a bit of film damage to it, you might just think it was a late 1800s Daguerreotype. Pretty cool photo.
Coming from 20+ years of studio photography, it looks like the original 1912 photo used a large diffuse top/front light source, with large vertical flags to block the light on the left side of the person.
Bouncing light into large top/front white fly ( white paper/canvas/foam-core would do the job ) placed high above your subject, and a large black flag ( 4x8 ft sheet of black foam-core ) would probably do the job.
Make sure to light the fly very evenly if you want that very diffuse look. A large shoot-through fly could also work ( while providing a little more direction to the light ), but you will have to place the lights even higher, which might be a problem. ( i.e. you might need a 15 - 20 foot ceiling )
Bouncing light into large top/front white fly ( white paper/canvas/foam-core would do the job ) placed high above your subject, and a large black flag ( 4x8 ft sheet of black foam-core ) would probably do the job.
Make sure to light the fly very evenly if you want that very diffuse look. A large shoot-through fly could also work ( while providing a little more direction to the light ), but you will have to place the lights even higher, which might be a problem. ( i.e. you might need a 15 - 20 foot ceiling )
Old fashioned lighting
Old fashioned lighting
Since all the responses deal with artificial light, perhaps this will not be helpful to you, but I'll add a word on the old studio techniques. They used, of course, nothing but natural light. Mathew Brady, who ran two of the most successful portrait studios on the East Coast in the mid-1860s, had an elaborate group of skylights, as well as huge window, which he could control with black-out curtains and diffusion. He also used reflectors, including parabolic ones, to shape the light on his subjects.
Replicating the intensity and consequent room-filling qualities of bouncing sunlight is quite a challenge. I'll leave it to others with more experience in "big lighting" than I to continue offering solutions.
Old fashioned lighting
Since all the responses deal with artificial light, perhaps this will not be helpful to you, but I'll add a word on the old studio techniques. They used, of course, nothing but natural light. Mathew Brady, who ran two of the most successful portrait studios on the East Coast in the mid-1860s, had an elaborate group of skylights, as well as huge window, which he could control with black-out curtains and diffusion. He also used reflectors, including parabolic ones, to shape the light on his subjects.
Replicating the intensity and consequent room-filling qualities of bouncing sunlight is quite a challenge. I'll leave it to others with more experience in "big lighting" than I to continue offering solutions.