How to achieve this light?

J

jpeele

Member
Hello. I'm looking to reproduce this look. I know this may be elementary for some of you advanced folks, but I'm just getting started with proper lighting. I like the quality of light coming from this shot. I'm shooting with a 5D mkiii. I have $1000 budget for lighting and there may be a very low cost option to getting this look.

I would guess this is some type of led or florescent overhead light? I can't tell if there is some type of modifier on it or not. I would also assume that he may be at least a few feet from a wall to keep the background black and with an f stop of around 5.6, very low iso.

Any help or recommendation of lighting would be appreciated. Thanks.
 

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There are a million and one ways to do this.

I'd go for a 4 bank kino (maybe only 2-up) with a grid almost directly over the subject (look at the shadows) and make sure he is far enough away from the background to drop it off and then crush the blacks in post.
 
Do you think this can be achieved with a lower cost option? Can you recommend anything? The kino's are longer than most tungsten light sources because of their shape. Do you think the shape of the kino is contributing to the look here?

This is one look here, but I'm trying to put together a few lights to achieve a variety of looks.
 
Couple of requirements to reproduce this look.

Light and light position - fairly easy to deduce position based on shadows. Small source, similar I'd say to what William describes, however in my opinion theres no grid involved as the reflected light is fairly norrow. You could perhaps pull this off with overhead diffused tungsten. The key is getting the light in the correct position so when your correctly exposed on the skin, everything else is under.
 
For $300 you can buy a dimmable 2-bank fluorescent from Alzo http://www.alzovideo.com/alzo_pan-l-lite_twin_dimmable.htm which is very comparable to Kino Flo lights. I own several 4 bank versions and a 2 bank version and can vouch they work very well. You can get them in daylight or tungsten bulbs. They come with a grid, barn doors, as well as diffusion fabric that can soften the light even more if you need to. They mount to any light stand easily, and can also sit on a floor or counter because the edges are perfectly square.

But as you pointed out these are rectangular fixtures so you in this case you might want to flag off half the light to make it more of a square source placed overtop but slightly behind the subject. The fixture has barn doors but you also might want to get some black wrap or black fabric and build additional flags or curtains around the fixture so that any spill light is contained from hitting your background or the ceiling and is more shaped downwards.

If that's more than you want to spend and you want to do it even cheaper then get a decent powered CFL like this http://www.alzodigital.com/online_store/full_spectrum_light_bulbs_85w.htm for $18 dollars which is around 85 watts (but 300w equivalent) and screw it in a light fixture above your subject. Next build a 2' x 2' foot box around it using foam core and ensure no light is leaking out of the top of it or through the corners. ie. all light should only be coming down from it.

Good luck and post some pictures!
 
Supposedly those F&V are great for the money. I'm warming up to them myself and will be sure to throw money at v-lock batteries as well.

FloLight has something similar to those Alzo light.... it's also a two bank that is dimmable. Just for the sake of variation.

But one thing is sure. The source is close to the subject to achieve that kind of fall off. If you look at shadows and the highlight in the forehead, I would guess that it's a softbox positioned over camera, but ever so slightly to camera right (one ear is lit more...). It's not a big source.
 
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