How to get this soft, golden spotlight on model?

M

moodlover

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http://imgur.com/a/sJZGs
Catchlight here

Planning to shoot this style in a studio, will have to go out of my way to buy 3 lights of course (key, fill, hair). Arris are so expensive, but I might have to bite the bullet. I do own an AlienBee if that might work. Yes, im shooting on film stills not film video. Either way, I have been wondering a lot lately how to get soft, focused/beamed, light on a subject. Chiaroscuro is my goal.

My style is much tighter shots though, like shoulder up so I may want a smaller beam. I love how soft and golden this light is. How is that done? Whenever I gel my flash it just comes out orange, how amateur of me to not know how to make it yellow/gold! I also love how the edges of the beam fade smoothly thats a must.

On the right half of the 1st link, you can see on the model's face shadow side is not pitch black but looks to be filled, how the hell is this done at night?

Edit: I always shoot at ISO 400 f/2.4 or 2.8. If I buy Arris im wondering if I need 1k or can get away with 650's
 
That's not a soft light hitting the model, it's a hard light, it's the image itself that's 'soft'.

There's also not three separate light sources hitting her. It looks to be a single source, though there may well be a secondary light providing fill (that seems to be the case in the close-up at least).

The beam from whatever strobe is hitting her in the wide shots is also being broken up by some kind of cutter or flag.

And 650w fresnels would only work for this kind of shot if you were shooting in the absolutely last fading scrap of light after sunset. It's the only way you'd get the ambient light down to such low levels with such small lights.
 
I can almost promise you this is how this was done :

If you put a piece of blackwrap on a hard light and poke random holes in it with a screwdriver or whatever, you'll get this effect. Literally put the blackwrap around the light using the barndoors. Leave a hole up top for ventilation. Poke slightly different size holes of different shape, you can do it (carefully of course) with the lamp on and see what you're getting, try to keep it random/organic/natural/accidental/etc looking.

Clearly the light somewhat is near the camera, more to the side on the one in the right which also has some fill from a light or maybe a reflector. Up to you how much fill you want, and if you want more butterly-ish (model facing light) or rembrant (45 degrees), right? Also that supposed "fill" may be grading...the milky (not black) shadows in the second one is a clue. They brought up the blacks. SUPER trendy look right now.

Also the images are graded warm and/or they put a warm gel on the key.

Also as someone else mentioned the FOCUS is soft, softened in editing, likely (in the olden times hard light was combined with soft images, now its the opposite).

Its funny:

This brings to mind something Gordon Willis said:

ITS NOT ONE THING YOU DO.

There's never one button you press to get a "look". A look is a combo of the various choices you make.
 
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I agree with Grug and Ray Ortiz, just a flagged off light through a cucloris, not very difficult to do, just take a model who will hold still and some gripping. This would be much easier to do with your Alien Bee than with hot lights unless you are going to wait until sunset. Your Alien Bee has enough power to overcome the sun. Do you understand how to use flash to overpower the sun? If not, you need to learn, I suggest going through Strobist 101 and 102, then 103 to learn how to manage color. http://strobist.blogspot.com/
 
Guys...the first post says I am shooting in a studio...there is no sun to worry about. It would be very hard to do this with strobe at night, the flash going off even at the lowest power even gelled would overpower the skin quickly. The background is blurry, a wide open aperture was used so flash is unlikely.

Anyways the original photographer got back to me and said this was using handheld torches/flashlights and gels. Didnt give me any more info, so theres the answer. Simplicity is key!
 
moodlover said:
Guys...the first post says I am shooting in a studio...there is no sun to worry about. It would be very hard to do this with strobe at night, the flash going off even at the lowest power even gelled would overpower the skin quickly. The background is blurry, a wide open aperture was used so flash is unlikely.

Anyways the original photographer got back to me and said this was using handheld torches/flashlights and gels. Didnt give me any more info, so theres the answer. Simplicity is key!
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Got it. But you do understand that most flashes can be dialed down to about 1/128th power, right? Painting with flashlights would be another way to do it, although it's less precise and repeatable. I like using flashes because they are precise and repeatable but different strokes. As with most things lighting related, there are probably half a dozen ways to do this, just depends on your resources, time and crew, if you have one or at least an assistant. And yes, simple and cheap is sometimes the best way, but not always as you also have the variable of a model and you the photographer trying to achieve the look, body pose, eye contact, framing and background that you want for the image. So adding in, who would paint the model with at least two or three flashlights is logisitically challenging too. Apparent simplicity is not always simple.
 
puredrifting said:
Got it. But you do understand that most flashes can be dialed down to about 1/128th power, right? Painting with flashlights would be another way to do it, although it's less precise and repeatable. I like using flashes because they are precise and repeatable but different strokes. As with most things lighting related, there are probably half a dozen ways to do this, just depends on your resources, time and crew, if you have one or at least an assistant. And yes, simple and cheap is sometimes the best way, but not always as you also have the variable of a model and you the photographer trying to achieve the look, body pose, eye contact, framing and background that you want for the image. So adding in, who would paint the model with at least two or three flashlights is logisitically challenging too. Apparent simplicity is not always simple.
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Huh? Why light paint the model when you can just bump the ISO up, get a strong flashlight, and use a low shutter speed of like 1 second?
 
moodlover said:
Film, tripod.
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Ok, let's call it grain then. As a gross generalization, a lower ISO will provide an image with less grain. A tripod does not keep the model still. I'm not saying it can't or shouldn't be done. I'm just pointing out some possible downsides to that approach.

But as Drift said, go for it. There is nothing like doing it first-hand to learn a craft.
 
The shots were not done a night, rather dusk. The fill is ambient/available light.

As pointed out the light is not soft, but hard. Your examples are low res, & may be scans, so difficult to decipher exactly what's going on, & even then there's multiple ways to accomplish the look.

Unless your very interested in learning how to use constant light sources I suggest sticking with strobes, & investing in modifiers. Grab some snoots, &/or grids, to facilitate some hard lighting, plus flags, nets, etc, though I agree the example looks like it was done with a cucoloris, or other gobo, likely home brewed. Also some diffusion, & gels, including the Straw that was previously suggested. For diffusion consider a few strengths of Tough Spun as it will allow your strobes to breathe even when attached directly to the reflectors. And some Paper/Camera Tape, & wood cloth pins for attaching the gels/diffusion.

Here's an example of a shoot I worked on where we used Straw filter on a single 1200W HMI PAR with daylight balanced Ektachrome on a Mamiya RZ with 150mm lens.

https://voguegraphy.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/penelope-cruz-by-herb-ritts-vogue-us-march-2001.jpg
 
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Took another look at your samples, & it's clear there's more than one light source in the first example as you can see a cross shadow on the ground caused by some source highlighting her ankle.

It's possible they used multiple heads, maybe utilizing just the strobes modeling lamps. The shutter speed in the second example is quite slow, evidenced by the blurred waist strap fluttering in the wind. A slow shutter speed, possibly combined with handheld work, likely contributes to the soft look.

Probably the best thing to start with is some Straw fiter, Tough Spun diffusion, & a roll of Black Wrap to form snoots.
 
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Before reading your note that the photographer reported using flashlights, I was going to say it looked like small sources spotted all the way in, like Peppers or Inkies. The color can come from dimming using voltage control or a Varian, or can be addressed with gels such as Straw or better yet Bastard Amber. You can get free swatch books of available gels from the different manufacturers (just find a lighting supply place that sells gels) and you'll see the hundreds of possibilities.
 
Imamacuser said:
You might want to pick up a few different strengths of straw (CTS) gels to achieve a more golden yellow color.
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Ah thanks, you saved me some time. I will go for CTS then if you think that is the type of gel used here. Do you think they are doubling or tripling the gel to get such a transformative look? I really want a dramatic golden orange just like this
 
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Cary Knoop said:
I have to agree.

Spotlights are nice but I think the key is not to go over the top and to avoid hard shadows.
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Okay so if I use flashlights or flash strobes with grids to make a spotlight, how does one avoid hard shadows? Are you saying get the light source as close as possible so its larger in comparison to subject thus softening the shadows?
 
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Bern Caughey said:
Unless your very interested in learning how to use constant light sources I suggest sticking with strobes, & investing in modifiers. Grab some snoots, &/or grids, to facilitate some hard lighting, plus flags, nets, etc, though I agree the example looks like it was done with a cucoloris, or other gobo, likely home brewed. Also some diffusion, & gels, including the Straw that was previously suggested. For diffusion consider a few strengths of Tough Spun as it will allow your strobes to breathe even when attached directly to the reflectors. And some Paper/Camera Tape, & wood cloth pins for attaching the gels/diffusion.

Here's an example of a shoot I worked on where we used Straw filter on a single 1200W HMI PAR with daylight balanced Ektachrome on a Mamiya RZ with 150mm lens.

https://voguegraphy.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/penelope-cruz-by-herb-ritts-vogue-us-march-2001.jpg
Click to expand...
Lets forget the multiple light sources, Im trying to figure out the face one only, I can figure out the rest easily. I am not 100% determined to buy Arri's so if I can get an identical look with my AlienBee I would stay with it and just buy another one to control fill.

Anyways, what is order that I put in the tough spun diffusion and gels? In my mind I am thinking its:

Strobe head > standard reflector > barn doors > tough spun to diffuse > stacked gels to color final output?

I checked your Vogue example and its very nice, but how would you recommend I get an even more yellow/orange/gold color to the skin? I want it dramatic like the original example. Thank you.
 
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