Studio Lighting question..

[2WK]

http://www.zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/home/us/en


The models on the homepage in B&W.

What lighting was used? Can I achieve this look from two simple strobes and a white background?

Thanks!

[2WK]

Oh, and if u click on the categories, MAN, KIDS etc. these are the BW shots in the main window.

[charjohncarter]

Yes, one strobe on either side of the lens and as close to the lens as possible. Also, you will have to NOT have the model close to the background, or you will get a shadow halo on the background. This is flat lighting, like a ringlight, it was used by William Mortensen, and maybe developed by him. Ansel the great did not like Mortensen (or his work) but even with that going against him he flourished.

Put a search of 'William Mortensen Photography' and then do an image search. You will see he had many and varied lighting techniques.

[DominikDUK]

Two softboxes on either side of the camera, you can see the lighting setup in her eyes.

Good Luck

Dominik

[taskoni]

As the fellows above said, but it's for the woman. The man's shot looks like one light to me and hollywooded with white reflector board from underneath.

You can use a large soft box instead of a backdrop and put your model in front of it if you want pure white background.

I love one light setups on black - never mind the picture I grabbed first is overexposed


Check http://martinschoeller.com for beautiful portraits with smile lighting.

[2WK]

Nice! Thanks for the help everyone!

[drewbarb]

To get the background white like that, you need to light it, too. Keep the subject far enough away that the two light set-ups don't bleed into each other and cause flare or shadows, and be careful not to over-light the white background or it will throw too much light forward and blow out your model from behind. Or do the background in PS.

The shot of the man has had the soft boxes moved slightly back to light him more from the sides, with slight fall-off in the front/middle of his face; there might be some white or silver reflectors used to add a little drama. The kids and the woman are lit with the boxes to the front, angled back to provide more even light.

Studio lighting is fun! Play around and experiment with simple and more complex set-ups and see what you can achieve. The variation possible is infinite, but beautiful lighting is always about finesse.

[DominikDUK]

Drewbarb is right get some 1000W+ Worklights and blow out the background, another way would be to shoot outside by daylight place the model in front of a sunlit white wall and build a diffusion screen above the model and use some white reflectors.

Dominik

[charjohncarter]

Mortensen was a lighting innovator. His two lights close to the lens axis were done with continuous lighting and two large bulbs and reflectors. This gave a ringlight effect decades before the ringlight was invented. Here is another technique using pre-strobe technology:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/image...mb=3gHPe6qkAdV



By the way, taskoni I like your catch-lights better than Martin's. For my taste those large soft boxes take up too much room in the eyes. But he sure has his technique down.

[giellaleafapmu]

As somebody else said, one of the way to guess what lightning was used is to look in the eyes. Also, there are groups like this one just devoted to lightning, The Strobist for example is one of them, there you can find a lot of information about rings, strobes, snoots, umbrellas, softboxes, octagons, and what not.

GLF