I have some experience with “studio lighting”, but it is not something that I go that often. As living space here in Hong Kong is tight and setting up a home studio at home tends to get in the way.
So armed with a couple of sheets of background I head out to meet a friend who has more lighting equipment that I do on Lamma Island where he lives so that we could make use of his local pub’s outside area. (Benefits of 20-degree weather in November). My friend would also be doubling as a Human light stand.
The shots were in the end set up using a single flash, occasionally with a simple snoot and my human light stand holding the light in place as required for different looks. To have two pairs of hands helps to keep the momentum going on this exercise as well as acting as a sounding board for ideas and memory jogger to make notes of the lights position.
Other than a snoot no other modifiers were used in this sequence.
Image 1
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Image 7
Lighting Diagrams.
As the flash was unmodified, the light from the flash is quite harsh and very directional. The exposure was set so the light from the flash would be the only light captured (except image which was shot as a reference point).
The direction and angle of the light are crucial in all the pictures, how much overspill the there is, to reveal more or less of the orange and the texture of the skin.
This thing with control lighting is that compared to Natural or Ambient artificial light is that is completely controllable and through the use of modified be made to create any look you want – it can even be combined with ambient light to create even more dramatic effects.