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Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques Biography
Photography lighting for catalogs is different than lighting for advertising or an editorial. You rarely get the chance to get creative because the objective is to make the clothes look good and show details in the fabric. Many fashion designers use some very nice fabrics and the designers goal is to sell their clothes to buyers of department stores and get them seen in magazines. Therefore the photographer doesn’t really have the freedom to use radical lighting ratios with dramatic shadows. So what kind of lighting is recommended for shooting catalogs ? Well I like very nice Rembrandt lighting. This is where you see the triangle of light under either the left or right eye. The reason I like to use Rembrandt lighting is because it isn’t flat and it isn’t too dramatic and shows the details of the clothes at the same time. Now for this shoot you can see I did a little variation of Rembrandt. It’s not a perfect typical triangle of light under the eye. You can see the shadow is more opened up so there is a little more light on the model’s face. I chose to do this variation because when I originally showed the designer the actual Rembrandt set up, she felt it was a little too shadowed. As you can see in the images that the model’s LEFT side is in a light shadow. Look at the tighter shot and you see her LEFT cheek looks sculpted and my variation of Rembrandt lighting.
I accomplished this by placing a black V-Flat close to the model about three feet away from her. This gives you a negative fill. What’s happening is the large soft box is feathered away from the model a bit and some of the light is actually bouncing into and off of the white wall that is to the left of the soft box. Then that light hits the model, then hits the black V-Flat which soaks up some of the light giving you the negative fill and a nice shadow. You control the darkness of the shadow by moving the V-Flat closer into the model or farther away. Closer in gives you a darker shadow and moving it away lightens the shadow. So what’s cool is I only used one light for this ! I combined the natural light and one strobe to create a lighting scheme that isn’t that flat ugly typical catalog lighting like you see in JC Penny. Please ask me questions and comment ! Click the lighting diagram and you will see it larger.
WOW... Where to start? There are so many diffrent things that come to mind when you mention fashion photography and lighting. First of I guess I will start by saying that whatever system you choose to go with you should keep 2 things in mind. 1) You want a system that is VERY expandable.. by that I mean something that you can add all sorts of light modifiers to. i.e. Very large softboxes, very large umbrellas, satelite reflectors, ringflash, light banks, ect. 2) Lots of power!! I would definetly go with a pack over the monolight.
Somebody mentioned that if you have a very small space you may only need 320/ws of power. Personally I would not go with anything under 2400/ws for fashion. THIS IS ONLY A PERSONAL PREFRENCE!!!! I will probably take allot of flak for suggesting a ton of power, but personally I see it as good advice. Allot of the times I use very very large umbrellas/softboxes and lightbanks. When you use this big stuff you need allot of power behind it to give you a nice quality of light. For instance... If I am shooting with a 6'x4' softbox I am getting about f16 at 6-8ft iso 100 at 2400/ws if I am standing directly infront of the softbox. Sometimes when I have shot with an 8x10 camera I need that aperture to be down around f64. A 4800/ws pack is necissary for that. It is really going to depend on the look you are going for and the amount of money you can afford to drop into a system. Between $2000 and $3000 you should be able to get yourself a used 2400/ws Speedotron pack with a couple of heads and some light modifiers, or if you search very carfully you might be able to get yourself a Profoto 2400/ws pack and 2 heads for around $3000. The Speedotron system does not have a ringflash, but you can get a Profoto ringflash and modify it to work with the Speedotron system.
What I would do if I where you just starting out, I would get a nice 2 or 3 head expandable system with a 2400/ws pack and then rent any light modifiers of extra heads that you will need. Rental is ALWAYS where you should start when you are looking into a new peice of equiptment. Things that work for Richard Avedon don't work for Richard Burbridge and things that work for Terry Richadson are not the same things that Ellen Von Unwerth uses. Everybody develops thier own style and methods, as will you. Look at allot of magazines.
I accomplished this by placing a black V-Flat close to the model about three feet away from her. This gives you a negative fill. What’s happening is the large soft box is feathered away from the model a bit and some of the light is actually bouncing into and off of the white wall that is to the left of the soft box. Then that light hits the model, then hits the black V-Flat which soaks up some of the light giving you the negative fill and a nice shadow. You control the darkness of the shadow by moving the V-Flat closer into the model or farther away. Closer in gives you a darker shadow and moving it away lightens the shadow. So what’s cool is I only used one light for this ! I combined the natural light and one strobe to create a lighting scheme that isn’t that flat ugly typical catalog lighting like you see in JC Penny. Please ask me questions and comment ! Click the lighting diagram and you will see it larger.
WOW... Where to start? There are so many diffrent things that come to mind when you mention fashion photography and lighting. First of I guess I will start by saying that whatever system you choose to go with you should keep 2 things in mind. 1) You want a system that is VERY expandable.. by that I mean something that you can add all sorts of light modifiers to. i.e. Very large softboxes, very large umbrellas, satelite reflectors, ringflash, light banks, ect. 2) Lots of power!! I would definetly go with a pack over the monolight.
Somebody mentioned that if you have a very small space you may only need 320/ws of power. Personally I would not go with anything under 2400/ws for fashion. THIS IS ONLY A PERSONAL PREFRENCE!!!! I will probably take allot of flak for suggesting a ton of power, but personally I see it as good advice. Allot of the times I use very very large umbrellas/softboxes and lightbanks. When you use this big stuff you need allot of power behind it to give you a nice quality of light. For instance... If I am shooting with a 6'x4' softbox I am getting about f16 at 6-8ft iso 100 at 2400/ws if I am standing directly infront of the softbox. Sometimes when I have shot with an 8x10 camera I need that aperture to be down around f64. A 4800/ws pack is necissary for that. It is really going to depend on the look you are going for and the amount of money you can afford to drop into a system. Between $2000 and $3000 you should be able to get yourself a used 2400/ws Speedotron pack with a couple of heads and some light modifiers, or if you search very carfully you might be able to get yourself a Profoto 2400/ws pack and 2 heads for around $3000. The Speedotron system does not have a ringflash, but you can get a Profoto ringflash and modify it to work with the Speedotron system.
What I would do if I where you just starting out, I would get a nice 2 or 3 head expandable system with a 2400/ws pack and then rent any light modifiers of extra heads that you will need. Rental is ALWAYS where you should start when you are looking into a new peice of equiptment. Things that work for Richard Avedon don't work for Richard Burbridge and things that work for Terry Richadson are not the same things that Ellen Von Unwerth uses. Everybody develops thier own style and methods, as will you. Look at allot of magazines.
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
Fashion Photography Lighting Techniques
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