Dick Sanders
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2008
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- 222
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- Location
- Southern California Desert
- Website
- www.dicksanders.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
A question that comes up fairly often is how to get soft lighting for portraits. And you see a lot of "portrait lighting kits" that consist mainly of bounce umbrellas. But just bouncing light off a reflective umbrella won't give you soft light.To get really nice soft lighting for portraits, you need three layers of diffusion. Even shoot-thru umbrellas give you only 1 layer.
For the "senior portrait" shown here I used a 4x7 foot light panel with translucent diffusion material stretched over it. Behind that, I positioned a strobe head with a 12 inch reflector that also had a diffusion disc on the front of it. Finally, I draped an additional piece of translucent white fabric over the panel. That's 3 layers of diffusion. I also used a 20 x 30 inch piece of white foamcore on the opposite side to reflect light back onto the subject. Very simple setup.
Keep in mind, I intentionally made this dark and moody with just the one light and reflector. But I could have easily used more lights to highlight the hair and/or brighten the background.
Another type of soft lighting I use consists of a 36 inch softbox, in which I've reversed the strobe head to aim to the back of the box, not straight thru the front. The light first bounces off the rear of the box, then punches through the diffusion fabric on the front of the box. But I also clip another piece of diffusion material to the front of the box -- for one bounce and two diffusion (3 total). If you do use a shoot-thru umbrella, try draping additional layers of diffusion material over it to further soften the light. Questions and comments welcome.
For the "senior portrait" shown here I used a 4x7 foot light panel with translucent diffusion material stretched over it. Behind that, I positioned a strobe head with a 12 inch reflector that also had a diffusion disc on the front of it. Finally, I draped an additional piece of translucent white fabric over the panel. That's 3 layers of diffusion. I also used a 20 x 30 inch piece of white foamcore on the opposite side to reflect light back onto the subject. Very simple setup.
Keep in mind, I intentionally made this dark and moody with just the one light and reflector. But I could have easily used more lights to highlight the hair and/or brighten the background.
Another type of soft lighting I use consists of a 36 inch softbox, in which I've reversed the strobe head to aim to the back of the box, not straight thru the front. The light first bounces off the rear of the box, then punches through the diffusion fabric on the front of the box. But I also clip another piece of diffusion material to the front of the box -- for one bounce and two diffusion (3 total). If you do use a shoot-thru umbrella, try draping additional layers of diffusion material over it to further soften the light. Questions and comments welcome.
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