Example of soft lighting for portrait

[Dick Sanders]

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.

 

[Dick Sanders]

Hey, gang... I intended this to be a "how to" for anybody here who was having trouble achieving a soft lighting effect... but comments are also welcome, and other examples of soft-lighting portraits you've done. Let's see them!

 

[Ls3D]

Ok it is soft, but with the light positioned kinda low I don't find it to be flattering. And did you want that purple color cast?

I wonder if one can create a soft look, but with a bit more dynamic range...

Thanks for sharing your approach.

-Shea

 

[Dick Sanders]

Hey, Ls3D. Love the username. Yeah, this is very specifically stylized. The light could easily be moved higher. The color cast could be easily changed. And the dynamic range could be stretched with highlighting the hair and background a little.

Hey, how are the waves in Encinitas? I surfed one of the beach breaks there 3 years ago and had a great time. Also had a nice Italian dinner in a little bistro, can't remember the name, but the town is very charming.

 

[Ls3D]

The waves are tiny today, actually got out of bed to check it this am... Nothing like last Dec.

Little bistro,.. i-tuli is pretty small & has great food, but there are a few Italian joints, and now a few Brazilian places as well. Lots of fun places to eat here.

The town is pretty photogenic too, especially the SRF gardens, so be sure to pack the camera!

-Shea

 

[fridrich]

Hey Mr. Sanders,
I like your portrait but would like to see more detail in the breast area!
Here is an example of a soft light built with two 7X4 foot pieces of 1 inch Foamcore set at right angles to make "corner". A piece of "two stop" diffuser material over the front (3X7 foot) and a bare Norman head at the back of the triangle puts out 1200 ws.

 

[Dick Sanders]

Nice! Your photo reminds me of Bettie Page type photos. Fun stuff!

So... the bare head both bounces off all sides of the "corner flat" and also punches directly through the diffuser material. Have you also tried this setup with a large reflector aimed at the corner of the flat, which would bounce the light off the back and sides (no direct punch) before punching through the diffusion material? I remember we used to do something similar at the Sid Avery studio many years ago.

 

[Ls3D]

Interesting, and what a first post! I think you should crop out an avatar. Dig the retro theme, and she looks like she could actually peddle that thing.

-Shea

 

[fridrich]

Thank you for your kind words on my first post!

I will have to try the reflector on the head and bounce off the corner and sides. That should be softer but the space in the corner is limited.
Yes Shea, that girl has legs! She is an EMT with New Hanover County North Carolina.

 

[danman281]

awesome. do you have any pics of set up?

 

[fridrich]

danman,
sorry, no pics of this set up, all i thought about was the model... I will make some shots of the light in use next time.
Thank you!
Wm.

 

[eyeye]

I know this is about lighting, but I notice the men arent seeing this, as her face is the last thing any guy is looking at LOL. Her face pose is making her look like a man. She needs to make a softer face

 

[eyeye]

Dick an others. I read that no diffusion, a bare bulb, is the softest light. I thought it was crazy but shot with nothing on my strobe and got surprisingly soft light. Any thoughts on that method or ideas for playing with it?

The only down side I saw was it was a little bright for young ones

 

[Dick Sanders]

EyeEye: The bare bulb is soft in the context of "enlarging and bouncing" the light. For example, let's say you have a fairly large room with white walls and a white ceiling. If you place the bare bulb a little distance from your subject, the light will fly in all directions, bouncing off the walls and ceiling to give you an enveloping soft light. Shooting a barebulb directly at a subject will not give you a softlight. However, digital cameras have a skin smoothing effect (lack of film grain texture, and inability to capture fine detail in the lower mp cameras). But back to the bare bulb: I have a monolight that I have used with a translucent plastic sphere that covers the bare bulb (see pic). The idea here is to get the bare-bulb effect, but with one layer of diffusion. Even better! Also, note the 12 inch reflector at right, with the diffusion disc on the front -- that's what I used to punch through two additional diffusion layers in the portrait at the top.

But I'm glad we're having this discussion, because the takeaway is you don't have to spend a lot of money on gear. Fridrich showed how you could make a softlight flat/triangle out of foam core and diffusion material (proably less than $40). And you could make an even smaller version of what he made for a head-and-shoulders portrait. My setups are simple. The plastic sphere that fits over the bare bulb was an inexpensive piece of gear, etc. In other words, you don't have to spend $1,500 at Calumet to get soft light.

Also... the old portrait masters from a half century ago and more used hard direct hot lights, but they had soft-focus lenses (sometimes variable soft focus). By contrast, the modern strobe is a harsher light and needs to be diffused. Or PhotoShopped!

Finally, EyeEye -- you're right about the face in Fridrich's portrait. Fridrich might be too focused on breast detail (okay, just kidding).

 

[eyeye]

Thanks Dick.