Soft lighting...

[JSpedding]

Iv got a few shoots coming up over the coming months and im wanting to experiment more with light as I always seem to use a rather hard flash set-up that has worked well for me up until now but makes all my images look the same.
I want to experiment more with soft lighting that envelopes the model rather than picks them out something like in the link below, particularly the 4th and 7th image:

Patrick Demarchelier ||| Vogue India 10/07 Bollywood Dreams

If anyone can give me any tips on how to achieve this I would be very grateful, im thinking bouncing my main light in off a massive white reflector to soften it a little bit and then using a hair light and a bit of movement around the back of the head but then on the 4th image I also notice the catchlight places a light high and left (photographers perspective) of Gemma which throws me a bit.

Cheers

 

[Timothy]

you could also try feathering the light with a softbox if you have one, might help with the softer look

perhaps if you let us know what sort of gear you had we would be able to help a little more

 

[Derrel]

Shots 4 and 7 are not done with soft lighting: look at the hard shadow of her nose on shot 4, and the small catchlight. That is actually "hard" lighting,since the shadow is "hard-edged,dense, and black." Those photos also have a ton of post work done on them.

Something like a 16 to 20 inch, deep parabolic reflector would be a good choice to emulate shot #4. Her hair is being illuminated from the rear. Patrick D has a lot of lighting and grip equipment and the best post-production work money can buy.

Look at the deep, black shadows,as well as the small,highlighted areas: you should also have some narrow-angle reflectors and honeycomb grids and if you can afford it, something like a Speedotron focusing fresnel spot--or two.

 

[JSpedding]

Cheers Derrel, decided on the 20" parabolic reflector, looks good. ill get some images uploaded later on to show you what I got.

Jak

 

[Mike_E]

You can also feather with the reflector as well. For that matter you can feather with an umbrella. A reflector on the other side to bring up the shadows is easy to accomplish too.