B/W pic with heavy shadows help

[sbr]

Hi,
I have a type of picture I am trying to take that I need some help on with camera settings. I want to take a B/W indoor portrait with the face/body only partially lit in front and the back of the person fairly dark and the background mostly pretty dark, just shadows showing. Would you use a flash for this? When I have tied in the past with the flash it give out too much light and lights up the whole face. Any help with setting would be appreciated. I have a D7100 and a tripod if necessary. I also have access to Lightroom if that’s what necessary to add proper shadows and vignetting to get this type picture right.

 

[weepete]

Yes I'd use a flash to control the lighting.

Try this:

Strobist: Lighting 101: Snoots and Gobos and Grids

 

[dennybeall]

I would use a single light, a lamp if that's all you have, and use a shutter speed, ISO and f-stop to get the shot you want. Use the tripod and have the person hold still. Kick the ISO up a bit to get the exposure.
If you had all kinds of studio equipment you could do it better but this way will give you a start.

 

[TCampbell]

You are describing what we might refer to as "short lighting". In this scenario the light source is well-off to the side... the subect's head is pointed toward the same direction of the light... but forward of the light. This results in the side of the face you mostly cannot see being illuiminated. The cheek which is more prominently displayed to the camera is mostly in shadow. (if they turn their head so the cheek we can see is mostly in light and the cheek wee cannot see is in shadow then we call it "broad lighting".)

Use a flash.

You probably want to "diffuse" the flash. By "diffuse" what we really mean is you make the light source seem to originate from a wide source rather than a narrow pinpoint light source. Firing the flash through a "shoot through" umbrella (cheap... about $10) will do this... but the downside of the umbrella is light will reflect back and sideways and light up much of the room and this can result in haivng more subject lit than you want.

A "soft box" would work better because the back and sides are contained so light can only escape through the front... but a soft box will cost a bit more.

To do this on the cheap... a bright light source, such as a bright flood light positioned somewhat close to the subject's face and shining through something to diffuse it (frosted acetate mounted to a cheap wood frame or perhaps some white sheen fabric) might achieve the same result.

BTW... if the light source is broad enough and close enough, the rest of the room need not actually be black. The difference between the very bright flash and the not-so-bright (but not black) background will cause the background to underexpose by so much that it will render "black" in your photo.