How is this done?!

[jmtonkin]

I have seen countless pictures like THIS and I cannot for the life of me figure out how it is done. How do they light just the feet and have everything else black? What am I missing?

 

[STM]

Can you post something to illustrate your point? I am (no pun intended) in the dark here. Are you talking about some studio shot where they are using a snoot with one of the lights?

 

[480sparky]

Good lighting technique. Black cloths. Maybe some post-processing.

 

[Netskimmer]

Can you post something to illustrate your point? I am (no pun intended) in the dark here. Are you talking about some studio shot where they are using a snoot with one of the lights?

Click the link to see the example.

 

[jmtonkin]

Can you post something to illustrate your point? I am (no pun intended) in the dark here. Are you talking about some studio shot where they are using a snoot with one of the lights?

By illustrate my point, what do you mean? I guess what I'm really wondering is, when you look at that baby's feet, you know there is more baby, but its all blacked out...how? I've tried to find some information about it but haven't had much luck. I see a lot of baby and maternity pictures like this and can't figure out how it is done.

Like this ONE, I know there is someone behind the baby holding it. How does the light not affect that person at all and all you can see is the feet and hands?

 

[480sparky]

Very precise control of the lighting is 95% of it. It's not just 'throw some monolights on some stands, pop some umbrellas and turn on the pocket wizards...'

 

[jmtonkin]

Do you know of anywhere or anything I can read on this? I'm really intrigued, but can't figure it out...I'd like to read up on it and practice.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Do you know of anywhere or anything I can read on this? I'm really intrigued, but can't figure it out...I'd like to read up on it and practice.

Your local university may offer studio lighting classes, or you can google/youtube low key light.

To put your example pic basic - soft directional key light on the subject/foreground, and little or no light on a black (or grey and others colors with ample distance) background will make the subject pop.

 

[jmtonkin]

Alright! Thanks!

 

[Buckster]

Probably a simple flag / barn door setup.

 

[KmH]

The place to start is by learning the fundamentals. The fastest way to learn the fundamentals of most things is by reading some books:

Light Science and Magic, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

You can also visit www.strobist.com for OCF (off camera flash) techniques and http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/ or get Neils books:

Off-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Photographers

On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography

 

[mwinterlin]

yea thats just veeery careful lighting and a lil post work on that second pic

 

[DiskoJoe]

Can you post something to illustrate your point? I am (no pun intended) in the dark here. Are you talking about some studio shot where they are using a snoot with one of the lights?

You could snoot it. Nothing like a trusty piece of cardboard.

A couple things you could do in post would be to use a paint brush and add some black in areas. Or you could use the adjustment brush in the raw converter of PS and just darken part of the exposure more. Or sheets like other people mentioned. Any of these would give you this effect.

 

[jwbryson1]

Asked and answered many times before. Check this out:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/digital-discussion-q/172229-how-get-blacked-out-backgrounds.html

 

[Tiberius47]

Looks to me like they have the light extremely close to the subject. That way they can have the flash on a very low power, and the light will fall off very quickly, leaving everything behind the subject in darkness.

Google Depth of Light.