How is this lighting achieved?

[Alerick]

Corbis: photography, rights, motion.

I see alot of photos where the lighting has a dark contrast with lots of detail. How is this achieved? is it in the lighting an camera settings or done post?

 

[manaheim]

If I had to guess I would say flash with a fast shutter time and/or small aperature.

 

[Big Mike]

It has to do with the placement of the lights...most importantly, off camera. It's then a matter of setting your lights & camera to get the exposure you want.

 

[GeneralBenson]

It's very, very carefully controlled lighting. Atleast two flashes, and it looks like they're pretty carefully flagged. There's hard light on the subject, but the people holding him up are significantly less lit. He's just being wing lit from both sides, with flags to keep the direct light off the other people.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

One strobe camera right, one camera left. That's it, no tricks.

 

[manaheim]

Hm, the off-cam lighting to the sides hadn't occurred to me. Neat thought.

Couldn't you get the same effect from dead-on flash and flash dropoff and careful control of aperature and such? (minus the angle, of course)

 

[johnbergsing]

One strobe camera right, one camera left. That's it, no tricks.

I concur. Looks like the keylight was camera right.

 

[dxqcanada]

Diffused strobe on Right ... same level as primary guy ... reflector on Left pointing back down on primary guy ?

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Diffused strobe on Right ... same level as primary guy ... reflector on Left pointing back down on primary guy ?

No, it's hard light, look at the shadow on his wristwatch, and if a reflector was used for the other side, it'd be so close, you'd see it in the frame.

 

[jcolman]

Hm, the off-cam lighting to the sides hadn't occurred to me. Neat thought.

Couldn't you get the same effect from dead-on flash and flash dropoff and careful control of aperature and such? (minus the angle, of course)

No. Dead on flash would leave no shadows on the side of his face/body. This shot is a simple two strobe light shot. Nothing tricky about it.

Here's a shot I did that's somewhat similar except that I added a bit of fill from a third light

and another simple two light shot

 

[CxThree]

The key here looks like careful control of flash and your manual mode settings on your camera. After you decide on the placement of your lights, You would expose your subject with your Aperture setting and then dial down your shutter speed until you remove most or all of the ambient light in the room.

At least, that's what I would be trying to do.

If you want to see more on this subject, check out this link. It covers shutter speeds and "key shifting". In particular, the key shifting section around 4:20 in the video begins the discussion on key shifting with your shutter speed and an external flash.