Lighting question

[davidfillion]

Hello all,

I am doing a portrait session at a Hat party thing going on tomorrow and I was wondering what would be the best approach for setting up some strobes.

I will be having a white backdrop (all I have at the moment).

I was thinking of having a strobe with a soft flash shine down on the subject's hat, along with the other one on the backdrop, and camera flash as fill.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[tirediron]

Almost impossible to give really good advice without knowing exactly what the circumstances are, but, if I were doing it, and assuming I had a reasonably amount of room, I would do it this way: One strobe as key with a large SB, slightly high and 30 degrees image right, with a large reflector 90 degrees subject left and a second snooted strobe to highlight the hats. I would NOT illuminate the background, but rather would move it back and expose to produce a medium gray so as to avoid masking any white feathers, and other bright elements of the hats.

 

[tirediron]

Moving to the Lighting Forum.

 

[davidfillion]

Oh okay thank you very much, I never thought of subjects having white masks and such. I will definitely take your approach into
Consideration.


Plus I didn't see the lighting section, I was using the iPhone app, my bad.

 

[gsgary]

If you only have 2 lights your will not turn the backdrop white, instead why not turn it grey or black, i would have 1 flash at 45 just above subject front big softbox and 1 behind but higher than front light shining towards main light 7" reflector with a grid and a reflector opposite side of main at front to bounce some light into the shadows

 

[KmH]

Hat brims tend to cast shadows on the eyes. Different hats will have different sized brims and you will likely need to make many adjustments to your lighting setup.

 

[Mike_E]

Have you considered setting your fill low (ish) and using your key to play with shadows? You can use reflectors to kick the subjects and do as Tired said about setting your speed to manage the background. I say play with the shadows because the whole point behind a hat is to give shadows to the face, whether for comfort/protection from the sun or simply to add a bit of drama to the wearer- just not too much or you'll wind up with crappy photos.

You also need shadow to accentuate the design of the hats and the texture of their material so a bit more of a rakish angle is called for than your normal head and shoulders shot.

jmo

 

[davidfillion]

Thank you to everyone!, I will test the suggested setups out tonight just before the party, hopefully one will work out. I'll try experimenting if time.

Thanks again

-Dave

 

[Derrel]

Hat brims tend to cast shadows on the eyes. Different hats will have different sized brims and you will likely need to make many adjustments to your lighting setup.

THis is very true--hats can be a regal PITA....you will likely need the fill light to be RIGHT ON THE CAMERA...that is actually a good place for fill light anyway...you do not want too much shadow under the hat brims, so the fill light might actually be best if it is a smidgeon brighter than you would normally use...if the fill light is coming from off-camera, make absolutely SURE that it is at the camera height and aimed straight ahead, and located as close to the camera position as you can get it! (Seriously!)