Lighting setup

anb001 · Jan 17, 2018

I have a bit of a challenge. I saw attached picture, and was wondering how the lighting should be setup for something like that.

I have mainly been photographing outside for many years, but over the last year also started doing portraits in a studio I have at home. I have softboxes for key and fill light, and a hairlight as well.

I would appreciate if someone can give me some advice on how to setup ligting for a photoshoot like the attached. I'm almost certain that I don't have all equipment/lighting required, but very much like to know what it takes.

Thanks.

Anders.

tirediron · Jan 17, 2018

I didn't see anything special in the lighting, that is, it looked lit an image captured under available light.

anb001 · Jan 19, 2018

tirediron said:
I didn't see anything special in the lighting, that is, it looked lit an image captured under available light.

I'll try to experiment with some fixed lighting. Thanks.

Sportrunner · Jan 19, 2018

It's using two lights coming in from the sides. Probably can be replicated by using two soft boxes (tall ones). You can get an idea of the lighting by looking at the shadows. The inside of her arms are in shadows so there have to be at least two lights coming in from the sides. Also look for the bright areas, shoulders and hair in this case. Those give you the biggest clues.

Derrel · Jan 20, 2018

I would say there are two main lights, one at 11 o-clock, the other at 2 o'clock, and the glancing angle of these is why the light on her arms and such is so "hot"...the backside of her could be lighted by a large pair of reflector boards, each about the size of a household door, or by any other type of large light source.

Look at the arm shadow...that's a clue. I think the two lights are standard, 50-degree metal bowl flash reflectors, maybe with barn doors fitted, but maybe not. See how sharp-edged the arm shadows are?? This is hard lighting, and is _NOT_ softbox type soft light, but much crisper, like say, the kind of light one gets from a using the standard metal bowl reflectors that come with almost every single studio flash head.

The secret to "hot" rim lighting is to make it come in at a steep angle! it's effectively 5,6 stops hotter than the light that illuminates the back side of her body.

Her hair and buttocks might have some spot lighting going on...hard to tell.

anb001 · Jan 22, 2018

Thanks a lot for your comments. Much appreciated.

TCampbell · Jan 23, 2018

You can see the shadow of the model's left arm on her left buttock -- giving you a pretty good direction to that light. The shadow of the right arm is more to her side -- that light isn't quite as far back as the light on the left.