Photoshoot questions

[Guinn_Cory]

Hey guys! Im new to this site and had some questions on an upcoming photoshoot Im working on.

1. Im photographing athletes in all black uniform, some athlete are Caucasian and some are African American (not sure if this matters) but I want to use a dark room with lighting and a backdrop. Should the backdrop be white or black to maximize the potential?

2. What would be the best lighting set up to minimize shadows? I have two lights to use, possibly three, and need some help.

 

[Gavjenks]

I would go sort of in between by using a dark charcoal gray sort of background, and then putting a prominent spotlight on that backdrop with (semi-soft) edges visible in frame, to center the athletes inside of. This lets you use essentially black on black if low key is the effect you want like you say, but still makes the uniforms distinguishable from the backdrop.

Then make sure to flag your other lights (shield them with sheets of black stuff on the sides so they can't directly "see" the background), so they don't spill onto the backdrop and ruin your spotlight effect.

To "minimize shadows" you'd want to use something like butterfly lighting (main light high-ish above your camera), but I'm not sure that's what you really want. No shadows is boring in this case. Shadows would help to sculpt the athlete's muscles and make them look more dramatic. Perhaps you mean "minimize harsh edges on shadows" ?? If so, you do that by having an umbrella or softbox to diffuse the light source out over a larger area.



So I would use something like:
- one strong light at 45 degrees one side with low-moderate diffusion (like a 1.5-2' umbrella or softbox), with a flag to shield the backdrop from it. This will avoid super harsh edged shadows, but still give some character and a good amount of definition to what people expect to be muscley, hard-featured athletes.
- another weaker light or reflector maybe 90 degrees from side right with much more diffusion so that it fills in a bit but doesn't give you competing shadows (maybe 4' umbrella or softbox or reflector, and possibly closer to them than the other one), also with a flag to shield the backdrop from it.
- then a small softbox or a beauty dish with a grille (hex or rectangular mesh or metal thing that limits the angle of the light) on the ground behind the athlete pointing up at the backdrop to make a little halo area for them to stand out from.
- Possibly if feeling fancy, also a small, relatively harsh, but weaker compared to the others and very tight, controlled beam of light from a "snoot" or a very small beauty dish with grill, used to create specular highlights to make them look like they are sweaty and glistening if that's an effect that sounds good for the intended purpose (possibly in combination with spray bottles or oil if REALLY into that look)

 

[Derrel]

I basically agree with everything Gavjenks has written above, but the one thing I would do differently is to place the background light not on the ground, but at the mid-back level and aimed straight back at the background. This looks great on half-body shots, where the athlete's body blocks the backlight stand and flash. When a light is shot from low in the center of the background and aimed up, it's brightest at the bottom, and fades darker pretty quickly. When the light is level, and aimed straight back, the halo is more even, and it avoids the really awful potential side effect of a low- or high- angled background light, which is showing off ripples or wrinkles in the background material if it is paper or muslin, or if it's a textured wall, it can reveal the stucco texturing.

If the shooting space is very cramped, and the background light to background distance is SHORT, with the light low, the light is VERY "hot" where it first hits, and then it can easily be 4 or 5 f/stops less in intensity at the top of the background; this makes a bright background very "low" on a person, which looks, well, weird many times. If the background light is LEVEL, the falloff is much less-noticeable, and it just looks...well...more natural and less "lighted" or "lit up".

WHen you have a small-sensor camera, in a small room, you end up using SHORT focal length lenses to get a full-length figure, and at even 12 feet from the person, the depth of field is deep enough at f/8 for the background to become an almost-in-focus, and recognizable element. This is one of the main differences between APS-C and FF and 120 rollfilm sized shots that are made in front of seamless backdrops. If you have an APS-C sized sensor, you might want to try and keep the depth of field shallow-ish by shooting at f/5.6 or even f/4.8 and focusing VERY carefully.

As for the background light and grid: you might, or might not, want to use a grid. It depends on the FOCAL length of the lens, and how much background it "sees" in your camera room. With a grid, you might not have enough beam spread to get any kind of a halo, so you might have to ditch the grid. Where that light is placed depends on the kind of modifier it has, and what effect tyou want to achieve.

A second idea is to light the off-side of the person with the 4' umbrella AND with the SAME umbrella, aim it partly at the background, so that THAT umbrella also lights the background a bit.