Reverse engineering this light - how do I get it?

DocFrankenstein

Clinically Insane?
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Jill Greenberg and a few others have achieved this look.

I want similar/same stuff. The light looks like a bunch of small silver umbrellas to me with rimlights every which way. Sometimes two brollys on the subject level to the right and left of the camera.

What's your take on this?
 
On most, it looks like a brolly either side and not too high, plus something coming in low from right in front with a pretty beefy light from behind.
 
From the catchlights, it looks like there are three umbrellas on top with the largest being in the middle, all above the subjects' head. Then there seem to be three smaller rectangular softboxes below the subject. All of them seem to be in a straight line and pretty narrow in the spread. There is probably an umbrella or two or a snoot lighting up the background too. (Just my thoughts) ;)
 
Doc,why not send an email asking for a lighting plan and that you admire her work and want to replicate the effect.H
 
It is a high key lighting setup, umbrella or softbox on each side of the subject, reflector or fill flash in the middle and instead of the background being lit she has turned it around toward the subject for the halo effect, that one needs to be between a stop and a stop and a half over. Pretty easy to do just need lots of power and at least 3 heads. Hope that helps.
 
I'm sure she wouldn't give it out... for one.

For two... she wouldn't reply. She shoots covershots

She's a pro photographer, guess what, we all like a bit of flattery. I'v had answers from DB, he's shot covers for forty years, he's also just another human being, communication is a big part of this business, another major player is confidence, having yours boosted by someone in the game admiring the work and inquiring about technique is a compliment to which I reckon most normal folk would reply. Besides, photography is a very lonely occupation.
 
ladyphotog said:
It is a high key lighting setup, umbrella or softbox on each side of the subject, reflector or fill flash in the middle and instead of the background being lit she has turned it around toward the subject for the halo effect, that one needs to be between a stop and a stop and a half over. Pretty easy to do just need lots of power and at least 3 heads. Hope that helps.

She has the background lit as well. Perhaps with a bare flash head to get both the background and the back of the subjects or perhaps with a couple of heads back to back. There is also an additional hair light overhead on some of the shots. The main subject lighting is pretty straightforward as Ladyphotog mentions. I think the set uses 4 heads but I think it would work ok with three and a couple of silver reflectors on the shots without the hair light.
 
Since a picture paints a thousand words:
you can make your lighting setup advice visible with Kevin Kertz's excellent, FREE, special tool LightingSetup.psd.
 
YEah her nickname is the manipulator, so I'm gunna say, a load of levels, burning, selective colour, saturation, contrast, all that crap. She probably started with a basic lighting set up you described earlier though
 

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