what lighting setup for this shot?

[wlandymore]

Hey there,

I was just trolling around the internet and I found this web page.

Casey Britt — Digital Art Director, Designer, Developer, Creative ? New York, NY

I really like that photo that he has there on the main page and I was wondering if this could be done outside of professional lighting. Obviously I'm going to need a big light source that is blocked out by the head but I've tried to do something like holding an LED flashlight behind my head in a dark room with the shutter speed on bulb. Although you kind of get a similar effect it's not the same because you don't get the definition that he sides of the head, etc.

Any insight for re-creating that type of shot?

 

[Buckster]

3 lights: 1 directly behind the subject to blow out the background, the other 2 arranged as extreme rim lighting from back and slightly to the sides and a little higher than the subject, just out of frame and probably using barn doors or gobos or something to direct the light to the subject and keep from flaring the lens. Have nothing in front of the subject that would reflect light back onto the face, or burn it in post.

 

[hirejn]

It could also be one light from the back, with just reflectors on either side to wrap some of that around the face. All images are processed so there could be some significant work in post here. You would have to set the camera to not record ambient light. Then the only light registering is from the flash, enabling you to sculpt it and leave the face dark.

 

[Derrel]

I think Buckster has given a very good setup idea. I think this could also be done with just two lights as well, if you used two large V-flats, one on either side of the subject, and blasted the light into those, thus directing "some" of the light into the flats and onto the sides of the subject, and also onto the white background. The flats would need to be positioned so that just a little bit of light hit the sides of the subject. The bit of top light could easily be bounce off of a lowish ceiling, or a reflector.

The lighting on the sides of the man seems pretty low in specularity...that's what make me think it might be from V-flats.

As with many photos, there are multiple ways to light things.

 

[Buckster]

The crispness in the light to dark edges of the shirt, hair and ears in particular make me think this doesn't use diffusion, including a single light bouncing off reflectors (and blowing out the background). This looks a lot more like bare bulb work to me.

As with many photos, there are multiple ways to light things.

^This, for sure.

 

[wlandymore]

thanks a lot for all the advice guys. This is definitely something I would like to try to do. Something about the way the face is barely visible except for just a few details.