How to achieve?

[josh_thornton]

I'm hoping to shoot a few photographs in a similar style to the ones

posted below. How much power should I expect to need? Could it be

achieved without strobes (via reflectors & foamcore)? Any other

suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Josh

[josh_thornton]

Here's another example.

[chris m., central florida]

These photos can be duplicated. For the girl on the beach, a silver/white reflector to bounce sunlight back onto her and strong fill flash will do the trick. For the actor - a reflector again, probably gold since that is not his natural skin color - and it looks like on camera fill flash was used.

[elliot_n]

'Could it be achieved without strobes (via reflectors & foamcore)?'

 

No.

 

(But you could get close to the second shot by using a mirror.)

[ellis_vener_photography]

I'd take a 1200 watt-second Hensel Porty or Profoto 7b, although it is more likely thatthe

photos of Elijah Wood was done with a standard pack & head set up (maybe powered by a

generator because of the musch shorter power recycle times.

[chris m., central florida]

Ellis wants to bring all kinds of power :-). He's right in a way. Understand I don't do these types of shots for a living and I am not in the same league as Ellis - my experience is limited with this particular type of work. During the Florida School this year, John Woodward was doing very similar shots of models rolling around in the surf with a small portable Norman 200w/s head w/parbolic reflector and a rechargable battery pack carried by his assistant. The assistant had the advantage of moving in close to the model, hence a higher power head was not needed. I was in his class and used a Sunpak 555 on a light stand since I didn't rate to have an assistant :-). But the results were pretty good. You're basically aiming your light source at the mask of their face and body and hitting them with enough light to really make them pop off the background without overexposing them. Anyway, there's a lot you can do but you do need a little power to do it. I'll attach a sample of my work in a bit, I think I also have a picture of our class at work to show you what I mean. I had to have something to show my wife so she'd know I was really there to learn about off camera lighting and not just to watch these models roll around in the sand. It was a really, really tough class but somebody had to do it.

 

For more practical and affordable applications, you could try covering a large piece of thick cardbord (4X6) with crinkled aluminum foil and using it as a reflector. I have done this and it works. But you'll still need fill flash, and you'll need a slower shutter speed to bring in the background a little. If you have a friend that can act as an assistant, it helps. If you can time your shoot for sunrise/sunset, that seems to be the best time to pull off these shots even if you don't plan on having the sun in the image.

[gregg_t]

Josh

 

The first photo is almost definately taken with a ring flash. Probably shooting at f22 or so. Possibly Profoto or similar ring flash?

 

Gregg

[olivier_koning]

Lots of flash, definitely, (for the girl at least) a very fast shutter speed (1/500th?) to darken the available light and achieve a very dramatic flash/available light ratio. This was probably shot in harsh, mid afternoon light (3:00-4:00PM for instance).

[michael_meyer]

<p>i would say definitely flash--a reflector wouldn't give enough light to do this. the

photographer most likely did the following:

<br>1. figured out the flash exposure

<br>2. figured out the proper ambient light exposure at the same f-stop as the flash

exposure.

<br>3. set the camera at the proper f-stop for the flash

<br>4. set the shutter speed to under-expose the background by one or two stops.

 

<p>it's not that important which flash set-up he used or how much power the flash

has.

it could be any flash. it's the setting of the exposure that is important. i could

probably produce this with my 285 off camera, though something more powerful

would be easier. in the second shot, a gel may have been used to alter the light color

on mr. wood.

 

<p>-<a href="http://www.michaelmeyerphoto.com" target="blank">michael</a>

[van_camper]

It's just a straight game of balancing flash and ambient, the flash set for normal rather then a fill exposure. The girl shot had the flash hand held from above. Simple stuff.