Feathering does not help. What can go wrong?

[dave_yong]

Hello! Last night I practiced on one-light setup in my basement. My

subject is a mannequin, with one AB 1600 strobe placed high (about 4

ft higher than the subject) to the left of the subject, 45 degree

from the camera. I used a 5? x 7? diffusion panel made of PVP and

two layers of stop-nylon to soften the light. The strobe is about 1

ft behind the diffusion panel which is about 4 ft from the subject. A

barndoor is fixed to the strobe?s reflector. And also a litedisc

reflector is placed to the right of the subject to fill in the shadow

on the shadow side (no light is spilled to the highlight side of the

subject?s face. Then I shot at 1/125, f 6.3. I know feathering the

light can remove hotspot; however, moving the strobe in hope that the

edge of the light hit the subject gave me the same result - I still

see bright highlight on the highlight side instead of getting the

smooth light effect. What can go wrong? I heard some softboxes have

the hotspot remover (buffer?) installed to avoid hotspot. Can the

problem be that my diffusion panel which has no hotspot remover?

Thanks very much.<div></div>

[ellis_vener_photography]

Try bouncing the light first into an umbrella and then through the diffusion screen. The

umbrella becomes the light source that gets diffused as opposed the relatively small

source of the head/reflector combination.

 

Also move the diffusion screen as close as you can to the mannequin without getting it

into the picture.

[mydarkroom]

If you look at the inside a softbox you will see white or silver fabric. This helps distrute the light evenly. Having a bare bulb with no reflection will cause those hot spot. You can help the problem a little. First use your reflector it will spread the light a little. 2nd cut about a 5 inch circle out of card stock or foam core. Put it on the rip-stop in the direct path of the light to subject. These will help your problem but not completly solve them. You may also need to make a few diffrnet size gobos and play with the results.

[garry edwards]

Your subject is probably more reflective than human skin, and your light source may be too far away.

[dave_yong]

Thanks all for your advise. To Garry: i shot a self-portrait with the same set-up. i still see a bright spot, but less, on my forehead. I also lowered the strobe to see if i can remove the bright spot, but in vain. One thing i have not tried is moving the strobe lower and closer to the subject. I will give this idea a shot soon, along with other suggestions. Thanks again.

[jonathan_brewer1]

I would ask you why you're placing your key in the position you've placed it to understand what you're trying to accomplish...................................I'll give you my thoughts.....................you're key is too high, so it's lighting the top left part of her face,............when your key it too the side, to the left, then the side of the face closest to the light source is GOING TO BE BRIGHTER, since it's obviously closer to the lightsource than the opposite side.

 

You can accomplish this any number of ways, an open ended scrim, which is 'black netting' supported by a frame on 3 sides and no frame on one of its sides so that you can 'feather' the part of the light source that's closest to your subject matter, you can 'double up'/'triple up' and so forth, you diffusion material on the section of your diffusion that's hitting the left side of the face, but in conjunction w/any of these fixes, I would suggest helping out the situation by lowering the light/bringing it around somewhat closer to the camera/lens position.

 

Also consider putting your lightsource in front of your diffusion material to bounce your illumination off the diffusion as opposed to shooting through it, and then you utilizing its whole area as a reflector.

 

Anyway, these are some of the things I would start trying, good luck.

 

 

www.imageandartifact.bz

[steve_hovland]

I use Rosco diffusion such as Light Tough Frost on my reflectors.

 

This takes the harsh edge off the light but still provides noticeable feathering.

 

The bigger the source the harder it will be to feather.

[elliot_n]

'The strobe is about 1 ft behind the diffusion panel which is about 4 ft from the subject.'

 

Your strobe is too close to the panel (try 3 or 4 ft).

 

And the panel is too far from the subject (try 1 or 2 ft).

 

(Don't you have modelling lights?)

[dave_yong]

Thanks all.

 

To Elliot: What is your logic behind your suggested lighting set-up? I thought the farther the strobe away from the diffusion panel, the small the light source is. If i move the strobe 2 - 3 ft away as suggested, will the light get smaller therefore harder? I will place the diffusion panel 1 ft away from my subject and see how it turns out.

 

To Jonathan Brewer: I tried to get Rembrandt lighting on the subject face so i located the strobe higher than the subject and about 45 degree from the camera.

[jonathan_brewer1]

Yes........and I hope you can problem solve this situation to your satisfaction, it's not the light placement that's not working, it's whatever lightsource you're using in this position that's not going to work....................you've got one prominent 'hot spot' high up, and as you yourself said, it's not working, so to me there are two options, change your lighting, or change the position of your lights.

 

You're actually going through a positive experience, you've got a problem, and you'll come up with a fix, if you refuse to quit. Rembrandt lighting or any other kind of lighting does not demand that you position your lighting in one particular spot, 45deg. on the vertical/45deg. on the horizontal is the starting point for Rembrandt lighting, but you DON'T HAVE TO PUT your lights EXACTLY at that orientation to achieve the effect,...................as you're finding out, their are countless other variables that affect WHATEVER light scheme you choose.

 

You've got the latitude to move your lights until they look right, it they don't look right no matter where you move them, then you've got to change the lighting itself.

 

Things like the quality of your light, the shape of the subjects head and so forth will affect how your lighting works at a certain spot, 45deg. to the left and 45deg. up isn't working, you can still move your lights to the left/right, and higher/lower that the ideal and achieve the Rembrandt effect.

[brooks short]

Dave,

 

In this situation, the diffusion panel is the light source. Your strobe lights the diffusion panel and the diffusion panel lights the subject.

 

If you place your strobe close to the diffusion panel a smaller area of the panel is lit and the light on the subject is harder, not softer because the light source (lit area of the diffusion panel is smaller.

 

If you place your strobe farther away from tyhe diffusion panel, you light a larger portion of that panel so the light on the subject is softer.

 

Since the diffusion panel is the light source, moving it closer or farther away from the subject will change the softness of the light.

 

It's very difficult to feather the light from a diffusion panel because it's large and has no sides to contain the light and the light is diffuse and moves in many directions. Use an umbrella or softbox with a recessed screen if you want to feather a soft light.

[frank_kimble]

I'm with those that say your light is too close to the panel. You are only lighting the center section of it. Also try a little powder/makeup on the "face", it's surface is much more reflective than human skin.

[jonathan_brewer1]

Your initial set-up was essentially a crude softbox, without some of the things that are incorporated in the 'state of the art' softboxes manufactured today to 'feather'/even out the light from 'edge to edge', like internal baffles, extra diffusion/doubled up diffusion in the 'center spot' of the front diffusion of these softboxes, or graduated reflectivity on the back reflective portion of these softboxes.

 

Increasing the distance from your strobe to your diffusion isn't going to totally eliminate having a hot spot, you'll still need to do something with the center portion of the diffusion, also, the side of the face closer to your set-up will still be hotter than the off side, so you'll have to do something in terms of 'feathering'/using some type of scrim to 'knock' down the illumination on the closer side.

 

I would hope that you consider this, sometimes utilizing a simple set-up like this can cause you the MOST WORK, your set-up involves diffusion material, and a light, that's essentially what a softbox does, only with a softbox, they've already addressed the problems of 'evening out' the light w/internal baffles and so forth. Regardless of why you choose to go this route, it's still worth it to keep at it until you make it work, if nothing else but as experience in problem solving.

 

I would suggest that you also consider putting your stobe in front of your diffusion material and bouncing lighting back into the subject matter, bouncing it off a parabolic type light mod like an umbrella will give you one look, bouncing it off the diffusion you have will give it another look, bouncing it off a sheet of white foamcore will give you still another, which leads to my final suggestion, which is to make this a test involving implementing the suggestions you've gotten from everybody here.

 

Problem solving, and testing the hell out of every possible combination, is going to give you what you want, what you can use, what you like, instead of just considering one set-up, play around with this, even if you get it right, try out some of the other suggestions, you cannot lose from this kind of experience.

[dave_yong]

Thanks all for your help. Studio lighting is fun and i don't mind experiencing obstacles ( i expect a lots are coming my way).

 

To Jonathan: i appreciate your explanation of the differences between commercial softbox and my home-made diffusion panel. Sooner or later i will get a softbox or photek softlighter to play with. By then feathering will be much easier, i think. Thanks again