Question about lighting used in a picture

[carlos_miami]

Hi all,<br>

 

I have been hired to take close-up pictures of women's lips.<br><br>

 

Here is a sample image the client provided me with:<br><br>

 

<a href=" title="skyy lips shootwp_2560x1600_cherrys by miami

fever, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2405/2907947464_07388f13ee_o.jpg" width="800"

height="500" alt="skyy lips shootwp_2560x1600_cherrys" /></a><br><br>

 

If the above image doesn't appear, please copy/paste this into your address bar:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2405/2907947464_07388f13ee_o.jpg<br><br>

 

It appears that the subject is being lit with multiple sources, possibly a mix of hard and soft lighting.<br><br>

 

Does anyone have experience with controlling light with relatively small subjects such as these?<br><br>

 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.<br><br>

[bob_sunley]

The image appears to be a composite, probably from four images.

[bob_osullivan]

I disagree about this being a composite. This can be done at capture.

 

This image has specular but slightly diffuse light on the subjects. The quality of light and reflections on the cherries and the bottle indicate a large beauty dish perhaps 18-22" was used. This appears to have been set directly in front of the scene and above at more than a 45 degree angle down.

 

There also appears to be a bit of background lighting behind the bottle. Perhaps only 1/2 stop brighter than the scene. My guess is it's about 3' from the red paper background and modified with a 20 degree honeycomb grid.

 

The tell tale signs are the shadows under the chins, nostrils, and lower lips for the beauty light. And of course the highlights.

 

Lastly it looks like the bottle reflections were enhanced with a black gobo on the right behind the model and a white reflector on the left behind the other model.

[richard_quindry]

In my opinion it's a composite - no doubt in my mind about it. There is no way that you could pull off the precision of the

placements in this image in one shot or have space to place lights. It's also heavily retouched - to the point that it's

difficult to tell where the real highlights fell as both highlights and shadows could have been moved if desired by the

Photoshop artist. I like it - it's very well done, but it is close to an illustration with the amount of Photoshop that has been

done on it. That makes it tough to make calls about what was done without seeing the originals that were used in the composite.

 

Rich Quindry

 

www.Quindry.com

[brooks short]

There's absolutely no reason for this image to have been done with one capture. The bottle, cherries, background and each model were most likely shot separately.

 

The bottle alone is probably several captures with different lighting for different parts of the bottle.

[richard_cochran]

There is no reflection of the models in the bottle. Not even a hint of a reflection of the models anywhere. This suggests either the reflection was photoshopped out, or, more likely, the image is a composite.

[fullmetalphotograper]

Could this image be done in capture yes, but it wasn't. It is a composite done with Adobe Photoshop 3 on a windows

platform. There is at least 5 layers. Stems, bottle, each girl and the background. There is very heavy manipulation of the

lips and chins.It is done very nicely, but it is a composite.

[b_christopher]

To answer the original question -- the lighting on the lips and models' faces appear pretty straight forward. Simple one light set-up in a small softbox or beauty dish would provide such light. Other elements needed to create a similar image are; good makeup, good post work and retouching.