Lighting in the Dark?

[focusnpose]

<p>Hello all. I am a new photo.net member and find it very informative. My friend wants to take a photo in a dark alley or parking lot. He only wants his face and arms illuminated. I am thinking I should use some sort of reflector or simply use a piece of white board and a small light in some kind of way. I've never done this before so I would appreciate any suggestions you may have. Thank you.</p>

[nathan_meador]

<p>You would probably want to use a small softbox if you have one (probably don't..yet) but you could use a snoot on a flash to get the desired look. If you don't have a snoot, you'd need some other light source, and diy a snoot or barndoors to direct the light only at his head/torso. The strobist site has a lot of info....<br /><a href="http://strobist.blogspot.com/">http://strobist.blogspot.com/</a></p>

<p>If the alley has decent light, then a reflector would possibly work, but you'd still be using a pretty slow shutter. If you use a bright light source, especially a flash, you can set a higher f-stop and mimic a dark alley while it is still daytime/dusk, though it is best if you are at least in shadow. (did that make sense?)</p>

[Life Photo-Documentaries]

<p>LaDon<br>

In order to achieve your goal you need to learn how to use a lightmeter/flashmeter... why? well, because to capture the effect you want you need to flash the right amount of light but metered as incident light instead of reflected light... The photometer of the camera is a reflected light one, that measure the amount of light reaching in to it... That also can consider the ambient lighting... <br>

Read about incident and reflected light and I am sure you will be able to the principle of the effect... <br>

Best<br>

JC</p>

[pete_harlan1]

<p>LaDon,</p>

<p>I'm reading in your post you want a special effect? Yes?</p>

<p>If you want only the face and arms lit with everything else black, soft boxes won't do the trick..too much light spill.<br>

Google a technique called "Light Painting."<br>

In it's most basic form, You will direct a light, often a focused flash light, to the areas you want lit. There are many ways to control the light, I'll let you figure that one out.<br>

If I tell you ALL the little tricks and techniques, where's the learning; right? ;)</p>

 

[nathan_meador]

<p>The only problem with light painting is the subject will have to remain absolutely still for the longer exposure required, otherwise he'll be blurry. A snooted or gridded flash placed close to the wall and throwing the light across the head and torso will do the trick and unless it is a narrow alley, there should be no spill.</p>

[NK Guy]

<p>The biggest problem you'll have is learning how to control spill. As suggested, look into a snoot or a grid, which keeps light to a narrow beam rather than spraying out everywhere, illuminating parts of the scene you may want to keep dark.</p>