What Kinds of Lighting Accessories are Needed to Sculpt or Paint with Light? Part 1

[my stuff]

<i>Moderator note: Moved from Beginner Photography Questions Forum. The beginner forum is for beginners to ask for help with basic questions, not for posting of articles, essays or blog entries. These types of posts may be more appropriate as articles for photo.net rather than the discussion forums.</i>

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<p>I like to look at lighting in two ways. As sculpture or as painting. As sculpture when you start with an overall wash of light and like painting when you commence in complete darkness. It is for this reason that I would like to suggest lighting systems and accessories that may assist you in attaining your final goals in lighting your subject or scenario. These examples relate more so to interior lighting situations, but can also apply to close quarter outdoor scenarios. If shooting out doors, you will need a much more powerful lighting set up to compete with the light already surrounding you.<br /> <br /> There are several lighting systems out there and most of them provide a vast panoply of lighting accessories and add ons. If they don't have what you want, you can often use other manufacturers accessories and adapt them to your systems mounting hardware. However, I would suggest that you find a brand that have the modifiers available to achieve your present and future lighting goals. I have designed my own system for one of my lighting techniques and this system does not exist in the market place.<br /> <br /> You may wish to consider either getting the power pack system and flash heads with modeling lights that plug in to the power unit or several independent mono block flash heads with modeling lights. I would recommend getting at least to heads or mono blocks. Three would be better. As to which brand, again that depends on your budget. You can have a complete system for around 2000 dollars or euros. It also depends on the size of space you will be working in which will determine the output required for the job. My own personal kit which I use when not doing a job are the following. Two Multiblitz Profilux 600 ws monoblocs and two Multiblitz Compact Lite 200 ws monobloc units. I have 6 Honey Comb Grids, 2 snoots, 2 barn door modifiers, four 7 inch silver bowls as well as 4 Multiblitz umbrellas and a Multiblitz 60cm soft box which I have use only once. I have a multitude of black scrims which can cover any part of the umbrella I wish to cover or softbox, made of black material and velcro or gaffers tape to attach to the umbrella's or soft box. I have several home made scrims anywhere from 30cm to 1 meter as well as home made cones and black card mini scrim modifiers. A scrim is a panel that can be used to either redirect (white) or block (black) light from hitting an object.<br /> <br /> In almost every discussion I have had with photographers, the greatest frustration expressed is the lack of control over their light source. There is just too much light going everywhere. It is for that reason that I often opt for the paint with light rather than the sculpt with light approach. It is more akin to a half empty or half full approach to lighting. I prefer to build my scenario from complete darkness than to sculpt out the light from an existing light source. Umbrellas are akin to sculpting where highly focused snoots and honeycomb grids are more akin to painting. However, even those tools may not give you the desired effect, as they cast a very definitive circle on to the photo landscape. That is where the art of dodging with scrims come in to play. Scrims can be shaped in anyway you desire and can be done so using wire hangers or wires to construct the shape of the modifier you wish to employ. Of course, the distance from the light source will have a major effect on how soft or sharp the gradation from dark to light will appear in your image. That is where experimentation comes in to play. You may also wish to use another technique that I have used called "Controlled Vignetting" mixed with scrims to add further dimension to your image. By moving an opaque object near your lens you can add a further dimension to your photo. I often use my hands to do so, or plants, vases, glasses etc. I have also used semi opaque scrims to effect the softness and hardness of my light source. <br /> <br /> One of the problems with the use of scrims, is the need for stands to support them. So be prepared to buy several. You can purchase clips at most hardware stores.<br /> <br /> In my next part, I will discuss the use of scrims on umbrellas and soft boxes as well as other types of modifiers available to shoot with.</p><div></div>

[nathan_meador]

<p>Maybe this should be in the 'lighting' forum? Is the model supposed to be blue?</p>

[dan_south]

<p>Benjamin, why don't you start a blog and post your essays there?</p>

[charlesheckel]

<p>Actually, all you need is a darkened room, a very long exposure, a model willing to hold still, and a flashlight. A Danish photographer named Emil Schildt works this way with quite phenomenal results. <br>

But there's nothing wrong with doing essentially the same thing with flash and scrims, particularly when you are a high-end fash photog like Benjamin who has to contend with outrageously wiggly models. Techniques noted and filed away for future reference.</p>

[gary_watson]

<p><em>Benjamin, why don't you start a blog and post your essays there?</em></p>

<p>He does but has this compulsive need to repost here constantly. PN mods apparently dislike complaints about his self-indulgence but the posts are always op-ed pieces, never actual questions<em>, </em> and seldom anything but pedantic monologues. Just curious why PN hasn't located these elsewhere on the site?</p>

[frank_dzambic]

<p>Though there was no question in the original post, I don't feel reading it was time wasted. Unlike a couple of the replies that followed it. Seems like the OP has some knowledge he wishes to share, and his big mistake was to post it in a forum rather than in the form of an article. Hardly deserving of the hostility and disdain shown. Of course there's nothing stopping a discussion from happening regardless of the fact that there was no question posed. I say thanks to Benjamin for taking the time to make an informative post with a very cool picture, and hope that he continues to do so, in greater detail.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[my stuff]

<p>Hello Gary Watson;<br>

I do not think I have ever met someone so full of hate, disdain and bitterness. I hope you live a healthy and fruitful life...<br>

Peace<br>

Ben</p><div></div>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Ben, my only comment would be to suggest that you offer these as articles for photo.net rather than as forum posts. It's potentially useful information and photo.net's articles section also provides for reader comments. Does that seem like a reasonable compromise?</p>

[my stuff]

<p>Sounds good to me :-)</p>

[my stuff]

<p>Here is Part 2</p>

 

<p >When attempting to control lighting, it is important to decide which part of the subject area you wish to light or which sector will have a greater amount of light to draw the eye to. Now this can also be perceived as, which part of the image will be shaded with less light. That is where the “Yin Yang” principal of lighting comes in. I believe that what makes images interesting is contrast. There are an infinite amount of ways of doing so.</p>

<p >In the last installment I suggested that I would delve into umbrella and light box lighting used creatively or selectively. When using a bare umbrella or light box, the light is distributed quite predictably. What I would like to suggest is the following; Go out and get some black velvet or thick black cloth that is large enough to cover the entire surface of the light box or umbrella surface. Also purchase some Velcro. Cut the cloth in to a circle for the umbrella and attach the Velcro to the periphery of the umbrella and cloth circle. Do the same for the light box. You may wish to cut holes in the circular cloth umbrella pattern to allow it to be attached to the umbrella rib tips.</p>

<p >Here is where some of the fun begins. Place the cloth scrim template cover over the entire umbrella or soft box and turn on the flash unit, with the modeling light on. Place the object or person you are wishing to light in the desired place and remove i.e. peel back a sector of the cloth scrim. See what the light is doing. Rotate the umbrella or soft box and observe the effects on your subject and don’t forget to play with the angle and distance of the main light from the subject. You might also consider allowing light to bleed from several sections of the soft box or umbrella, by peeling back different sections.</p>

<p >You may also consider applying the same technique for the background light as well. However, in this case you may wish to move the light source around to see the effect on the overall image. If there are ambient light sources, you may consider using them to add realism to the image.</p>

<p >In the next installment, I will continue with other types of less conventional modifiers.</p><div></div>