How would you light this high-key photo?

[christopheroquist]

<p>Besides the white makeup, how can I achieve this effect?<br>

My initial reaction was white seamless, and two or three powerful softboxes? I have three speedlights with umbrellas but I feel like I'll need to construct better diffusers. Maybe place one above and in front, and one above and to the subjects right, and then one farther away below? Am I completely off? Would continuous lighting be better?<br>

Thanks!<br>

Chris<br>

<img src="http://www-movieline-com.vimg.net/images/williams_monroe_500.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[bob_sunley]

<p>I doubt there is any "white makeup". It looks like standard high key lighting and some desaturation after the fact.<br>

Look in the learning tab up above and google high key lighting tutorial, I'm sure you will find a whole bunch of info. </p>

<p>Also the moderator is likely to zap this photo, as posting someone elses photo in a big no no. You should have just linked to it.</p>

<p> </p>

[christopheroquist]

<p>Hi Bob,<br>

Thanks for the input - sorry for posting the photo - should have been aware of the rule. In case it gets taken down, here is the link: <a href="http://www-movieline-com.vimg.net/images/williams_monroe_500.jpg">http://www-movieline-com.vimg.net/images/williams_monroe_500.jpg</a></p>

[bob_sunley]

<p>One hint to decode lighting, always look at the catchlights in the eyes, then look for shadows or lack of. Those two are the starting point. As for the setup, I'd guess powder blue background with its own light, large square or rectangular softbox to camera left and an equally large reflector on the right plus a hair light.</p>

[markonestudios]

I think Bob has correctly deciphered the lighting here. I would also venture to suggest you email the photographer and ask...

[henryp]

<blockquote>

<p>One hint to decode lighting, always look at the catchlights in the eyes, then look for shadows or lack of.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I agree, but in this case I think there's been a lot of photoshopping here and it would not surprise me one bit to learn there were catchlights and shadows which have been heavily edited or removed.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

[charlesheckel]

<p>The lighting isn't critical here. You want diffuse lighting centered on the camera axis--diffuse enough that there are no hard-edged shadows--with black matte boards either side of the model to absorb stray light, for maximum falloff around the contours. Use an incident meter, or failing that, take a reading off a gray card in one shot. You want a normal exposure of a highly reflective subject.<br>

The easy way to bring up tones in post-processing is to duplicate the original layer, desaturate the duplicate layer, and set its blend mode to Screen. Varying transparency of that layer will brighten or darken the original image globally, but you'll probably want control of specific areas. Give your desaturated layer a mask, fill the mask with black to hide it, click the mask and paint on your image window using a soft brush with white or various shades of gray and flow rates to taste.</p>