Precise Lighting in a Small Space

I’ve started working on a new portfolio of fitness-related images, and I intend to shoot some of them in a studio. I don’t have a permanent studio, and my budget to rent a studio for personal work is non-existent, so I have elected to use whatever space that is available to me for free….which often means my living room. The problem with my living room, like in many houses, is that it’s a fairly small space for photography and presents a certain group of problems that must be overcome in order to produce quality images.

One of the biggest problems is the fact that since the room is so small, and since most of the walls are white, it is easy to bounce light everywhere and produce ineffective images.

The name of the game here is to find a way to precisely control the light and only allow it to fall where you want it. Here is a diagram I made with a free program I found online at http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/Creator. Take a look at the diagram, to which I have added some explanatory notations, and I’ll discuss the set-up below:

 

So, to start off….since I am dealing with a room that is about 12 feet across between plain white walls, a large window, and about a ten-foot ceiling at it’s highest point, I had to create the illusion of the light fall-off you would get in an expansive studio. I did this by using negative fill on three sides of the model. I pinned four 2×3-foot black foam-core panels to the ceiling above the model’s head and then used more black foam-core on one side of her and a large black panel created with fabric and a scrim-frame  on the other side of her.

For lighting, I used a Dynalite 4040 head in a diffused beauty dish as the key light. It was positioned above and in front of the model….only about two feet from her, for a butterfly lighting effect. I then provided fill from behind the camera with another 4040 head in a 3×4 soft box that was set to just enough power to fill in the shadows. For the background, I used a third 4040 head aimed at the background from behind the black scrim at camera right from about waist-level, and modified with a 40º grid and a set of barn doors to control extra light spill. For the close-up portraits, I also employed a large silver reflector  in front and underneath the model’s face to soften the shadows even more.

The hair light was provided by an ancient Nikon Sb-26 speedlight, which has a built-in optical slave. It was set to a fairly low-power and had no trouble keeping up with the studio strobes on this shoot. I moved the speedlight to either camera-left, or camera-right, or else turned it off completely according to where I wanted the accent light to be.

All of the three strobe heads were controlled by the same 500 watt-second Dynalite pack set to its lowest possible power setting. In addition, being that all of the lights were so close to the model, and to reduce the intensity of the light even more, I put a 2-stop neutral density filter on my lens. This took me from a general exposure of f/5.6-and-a-half  to one of f/2.8-and-a-half at ISO 100, which made isolating the model from the background, located only about six feet behind her, much easier to accomplish. I ended up shooting RAW files at f/4 and fine-tuned the exposure in the image-processing stage.

All of the images you see here were produced with a Nikon DSLR and one of two lenses–an 85mm f/1.8G or an old, manual focus 50mm F/2AI. The +2-stop  neutral density filter (ND 4) was attached to each lens while it was being used.

I have found that negative fill is a very effective tool for creating the most precise lighting possible in many photographic situations that often seem uncontrollable.

I would like to extend a special thanks to the model, Jaylynne. If you would like to book her for your own shoot, you can reach her through her website: http://jaylynnebryanne.com/

To see more of my work or to book me for your next project, please visit my website: http://www.tomnutterphotos.com

 

New Available-light Project

I am starting a new personal project.

For the first time in a long time, I have started thinking about shooting film with a 35mm camera again. I have long-since gotten rid of every piece of film-camera gear that I owned, but recently, I’ve had a change of heart and decided to pick up a 1973 Nikon F to play around with. Lens choices are easy, since I still have an array of manual-focus Nikkor lenses.

This is the Nikon 1973 F that I recently got, with a non-metered eye-level prism. The camera works flawwlessly.

Really, this bit about gear is neither here nor there, except that getting a camera that’s almost as old as me has inspired me to start thinking of photography as art again, instead of just as a means of income.The project will be shot in 35mm, and perhaps 4×5 (since I envision getting another studio camera soon…whoa is me…) as well as in color on digital, and the project itself is very straightforward.

The images, which are planned to be a series of portraits and figure studies, will simply be shot on a background in diffused light from the picture window in my living room. I will not be using supplemental lighting whatsoever, except for whatever reflectors or diffusers I need to get things to look interesting.

Here is the basic studio set-up:

Here is the basic Studio set-up for my new Available Light series of portraits and figure-studies.

…and here is a selfie in that set-up, since nobody else was available today:

This is a self-portrait with the above studio set-up. Camera: Nikon D700 with manual-focus 50mm f/2. Exposure: 1/60th-sec. F/2 ISO 320

I will post more images from the project as I find models and it gets under way. Stay tuned!

For a look at more of my work: WWW.TOMNUTTERPHOTOS.COM

Personal Work — Right Now It’s Figure Studies

First of all, a large part of this text is from the last entry to my blogger page, which is now closed.  The comments will be edited, re-arranged, and likely added to….but, I decided that in the interest of continuity, I would start where I last left off:

This is a recent figurative portrait created in my studio with a Nikon D700, using Dynalite strobes and Photoflex modifiers.

     Every time you read or see an interview with someone who is successful in the photo industry, you hear over and over about the importance of personal work. You hear that if you do the work you want to do, and show that, then you will get hired to do that sort of work. I don’t take that advice at face value. Instead, I see it as a way to push forward into a persona that is evident in all of my photographic work.

This is a figure study shot with available light using a Nikon D700, and no light modifiers.

    The work I am most interested in lately…at least over the past three years or so, is the figure. Sure it’s a controversial subject for some people, and a mundane rehash for some others. I work in a small market, and I sometimes wonder if my clients might see my personal work and think of it as inappropriate…and I am sure some do. This is beyond my control; it’s a leap of faith to commit to the image-making you feel passionate about.

     I also hold myself to a certain creative standard with my images that I hope sets me apart no matter what the subject. This creative and technical standard, to be only held steady or raised higher in a photographer’s career, is at least as important, if not more important than any one image or body of work. Creating personal standards for yourself as a photographer is what becomes your guide.

    Hopefully, as a photographer progresses through a career in image-making, he or she  will find some common threads and a unique perspective about the world that shows in all of the work they create. These threads, and the personal standard the photographer sets are what make his or her  work unique, and what makes a creative vision marketable.

     This is not to say that a photographer’s interests will never change….figure studies today, documentary photography tomorrow, red sports cars another day…..well, maybe never red sports cars….the point is, you don’t have to stick with the same thing forever, but be the best you can at every image you create.

     Being the best image-maker you can, and approaching it as a unique, individual problem with each assignment that comes your way is a daunting endeavor to say the least. Sometimes the 359th time you are asked to make an interesting picture of a ribbon-cutting can be just too much to bear professionally. This is where personal work comes in. It is there to recharge your batteries…to provide a creative retreat into the quiet wilderness for you to be alone with your thoughts. It’s the time to grow.

This pair of Figurative Studio Portraits was created using a Nikon D700 with a Nikkor 1.8G 85mm lens, Dynalite Studio Strobes and Photoflex light modifiers.

     So what can a photographer learn about his craft by photographing nude studies?  What is the creative value of convincing an attractive model to take it all off for another photographer and his camera?

     First of all, if you have to spend a lot of time “convincing” someone to pose for you, outside of proving to them you are professional, then you are probably photographing someone you shouldn’t. A reluctant model is not going to make excellent images. It’s as simple as that. And that is the first point here I guess…you are forced to learn how to communicate as both a person, and as a professional, even before you pick up your camera.

     For me, in recent times, I have found in figure studies, the culmination of all of the elements necessary to make a person into an effective, confident and competent portrait photographer. The figure presents a challenge in many ways: Learning how to better communicate with people, learning how to be and act professional, and also learning how to deal with potentially awkward and stressful situations, for both the photographer and the model, and still come up with quality images, just to name a few.

This diptych was photographed with a Nikon D700 and a manual focus 50mm f/2 AI-Nikkor lens. The camera was on a tripod. There were no lighting modifiers used in these image

     I think photographing the figure “ups the ante” for a photographer. When a person you have never met walks into your studio and gets naked, it just makes everything that goes into making a good photograph and a good portrait even harder. That is skill-building. That is confidence-building. That builds professional practice.

    Those three things are a part of the larger picture in this creative field. In my opinion, they are what improve me a photographer by leaps and bounds. Each individual picture that is a successful image is just icing on the cake. A lifetime of good and cohesive imagery is the Holy Grail.

Reclining Figure in Available Light —This image was created using a Nikon D700 with a manual focus AI-Nikkor 50mm F/2 lens.