Reverse Engineer It

anonymouscuban

I like to look at photos from other photogs that I admire and try to reverse engineer the lighting. I thought it would be fun to play a game where someone posts a shot and everyone throws in their educated guess of how it was lit. Doesn't have to be shot flash... could be any lighting.

No telling until someone gets it right. :thumb

I'll start... reverse engineer it:

Dreadnote

Outside backyard, sun for hair/rim, octa up above and a bit camera right for fill?

Tonto

I think that is a string of lanterns in the background giving a soft amber back-light with an Octo above and to the right, other light is ambient.

anonymouscuban

You guys got the sun as rim/hair right but not the rest. Keep trying.

Dooginfif20

To me looks like sun for rim/hair and either a big reflector or tri reflector above camera right

anonymouscuban

Good guess but still not correct.

I think the catchlights are misleading.

puzzledpaul

Chunk of building / wall / big exp. poly panel as reflector?

... or maybe water

(One guy I read about used the side of his white van)

pp

anonymouscuban

OK... I'll give a hint, I did not use a reflector or anything else to bounce light.

Dooginfif20

well dang you Mr. Alex! Then it must just be the sky!

Qarik

all natural light in the shade (setting sun as rim)

anonymouscuban

OK... I will fess up. As everyone has mentioned, setting sun as rim/hair. The missing link was an SB-900 speed-light, on camera, set to -1.7EV for fill. The speed-light had a stofen diffuser. That's it.

I think what was throwing you guys off were the catch lights created by the pool water. HAHA. Sneaky huh!!!

OK.. someone else post a shot.

divamum

Three - or possibly even four, depending on how you count - light sources

ETA: one small catchlight was cloned out, so that one's a freebie

dlscott56

Strobe slight camera right (catch light removed), umbrella camera left, strobe behind subject to camera left?

Dave

divamum

You are correct that the camera-righ catchlight was the cloned-out one, but it wasn't a strobe Nope on the others (I'll admit this one is tricky because I was being sneaky with what I had to get the result I wanted

Tonto

Bump

dlscott56

Ok, let's see. How about starting with one light. The light camera right is small, creating a hard shadow. Could be on camera flash with camera in portrait position. Doesn't seem like direct sunlight since she's not squinting.

Anywhere close on that light?

Dave

divamum

getting warmer; light camera right is quite small, but not on-camera flash

clue: largest light source is the one behind her.....
clue: 3 of the four sources were not strobes
clue: not a"conventional" lighting pattern

dlscott56

Hmmm. Door wall or large windows behind and left. Rectangular softbox up and camera left. Hand held continuous light, or video light, camera right?

Dave

divamum

EXACTLY!!!! fourth source was a reflector filling just a tad from below the little vid light front/right

divamum

Ok, at a computer so can type properly now.

I don't have a pullback, unfortunately, but you nailed it: big windows behind/left, a softbox front left, but feathered strongly away from the subject, and a small LED light to the front/right for fill (along with a reflector, although I'm not sure how much the reflector actually added - it wasn't enough WITHOUT the LED light, for certain).

Original plan had been to use the window light behind and reflect it back onto her face, but due to space limitations I couldn't put the reflector where it needed to be, and it wasn't doing enough to get her lit without overblowing out the background. So I added the LED light for a little fill; I wish I'd thought to modify it somehow as I really DON'T like the harsh shadow, but it is what it is. The camera left softbox was actually an "accidental" light - when I first set this up and fired off a test shot I didn't realise I still had my trigger on. It wasn't planned, but I liked what it did to add a wash of light enough that I left it in the mix!

dlscott56

Interesting mix for setting white balance. Coincidentally I just went to a workshop where the guy raved about using the video lights.

Dave

dlscott56

By the way, regardless of how you got to the lighting setup, I like the results.

Dave

divamum

I'm actually not that keen on vid lights, but they are occasionally helpful for fill, as here. I was backed up into a vestibule so it was really hard to position things; I needed small and adjustable - led light was the obvious answer (although I SHOULD have diffused it more - live and learn).

This one was ok for WB, actually; I think because all artifical light was being used as fill it worked ok with the ambient. Sometimes mixed light WB is trickier (green grass, anybody - BLEAH!!), but this one seemed to work ok with her coloring

dlscott56

Grass Bleah is right. Only way I know to deal with it is light them up with reflected or strobe. Are there other options?

Dave

divamum

Ok, here's another one. Guess the lightsource and the location



Any other guesses? I'll post the SOOC if you want...

dlscott56

Love the background. Whatever it is. Looks like natural window light for the key? Reflector for fill?

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divamum

It is natural light, but not a window . No actual reflector, although something to camera left was (sort of) acting as one. Care to guess the background? (Also re-looking at this reminds me why I hate portrait professional - blah - if he chooses this one I'll redo it as his face is way too plastic for me)

dlscott56

As a side note, I'm curious to know how much difference between the sides of his face in terms of fstops. I would guess 1 1/2 stops? Is that clise?

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dlscott56

'Close' I'm not good at typing on my phone.

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dlscott56

Is it some sort of marble or granite? Whatever it is, I wish I had one.

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Bryce Wilson

divamum wrote: »

\ (Also re-looking at this reminds me why I hate portrait professional - blah - if he chooses this one I'll redo it as his face is way too plastic for me)

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