lighting

Saturday Set Up – Shimmer Me Up

I’m a sucker for glowy skin, and this set up is how I get it – working in conjunction with my make up artist (see below).

1. Large Softbox on background – to blow out the background, set this light head to a higher output than your key light.

2. Small Softbox as key light – To get shiny highlights on the cheek bone, jaw, shoulder and nose, place the key light close to the model, at a lower output to the background light to keep that background pure white! At this point, I usually take a test shot, and ask the make up artist in the team to add more shimmer or highlight to the parts of the model I really want to shine. It’s super important to collaborate closely with the make up artist even while shooting.

4. Camera settings – Shutter speed 1/160, aperture f5.6, ISO 100.

Saturday Set Up – Bright and Balanced

A common lighting set up for beauty photography – bright and balanced.

1. Large softbox as key light – Placed to one side of our model Kelly, you can see how the large softbox is throwing a soft even light on the left side of the image.

2. Smaller softbox as fill light – Placed at a slightly closer distance on the opposite side of the key light, the smaller soft box balances the light from the larger softbox giving a bright image that really shows off the make up and colours in the image.

3. Camera settings – Shutter speed 1/125, aperture f5.6, ISO 100.

Happy lighting!

Saturday Set Up – Clean Beauty

This lighting set up is a common one I use for clean beauty shots against a light backdrop.

1. Large Softbox on background – for a pure white background with minimal retouch in post processing, set this light head to a higher output than your key and fill lights. I like the spill back from this light on Laura Ann’s neck, but to avoid such light spilling back, place the model further forward, closer to the camera and further from this light.

2. Beauty Dish as key light – Beauty dishes seem to be like Marmite in the photography industry, and I’m one of those who love them! I like the soft even light they give, and in cases where the model has her eyes open, I quite like the round catch lights they create in the eyes.

3. Small Softbox as fill light – I prefer some shadows in beauty imagery, and not totally even, clean, bright (and in my opinion a little boring) light. So for a fill light, I’ll use a small softbox, further away from the model, and at a lower output than the key light. Here it helps cast evenness to the main part of her face, but enables depth on the cheeks, and definition to the jawline.

4. Camera settings – Shutter speed 1/160, aperture f5.6, ISO 100.

More lighting set ups to follow each Saturday for the next few weeks. Hope that’s useful to a few folks 🙂