Lighting Workshop Assignment: Behind-The-Scenes

And here's my laundry-themed lighting setup: a clothes rack as frame, a table cloth as diffuser (a flash on each side for even lighting), and a black shirt as background.

Lighting Workshop Assignment - Setup

Because the walls of the room were white, I found it difficult to turn the background black. If I turn up the flash to overpower the ambient, some light will still leak to the back so that bits of furniture were still visible. I didn't have anything large enough to block the light, so I just decided to use a background that was black to start with--one of my shirts.

Lighting Workshop Assignment - Background Clutter Visible

I was shocked at the amount of dust, too. :)

I don't know if it's noticeable here, but when I initially positioned the background shirt right behind the table it was still not black enough because of the light from the table cloth. I moved it back about a foot in the final shots to reduce the light hitting it.

Lighting Workshop Assignment - Background Not Black Enough

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Lighting Workshop Assignment - Oops

As our instructor, Jay, pointed out, it would've been better if I lighted the contents. I was able to do that (sort of) with the white background, but not with the black--I didn't have a third light. Next time. :)

Anyway, here are the results.

-arland-

Late Night Reading - Workflow

Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the actual setup. :| Anyway, here's how I arrived at the final images from the previous post:

1.) I picked a location. I knew I wanted to use that light post as a background. So I headed to our second-floor terrace and set up the gear at one end. I set my camera to expose for the background. The right side of the frame was fairly empty, but it's ok. That's where I'll be sitting.

Late Night Reading - Setup 01

2.) The right side of the background was dark so I put a flash in my sister's room. I pointed it out the window to light the neighbor's roof a bit. (And you'll also notice it lighting my left shoulder in the final pics.)

Late Night Reading - Setup 02

3.) I used a playing card on a light stand to set the focus, and to test the key light. I put the light on a Gorillapod wrapped around the window grills, camera right. I gelled it CTO to match the light post.

Late Night Reading - Setup 03

4.) And here's a shot with the key light off to show how dark it was.

Late Night Reading - Setup 04

And that's it! Here's the finished product. :)


-arland-