A Year in 52 Light Studies

[52lightstudies]

Studio Blocks #3

Went off the rails, turned the camera on its side, and pulled out some gels. That’s a straight cyan on the front and a straight yellow on the back. Both are underexposed, which—I guess I’d never internalized—takes the tones way down to an interesting place. Is that because of reduced luminance? To be fair to the final image, I also toned the shadows and highlights just a hair, added some vignette, and desaturated the whole thing maybe 35%. But I would have done that anyway.

So to the lighting...I kept exploring the blocks with the diagonal cut. I painted a white background yellow with a single Acute head w/ 7″ reflector set to 7 or so, enough out from the lamp to let me tape on the gel. I flagged the yellow off the blocks with a piece of black foam core sitting on top of the blocks, plus some cinefoil wrapped around the bottom of the reflector to control spill.

The cyan source (w/ 7″ reflector set up the same as the other) was a few feet away with flags basically knife edged to the light, one knocking down the light on the left block, the other knocking down the right. I built a little box around the background to keep any cyan light from getting back there and making the yellow muddy. In working with the Profoto Acute, I’m learning how to use the ratios (my Broncolors have digital dials and each channel is independent). It’s an interesting constraint and in this case I used both B channels, so I’d get equal power to each head. I then controled balance, intensity, fall off, spread, etc. by moving the light. Such a great practice. Had I used two monolights or a pack with individual controls, I would have been tempted to play with ratios of power rather than distance, and distance changes the shape of the light whereas power does not.

The last important bit is a piece of black foamcore I slipped into the gap to prevent reflection in between the blocks. I mistakenly blocked most of the yellow light, and low and behold, that was the picture.

[52lightstudies]

Studio Blocks #2

This picture was also made with two light sources, but in this case I used 2 Profoto Acute heads (bare frosted bulb) pointed right at the still life from about 6′ away. The idea was to use minimal lighting to create a complex picture with shadows. The heads were set to equal power and exposed at f/11.5. The sources were adjusted to make the best shadows and I didn’t fuss over the exact exposure differences between the two. The only flag I used was a piece of thin foamcore, knife edge toward the light and the still life, just grazing the rightmost edge of that front block. It’s the distance between the flag and the block that gives it the soft feather. 

[52lightstudies]

Studio Blocks #1

After a 2.5 year hiatus, are we back? I just finished setting up a studio and wanted to explore the light in the space. It’s got a big North Facing window that stays in the shade until about 5pm, and a South Facing window that runs along the entire length of the studio (about 24′) high up (let’s say from 12′-15′ up from the ground).

I took some styrofoam blocks, packing materials for a table I put together, and arranged them and the light for a couple of hours. Remembering some Albert Watson techniques, I got it very dark and then let the light in where I wanted it. It was a fun exercise, one I’ll continue to experiment with. I get the feeling that doing a hundred compositions of these blocks would lead to some interesting pictures.

No diagram today...I know a diagram is the best way to internalize and document what was done, but I had dozens of pieces of stuff shaping the light, and broke em down before I thought to draw a picture.

[52lightstudies]

Pause

I have decided to pause this project. As you can probably tell from the number of weeks, I fell behind this summer. That was due to a couple of factors. The main one is that I got busy and needed to focus my time elsewhere. I also just finished a week-long workshop with Albert Watson, and I really want to spend time chewing on his approach to lighting. It was eye opening to say the least.

I plan to come back and fulfill the rest of the 52 weeks. I have one more set up already worked out (just need to shoot it) and I have a couple of shoots not-yet-released that will land here as well. So RSS this thing and we’ll catch up later.

-Rob

[52lightstudies]

Week 25 (Alexei Hay #2 - Caroline)

The Hay story in AdWeek was full of great images. The cover, and my previous post, has the model off the background so that the light, which is in front of her, doesn’t cast shadows on the background. In the other pictures, he places the subject right against the background, creating great shapes with the shadows. Since most of the others riffed on this idea, I combined them to make the image of Caroline above.

The set up is pretty simple. All bare bulb, with placement determined by where the shadows should fall. I think an arc or diagonal line worked really well. Each light creates a shadow and washes out the other shadows that it can “see.” The lights are all powered the same and I placed them equidistant from Caroline (easier than variable distances and, therefore, powers). I also did not get the richness of darks because I placed a light (too strong, probably) camera left.

Where I came up short was either not having small enough lights or not setting the lights far enough away from the subject. Either/both would have made the shadows’ edges harder, and more like Mr. Hay’s. With the gear I have and a relatively small studio, I did what I could and left it at that.

I got interested in hard light right from the start of this project with the Emma Summerton picture in Week 5. It’s still a challenge. I like how Mr. Hay solved the shadow problem—he made it a defining part of the picture.

Inspiration: Alexei Hay, AdWeek, Gigi Hadid Model: Caroline Johnson.

[52lightstudies]

Week 24 (Alexei Hay - Caroline)

Rediscovering someone is great fun. I used to look at Alexei Hay’s work when I subscribed to a lot of magazines. His work is beautiful. Color, composition, lighting—everything is there. Some of his celebrity work is particularly interesting, since most celebrity photography these days looks very similar shooter to shooter and magazine to magazine. Anyway, I saw this picture of Gigi Hadid on the cover of AdWeek a while back. 

What I loved, similar to what caught my eye in the Ruven Afanador picture from Week 17, is the brushing of colored light which gives the image a visual strength it simply would not have if all the light was the same color. As you can see, I got a little carried away with the red... because Caroline’s hair blocked much of the light, I just had her turn into it. Also, I just felt that a stronger red worked well with her neckerchief. It’s fairly likely that I had a different color red than Mr. Hay. I passed on trying to make a foil choker (is that what it’s called?) because of the reflectivity issues. But covering the neck is important: it hides weird shadows and creates balance. If I could go back and change one thing, I would flag the red light off Caroline’s shoulder. Here’s the set up:

Inspiration: Alexei Hay, AdWeek, Gigi Hadid Model: Caroline Johnson — Thanks Caroline!

[52lightstudies]

Week 23 (Morton Salt)

I really enjoy looking at early color photographs of food. They have a striking pop art quality and lack the soft polish of contemporary food photography. If you ever find a color cookbook from the 50s, 60s, or 70s you’ll see what I mean. Even today, if you pay attention, you can still find packaging with old photographs. I found one on my own Morton Kosher Salt box.

I have no idea who made this picture. For all its information, the internet sometimes comes up short with the very obscure. No doubt it was a commercial photographer, probably in Chicago (home of Morton Salt). I love that after all these years Morton has not updated it.

Old food lighting is great. Overhead, from the side, from the front. Most food now is side or backlit. Based on the shadows (directly under the food), there is a light over head. Based on the reflections, there are lights on either side of the food. It looks like there are 2-3 lights on the right side, one light from the left (variations in veggie skin makes that determination harder than with other reflective surfaces). The light is mostly even, and to accomplish this I used lots of little bounce boards around the food (they were all about 3″ tall, so they didn’t block light coming from the soft boxes). Also, I should mention that I started out using hard light, but the shadow quality and the sheen on the Morton veggies pointed to a softer light. Probably more like a big dish covered with diffusion—I went too far on this, but decided to err on the side of soft rather than hard. Lastly, using a white ground was critical to make the surface reflections on the food lighter. I originally had it on a black surface, but it didn’t look right.

Shooting on a white ground but displaying on a dark ground creates an interesting tension in the picture. It obviously creates an artificial flatness. For my money, that’s way more interesting from a conceptual lighting standpoint than just making it look soft and pretty.

[52lightstudies]

Week 22 (Peggy Sirota - Sara Cannon)

This week I looked at global color. The basic idea is that you gel some of your lights one color (say, orange) and then balance that in the camera either by adjusting the white balance or by using a corresponding filter on the lens (say, blue). The gels push the colors one direction and the filter pulls it back toward the center. This limits the palette. It also "colors” white light (or ambient) the “corrected” color. It’s not as confusing as it sounds, but you have to think about colors in opposite terms.  

There are lots of photographers who use this kind of color well. But Peggy Sirota is one of the best, in my opinion. If you google image search her, you’ll see what I mean. I don't know whether she uses a filter on the lens (limiting the color gamut being recorded) or if someone is doing all that in post production (limiting the color output). I’m almost certain her early work, which was on film, used filters. Regardless, there is a way to do what she does. 

Take this picture of Robin Williams. I am pretty sure the key light is gelled orange/yellow, and the fill (shadows) and background are left white or gelled blue. Then, the whole picture is “corrected” by filter or white balance to “normal.”  

In my picture, because of Sara’s hair color, I decided to go the other way with it: the key light has a 1/4 CTO gel, the fill has a Full CTB gel, and a Blue Intensifier filter on the camera is supposed to push the whole thing toward the blue end of the spectrum. Then, I warmed the whole thing up in the computer (with white balance). The result is that Sara’s neutral skin tones are nicely warm—the Blue Intensifier is not supposed to affect non-blue tones as much as blue ones—but there’s so much common color across the image. While the Robin Williams picture pushes the color so that his eyes match the background, I pulled it back a little for her hair. One thing I probably should have done is place a bounce board on the shadow side. His shadow is not quite as dark, probably a stop above mine. Here’s the diagram. There are plenty of ways to light a picture like this—the key is the color.

[52lightstudies]

Week 21 (Ture Lillegraven - Silhouette)

This week I spent some time working on another color picture, and it totally bombed. So, setting aside color for a moment, I went the opposite direction and attempted this silhouetted picture below by Ture Lillegraven. I saw it on his Instagram feed and loved it. While continuing the Axe (Ax?) Theme from the previous post, I determined that adding an axe to a picture makes it instantly more interesting (maybe creepier in some cases). This picture with a baseball bat would not be worth much to me. 

What caught my eye was 1) the powerful silhouette, and 2) the white line outlining the front of the subject’s right arm. In basic terms, I wanted to light the background and define a feature against the silhouette I created. (Note: When looking at this picture on my iPhone, I thought it was black and white with no definition in the shadow areas. As you can see from this screen grab, that’s not the case. Still, I think mine works in b/w because removing the color helps flatten the image completely, and I think it strengthens its graphic nature. But, it also opens an interesting idea: using color to create depth.)

I started out by putting 4 lights on a white seamless. I thought I could get a strong enough wrap effect to give me what wanted. Of course, it wasn’t that simple. There is some wrap, but I couldn’t get enough light where I wanted it. I then played with pointing a light toward the handle. That ended up lighting my face and front, so I turned it, flagged it, put a grid on it, etc. with the goal of making that light only “see” the axe handle. I was mostly successful. What I really needed was a long vertical strip of light that didn’t spill on other parts of my body. Ultimately, I was able to get it to a good place by cheating the axe out into the path of the light. I then polished the image in photoshop.

The other thing which you can’t see in the image is the black panel I used overhead to block ceiling reflection. To eliminate all reflected light and all shadow detail, you could surround the subject with black cards and floppies. Of course, had I realized that the inspiration picture did have some shadow detail, I would have approached this differently. In a white-walled studio, all the light bouncing around probably would have given the right amount of definition.

Inspiration: Ture Lillegraven, iPod advertisements

[52lightstudies]

Waiting...

Waiting on some things to arrive by mail, which I need for this week's picture. Will post as soon as they arrive and I work it out. -Rob

[52lightstudies]

Week 20 (Stephanie Gonot / Wired Axe)

I like a tool that is self-explanatory. It’s shape tells you exactly what to do with it, and how. Really, the opposite of cameras and lights.

I found this Stephanie Gonot picture (below) in a Wired magazine. I have been a fan of Ms. Gonot’s pictures since Winslow introduced us (it’s a one-sided thing). She does top notch still life work. In this piece she worked with set designer Adi Goodrich, which helps explain why the spread looks so pro. I spent an afternoon trying to mimic the Goodrich set with lots of bobo solutions. It looked terrible. So did the axe. In fact, the axe Ms. Gonot shot is so different: length of the handle, the undulations in the metal, the shape of the blade. Plus the grass. So I reduced her picture to what I like about it: the yellow and magenta on the blade, the red light on the handle, and the way the colors create warm spots on the surface. I went my own way—but it was the inspiration.

I decided to shoot straight on rather than overhead because I don’t have a studio stand (I borrowed this truly enormous tripod of Cary’s but it was ultimately too difficult to control; plus, the set I made was terrible and looking down on it didn’t help). I started with a black background and quickly realized that the green is a critical contrasting element to the axe and the colors of light. This was the same last week with the Collins Tire—ground is all about contrast. I popped a green light on the black and it picked up nicely.

My instinct with the Gonot set up was to set the big (white) lights first, and then add in the colors. I found it actually works better to start with the colors. The yellow was most important to me, so I started there. Her blade has a broader edge on it, which is why the yellow band is so big. I occasionally use my axe for splitting firewood (not inside my loft, though), so I didn’t feel like over sharpening was worth it. Hence the pencil-thin mustache of a yellow edge. The red on the handle was quick and easy. Then I fussed with the purple/magenta for a long, long time. I eventually gave up on trying to get a great reflection a la the Gonot picture. The geometry of my axe is not the same as hers. Neither is the texture/cleanliness of the blade (did I mention...?). Lining the back of the blade with a band of magenta seemed a fair solution since it wanted to be separated from the background anyway. The colors are all made with speed lights which are wrapped in cinefoil to prevent light spillage. I used a big soft box (no gel) to illuminate the axe head with a direct reflection. This allowed for low power that does not light any other part of the scene. And I added a little white light under the handle to show the base of the grip. Depending on how bright your screen is, you may be able to see a ghostly hint-of-log drifting under the handle as well.

I’m really pleased with this image. It’s not the Gonot picture. It’s more like a blend of hers with the Collins Tire. Both pictures are really about color balance and reducing the impact of the red/magenta light so that it doesn’t control the whole picture. Opportunities for subtlety abound.

I still want to figure out the way she got the reflection on the blade with dark variations and reflections. I think I know but I’m at my deadline. Going to try make a less moody picture next time (FYI).

Source: Wired July 2015 / 23.07, Stephanie Gonot.

[52lightstudies]

Week 19 (John F. Collins - Tire)

This week I found a book at the library entitled Color: American Photography Transformed. It came from a show at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas and traces the history and successes of color photography. This picture caught my eye right away:

John F. Collins (1888 - 1991) Tire, 1938, Silver dye-bleach print 1988 11x14 inches

My guess is that it was part of an advertisement for Goodyear. I can’t imagine the trouble this would have been to make on a big camera with early color slide film. I would love to know Mr. Collins’s process.

I didn’t have a white-walled Goodyear, so when I decided to try to match the light, I didn’t hold too tightly to the original. I used a wider lens than I expect he did, which, along with the angle, accounts for the difference in how the tire is rendered. One challenge was preventing non-blue light from spilling onto the background. I solved this problem by wrapping the red and green lights in cinefoil and flagging the yellow. Another issue was preventing a direct reflection on the wheel’s shiny rim from the yellow light, which the diffusion flag took care of. Once I worked out the main colors, I feathered a blue light onto the spokes—which changes the picture quite a lot. 

I did have to tweak the colors in photoshop. In the Collins image, all the colors on the tire have a strong yellow component, and the background blue appears to have a lot of red in it. Mr. Collins probably got his color from the lights and gels he used, properties of his film, and the Silver dye-bleach print process. We have it easier today, but it still takes work to make it right.

Source: John F. Collins in Color: American Photography Transformed, University of Texas Press, Pg. 70-71.

[52lightstudies]

Jill Greenberg Revisited

Revisiting Week 16, this was one of those pictures that continues to amaze and baffle me the more I look at it. Great photographs so rarely just happen—especially technically astute ones. So thank you, Ms. Greenberg, for the challenge. I have still not mastered this one, but it’s time to show my progress and move on. 

This actor’s name is Tony Goldwyn. I have no way of knowing, but I suspect the idea began with a play on his name and illuminating his face with golden light. Maybe? It looks like light from the two kickers grazes the size of his head/face, hits a reflector, and (now colored) bounces back up to his face. This is not possible, as far as my testing went. So that’s how this picture gets complicated.

The exposure is set for the kickers, and that leaves the face underexposed. I still feel there is a gold bounce lighting up the face because of the highlights on Mr. Goldwyn’s cheeks. Also, you can see a critical catch in his eye. The only gold I have is a disc reflector, so I placed that (folded up) in front of the subject. It was probably too big. I put a speed light pointing right into it—I was concerned about not being able to dial down the power enough on a wired light. Turns out the light hitting the gold disc read f/32 while the reflection on the face read f/5.6. Big loss in power, which also makes me think the gold is lit separately.

The gold reflector doesn’t fully cover the face, though. It’s too directional. It wouldn’t get behind the ears. I believe Ms. Greenberg put a gelled orange light just to the left of the camera. See the ear shadows for placement. Then, to balance out the orange, she used a blue fill for the shadows right over camera. I set the blue one stop under the orange.

I metered the kickers at f/11 and the front lights (gold reflector, orange fill, blue fill) at f/8.5. I eye-balled this, and the gold is actually too strong. It’s also placed too much in front of Jon and doesn’t fill in the side of his nose. Lastly, there looks to be some flair in the front of Greenberg’s picture, which I just couldn’t manage.

What I find so marvelous—and this happened in the Afanador picture, too—is how Ms. Greenberg is using color here to move your eye into the picture. There are highlights on the jacket and sides of the head, but that unique yellow-orange quality to the skin pulls you right in. And yet, the tonal balance (light and dark) makes sense to your brain, too. It’s how you can look at a really technical image and not see the complexity. 

In closing, I have to admit that I didn’t nail the color. I tried! I think if left to my own devices, I would omit the gold reflector, going for something similar to this test. This is really interesting light.

Haas really bailed me out last week by sitting for 3 different set ups. He also brought some great wardrobe options (note the matching ties). Thanks, Jon.

Inspiration: Jill Greenberg, Tony Goldwyn

[52lightstudies]

Week 18 (Gregory Heisler/Sunlight - Jon Haas)

Following the overcast London sky look, I wanted to revisit creating sunlight in studio. I hit on this back in Week 5, but what Gregory Heisler is doing here is way different than the Emma Summerton picture I worked on then.

Orlando Diaz-Azcuy by Gregory Heisler

This idea of using a bare bulb to create a sun-like light is great. This picture came from a book of Heisler’s work called 50 Portraits (highly recommended). In it, he shows his pictures and then explains what went in to the shoot, including some technical descriptions. For this chapter he states very simply, “So how does one replicate high noon sunlight in the tropics? It’s a surprisingly easy task.... All that’s required is just a simple naked light, as high and far away as possible. Even better if it’s bouncing off the white walls and floor in a typical photographer’s studio.” (pg. 74). The only thing I would add is that it’s critical that the flashtube “sees” the subject in order to get the really hard shadow. If the light is tilted up so that the light housing blocks the flashtube and all the light is reflected, you get slightly softer shadows—like on a day with strong sun and weak clouds.

For my picture, I was getting a lot of wrap from the seamless background, so I blocked that light with a black v-flat. I then added in a white card in front just to open the shadows a bit. It’s hard to tell if Mr. Heisler did that, or needed to. Depending on how white the room was, how close the walls were, etc. he may have had exactly what he needed without any grip. 

The last thing I did was add a catch light for they eyes. Mr. Heisler avoids the problem of not having enough light in the eyes with the subject’s direction and glasses. But I have been thinking lately about doing a picture where the eyes are totally dark except for a bright catch light. With the above set up, if the subject turns toward the camera, the right eye will be in shadow in a way that doesn’t really work for me. So I tried it. It opens the shadows a bit, though in this case the only catch you can see is the white card. Something to keep working on.

Source: 50 Portraits by Gregory Heisler, Amphoto Books

Subject: Jon Haas.

[52lightstudies]

Week 17 (Ruven Afanador - Jon Haas)

I kept delaying this picture, waiting on a gray day when the light outside looked like London light (where the image below was made). We actually had some days like that, but I didn’t have my ducks in a row when they came around and I let them slip away. Eventually, I decided I needed to just do it, so I set out to create Overcast Light in the studio.

Andrew Lincoln, by Ruven Afanador.

I follow Ruven Afanador on Instagram. He posted a bunch of pictures from this recent shoot, and this cover image stuck out. What I like about the picture from a lighting standpoint is how much the warm light from camera right helps the image. There is a ton of post-processing happening with the colors: the shadows are toned blue/purple, there’s almost a veil of magenta over the whole thing, and lots of desaturation. All that works in contrast to the warmth. If you saw this image right out of camera, you would probably be disappointed. And I love that.  

The best way I know to make overcast light is to place a big diffusion panel/scrim overhead and shoot light through it so that it falls evenly underneath. To eliminate the hot spot that would occur from the bulb you could 1) double scrim, 2) try an umbrella or soft box on the light, 3) use a bunch of lights, or 4) point the light toward a white ceiling and use that as a big bounce. I did #4. I could have used a bigger scrim. Mine is 3′x5′. A 12′x12′ with a couple of lights bouncing off the ceiling would have been ideal.

For the warm light, I put a reflector with grid to camera right. I gelled that strobe with a 1/2 CTO (CTO means color temperature orange, one of the standard color balancing gels used in film and photography production. Full CTO will balance a daylight bulb to tungsten. In this case, the gel was half as strong as a full CTO. This decision to use 1/2 CTO rather than a Full or 1/4 was eye-balled). The side light needed to be 2 stops under the key (overhead)—again, I just eye-balled this ratio. One thing I learned in process of shooting is that posture matters here. By tilting the head to the side, as in the Afanador image, you create a new shadow that the overhead light can’t “see.” That makes the side light more effective and allows for a more subtle touch. What’s ultimately key is balancing the exposures so that both lights convey the same brightness. The contrast, then, is made with color.

Mr. Afanador’s background is completely flat, whereas I got a gradient from top to bottom. I think it makes my picture more interesting (than it would be with even light) since I don’t have the bricks. 

One thing I love is that this set up is 2 lights, though it looks like 3-4 (with the background gradient). In most of these lighting set ups, I feel that more lights makes better light. You can make 3 lights looks like 1, but you can’t make 1 light look like 3. Except in the case of creating a cloudy day.

Source: Ruven Afanador for The Rake magazine

Thanks, Jon!

[52lightstudies]

On-Camera Flash (Rob Blackledge)

I recently photographed my cousin, Rob Blackledge. One of the set ups we did used an on-camera flash. That is, I handheld the flash right next to the lens. This worked a lot better than my Week 10 attempt with a 7″ reflector. Shadow quality is much better here.

What was nice about this one—what I figured out—was that by dragging the shutter (1/15th second) I was able to get a good blend of window light from camera left. This lightened the shadow, at least until it created its own shadow. I really like the gradient behind his shoulder and the different tones in the shadows. 

[52lightstudies]

Week 16 (Jill Greenberg No. 2 = Oof)

I was riding high after last week’s Kino Flo shoot with Travis. I decided with that momentum it was time to tackle color. Gels and stuff. I really like photographers who use colored light. But man, color is hard.

This is the picture I wanted to mimic: Tony Goldwyn by Jill Greenberg. I figured the highlights were gelled blue, the key on the face was gelled orange, and the fill, which is hinted at in the shadows, is also blue. I worked on it using myself as a subject (per usual) and I thought I had it dialed in. My pal David Ytterberg graciously agreed to some sit for the portrait, and it just didn’t work out. My fault, not his. The color did not come through as clearly as I had tested. 

As I have continued working through what I’m seeing in camera, I think all the highlights are white, plus a gold bounce. And probably small one, held by an assistant and directed right to the face. Notice the catch in the eye, and the shine on Mr. Goldwyn’s cheeks coming from below. I also think there is a blue fill from the front.

It is likely somewhere between these two, with subtlety and great color....

Sorry for the punt. I am going to have to keep working on this one.