Portrait studio lighting advice, please.

[E Thomson]

I'm starting out on a studio portrait project. I'll be shooting 4x5/B&W. Portraits will be head, neck and shoulders only, with a neutral backdrop. Setup will be repeated and indoors. I'm not after anything at all flashy (pun unintended) in the results, I'm not trying to flatter or going for glamour, just honest portraits with good detail and perhaps a little on the gritty side.

I would appreciate anyone steering me to online tutorials or standard texts which give some basic theory and technique on modeling faces with lighting. I'd also like to stick with budget solutions.

Thanks for any help.

[Peter De Smidt]

Check your library for "Light, Science and Magic." It's by Fil Hunter, Paul Fuqua, andSteven Biver. Or see Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/Light-Science-...2946803&sr=1-1

[Michael Graves]

Some of Karsh's best work was done with a single light and a reflector. You might look at his work and give up all hope of ever emulating it. But hey! It'll give you something to strive for.

[Dennis]

If it was me I would use a medium soft box with a strobe in it powerful enough to give me f32 with whatever film I use. Maybe another one to light the background depending on the situation.
Dennis

[Peter De Smidt]

Dennis makes a good point. There's not much depth of field with 4x5 head'n'shoulders portraits. Using a small aperture would help that. On the downside, it would require a lot of light, which could be hard on the sitter. If you go that route, use a fast film and make sure the room lights are bright to keep the sitter's pupils small. Getting the softbox very close to the sitter will help maximize the light. It'll also make the light softer, i.e. there'll be a more gradual transition from highlight to shadow.

[Ron Marshall]

Light, Science and Magic is good, as is the following:

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Lightin...2965545&sr=1-1

[Ash]

I need to get me those books.

To be honest my portable flash setup consists of some hotshoe flashguns (Nikon SB-27, and a couple cheapo low guide number slave flashes) that mount to Hama flash bracket mounts on lighting stands. One white diffuser brolly to shoot through, and everything on cheap chinese radio triggers to avoid wires.

The guide number of the setup is very low, it's 'just enough' to shoot EI100 on suitable apertures, but I'm working as limited as possible because I don't want to carry pro lights and battery packs. I want something small enough to sling over my shoulder in a tripod bag and a camera bag.

I've not been shooting LF recently, but on 6x6:





Those were a single SB-27 with brolly about head-height in the doorway to the right/behind me. The setup is versatile enough though. I can have up to three lights on stands. The whole lot only cost me a few hundred, the most expensive single piece of kit being the main flashgun. f/8 on Kodak Portra 160NC (exposed at 100).


You can see the setup in this thread: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...ad.php?t=48546

[dsphotog]

Hi Eric,
Take a look at www.meyerphoto.com click on portraits...
Tim Meyer is head of the portrait dept at Brooks. I just (yesterday) attended his lighting workshop.
The portraits on his site are 1 or 2 lights.
Darken the room to see the effect of your lighting.
use an incident meter at the face ,with the dome pointed toward the light.

Try a softbox at 90 degrees to the camera, move the subject all the way to the front edge of the box for more drama & contrast, farther back for more wrap-around light.
He called that walking the light.
For more drama (harder light) he uses a grid on a large reflector.

Hope that gives some ideas.
Have fun shooting!!
David S

[AFSmithphoto]

If you want gritty, I'd suggest going with slightly harder lights than you might normally. I'm not suggesting that you should use a hard fresnel if you're used to using a soft box, but try just taking it down a notch.

Also, if you want a natural look, I would avoid strong backlights with a neutral background. Though I personally love the look of hot backlights, it tends to give the image a stylized look, and is typically a dead give away that the subject has been lit, even to the untrained eye.

[Peter De Smidt]

Once nice thing about softer light is that the subjects are free to move a bit, turn their heads...without causing really distracting shadows. I really like the classic contrasty look--George Hurrell, Karsh...-- but it does demand more from both the subject and the photographer.