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Other Lessons

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Basic Portrait Indoors

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Basic Product Shot

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Basic Product Up-Close

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Glamour Shot
with the HalfDome2

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Olympus C-740:
Depth of Field Portrait

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Olympus C-750:
Basic Start-Up

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Olympus D-560:
White Balance Indoors

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Olympus E-1:
Basic Start-Up

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Olympus E-1:
A Closer Look

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Panoramic

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Resolution

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Shooting a Basic Headshot

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Techniques for Shooting Jewelry

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Two-Dimensional Artwork

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Simple Tricks for Consistent Portrait Lighting

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Soft Lights for Dramatic Results

For many fashion and portrait shots, it is necessary to use several different light sources to get good results. It is not uncommon to have a main light, a fill light, a hair light, and one or two background lights. However, sometimes a great shot can be created using just one diffused light source.

This lesson outlines the basics for lighting full-length fashion shots, and illustrates how to drop out the background naturally using lighting ratios.

(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.)

For this photo-shoot, we used a hair/make-up/clothing stylist. It's a good idea to have a stylist on set because while you are focusing on lighting, camera settings and getting your subject to interact with the camera, they are able to focus on the details of the shot. They will watch for stray hairs, bunched clothing and the positioning of props and elements in the background.

When the stylist and the model arrived on the morning of the shoot, we set up a makeshift dressing room in the studio's office and adjoining bathroom. During the time it took for the stylist to apply make-up, fix hair, and select the right clothing for the shot, we went about building the set (figures 1 & 2).

In our studio, we have suspended a 12-foot steel pole parallel to the ground with ropes that run through ceiling-mounted eyehooks (figure 3) and down to nautical cleats mounted on the walls (figure 4).

Metal clips connect the ropes to the pole, and can be unclipped easily to allow a roll of seamless background to slide over the pole. This is very fast, easy, and economical to set up a small studio or spare room in your house or garage.

In this situation, we suspended a 9-foot roll of white seamless paper, secured it to the pole with an A-clamp, and taped the front edge to the floor using gaffer's tape (figure 5).

For lighting, we started with a medium Starlite kit and mounted it to a Boom and Boom Stand. We then positioned it over the center of the paper, where our model would be crouching. Since the model was nearly ready, we had her come out to the set so that we could frame up the shot while the stylist finished up (figures 6 & 7).

We mounted an Olympus E-10 to a tripod, positioned it to a vertical frame, and zoomed all the way out to keep lens distortion to a minimum. Looking through the viewfinder, the shot already looked great. We set the Exposure and Focus modes to Manual, set the ISO to 80 (its lowest setting), set the Resolution to SHQ, and finally created a Custom White Balance setting to match the color temperature of the Starlite Kit (3200 K). We set the aperture to f/4 to keep the background soft, set the shutter speed to 1/125th of a second, and took several shots as the model gave various crouching poses (figure 8).

Reviewing the image on the LCD of the camera, we were particularly drawn to this image. Not only was the model's pose captivating, the lighting was elegantly simple. The softbox overhead did a wonderful job of lighting the model's hair, face and body while creating a subtle, soft shadow on a background that transitioned from light to dark gray. All from one light!

Knocking Out The Background

Next, we wanted to demonstrate how to drop out the background without having to be aided by a photo-editing program. In order to illuminate the background to pure white, we needed to light it with twice the light output of our main light.

Since our main Starlite kit was lit with a 500-watt bulb, we set up two more Starlite kits, each with a 1000-watt bulb, and positioned them on either side of the background (figure 9).

To make the foreground and the model 2/3 of a stop brighter, I opened the aperture to f/3.2 and kept the shutter speed at 1/125th of a second. After the stylist touched up the model's hair, we took several more shots of various poses (figures 10 & 11).

In these final result shots, notice how the background and foreground are now white, while the light levels on the model have been maintained.

As you can see, the setup for creating high quality fashion/portrait shots can be relatively simple. Try it out!