I’m currently in the middle or reworking my website.  One aspect of the site that’s going away is the blog I had integrated, but rarely updated.  Because I find this setup much more convenient, I’m re-posting the articles and moving forward here.  This is one such re-post.

White shooting a church for AboutVase, I had one of those accidental shots, that reminded me of the magic of light.  That’s actually why I got into taking pictures in teh first place. The suprise of what shows up on film as opposed to what you see.

Anyway, I was doing a lighting test and didn’t have an assistant. Typically in this situation I’ll opt for the self timer and sprint approach to test shots. It works great, but guessing the focus is always fun.

As I was doing my test, the camera fired early and I missed my mark. No problem, it’s digital, I’ll shoot another.  But wait…. this test shot was a little different. what resulted was completely different than what I had expected…. a ghostly, half present me.

What happened here?  Let see, I was wearing a dark shirt with light stripes. so, when flash fired it reflected on the stripes and my head, but none of the darker areas…. that makes sense. But why are the dark parts transparent and not just underexposed. ive used this same lighting set up dozens of times with people in dark clothes and never had this happen… So what was different this time? Ah Ha, No Assistant!

When the strobe fired early, I knew the test shot was no good, so I immediately rushed back to snap another test. However, my exposure was rather long, so when I moved back to the camera, the shutter had not closed. this allowed the ambient light to continue to fill the frame, including the dark areas of my shirt. this made me look semi-invisible. Cool.

i know its no great picture, but i thought it was kinda neat, so i figured I’d share.

Shooting Fashion on grey in this style is extremely similar to shooting on white.  As you can see, the octabank, fill cards, and model are all in almost the same positions.  The major difference is subtracting the background lights and the softbox fill on the front. 

The key to this lighting, however, is spacing.  Notice how everything is lit off of one source.  Typically if the model is a little over or underexposed I would simply turn the packs up or down.  However, this does not work with this set.  The background for these shots are actually that same white cyc wall.  If you change the pack to correct exposure you’ll augment the whole image.  Instead, all you have to do is move your model closer or farther from the light to find the right balance. 

In addition to this, I have also moved the key light in a little bi more and aimed it closer to the model.  This castes a little more shadow on her nose and gives the picture a little more edge.  To compensate for this adjustment, I had to move the camera back a bit so that I could keep the box out of frame.

There are a few thinks you want to make sure to be aware of when shifting from white to grey.  For instance, when things are lit on white, other things that are bright tend to not be as obvious.  They disappear in the lighting.  On grey, this is not the case.  A glossy lip, shimmer makeup, or a little forehead shine are now the first things you see when looking at a picture.  Switching to a little more matte is a good solution to these problem.  On the flip side, sequined blouses now really shine and show up, whereas on white they sort of fell flat. Also, hair-holes and fly-aways are much less distracting on grey.  The stark silhouettes are often distracting.

Ultimately its a really simple lighting that reads clean.  In my opinion, most products also look more expensive on grey.  Something about blown-out, stripped-out white pictures just seem to look a little boring and kind of cheap.

Fashion On Grey

Earlier today, I was asked how I was able to light the picture of the girl in the jeans with the cloudy look.

This particular image was created with one head and a bunch of things as modifiers. I set up a speedo head with a large reflector directly behind the model. Then, to help diffuse this, I used a wall of lumilux (diffusion sheet) directly behind the model. This wall was 4x8 and helps create the white backdrop and some of the light wrap on the model.

Because, I didn’t get as much wrap as i was hoping, I also added a 4x8 white wall on either side of the model. this added the fill to the front and sides and helped keep the image from simply being a silhouette.

Finally, I just added a few oversized shears to the ground to help soften them where the hardwoods looked a bit too stark.

While I do really like the final product here, this was an early experimentation and probably isn’t the best way to accomplish this same sort of look. For starters, the camera flaired way too much. To fix this, I adjusted the shadows in levels. Another problem with the flair is that it discolored around her hips. For this, I selected and feathered that area and then proceeded pulled some of the greens and added some blue to help balance the colors.

It’s a fun set-up and worth playing with. So, give it a shot.

For starters.  Shooting fashion on white is at the core of most e-commerce photography.  This sounds easy enough, however we play a game of volumes.  How many shots can we get done in a day because the model has a plane to catch and we have a sea of racks ahead of us.

For this reason, what seems to work best is a very broad, clean, flat light.  A little bit of shadow is good, it helps show texture on the garments.  But, overall getting a nice even exposure is the key.

In the picture/diagram you will see that Cassi is almost completely clipped out and the background is registering at 255.  You could get it close and do this in post, but over literally thousands of pictures this time adds up.  Instead its better to just light it right from the beginning.

The Octabank is your key.  It is not actually aimed directly at the model however.  It is aimed slightly to her right.  Instead, the brunt of its light is actually hitting the V-flat on the other side.  This is an easy way to get somewhat directional light while still having enough fill to maintain details in your shadows.

The Softbox you see directly in front of her is on a boom and is raised above her head.  This lights whole purpose is to round the light on her face so that it is more flattering.  Side lighting emphasizes shadows and wrinkles.  Even someone like Cassi with virtually flawless skin can benefit from this treatment.

The Black Cards on either side of her serve dual purposes.  They help drop an edge on garments.  White on white garments in particular have this problem.  Also, they keep the background lights from creating wrap on the model.  You will notice the floor goes a little muddy on the floor (or at least its not completely blown out).  This is because of these cards.  However, its much easier to remove this with a few swipes of a dodge tool than have wrap and flair fighting you on the model.

The light on the right (camera right) is your main background light.  Its a bare head with a reflector.  you want to back this up enough so that its path hits the entire background and place it far enough to the side that it doesn’t bound off the background and blow out your subject.  Finding the right balance can be a trick but at least you’re in the right ballpark. 

The light on the left is gridded and raised quite high.  It is aimed at the floor behind the model.  Something you can’t see because of this light is a piece of formica the model is standing on.  The back edge of this is behind the black cards and is being blow out by this light. By using it to help clean the floor it saves quite a bit of post work.

All of this has been about the light.  Now there are a few general shortcuts in workflow that will help you in the process.  For instance, its better to aim for just a little bit under exposed than overexposed.  If you’re a little under, the background won’t wrap on the model as much.  Then when you push your exposure a little bit you’ll be back to blown out.  Also, I would regularly have to bump the contrast a touch.  Not much.  In CaptureOne I would usually go for a 6 pt bump.  Just enough to bring back some edge since the light is so flat. 

Finally, for exposure on white, I seem to have the best luck using the models face as my guide.  If the highlight hits around 220 +/-6 it would usually make for a good exposure.  However, if using this approach, you will regularly be reapplying powder throughout the shoot.

I hope this helps.  Feel free to ask any questions.

So, I finally decided I am well past due and am going to create a blog.  Most of this will be to explain lighting systems and showcase pictures that otherwise don’t fit in my portfolio.  I also hope that somewhere in here I’ll be able to find some drive to create pictures outside of my work.

So, to get started, I’ll give you a little bit of background on me.  I’m a fashion photographer from Little Rock that’s now based out of Nashville.  I know, both cities really sound like great fashion hubs.  But, It seems a lot of catalog photography and particularly web is moving from major markets and closer to shipping hubs.  Build a studio in your warehouse and you’ve got all the merchandise you need to keep a whole crew busy. So, here I am an in-house photographer shooting fashion for Dillard’s Inc.