Fixed but Flexible
For this series of shots, my original aim was to supplement the ambient sunlight with some evenly matched, but quite harsh side lighting. The location was a long path, with overhanging greenery providing a tunnel-like feel, so the planned harsh effect, at least in my mind’s eye, felt like it could have some potential.
So, the basic setup was two Nikon SB-800s, each setup in a shoot-through white umbrella, positioned parallel to the “film” plane. We added into this symmetrical mix a Nikon SB-26 behind the model, to act as a separation/hair light. One of the SB-800s was triggered via PocketWizard (to get the ball rolling reliably), then the other two flashes were on optical trigger mode.
As the shoot developed, the real advantage of this setup shone through (fairly obvious with hindsight!) By simply moving the model from left to right between the two lights, the effects of the lights would change providing some quite different looks:
- As the model moved closer to one of the lights, the power of the light would obviously increase, whilst the power of the opposing light would decrease, so almost like remote control of the relative levels, just by nudging the model from side to side.
- Again, in moving closer to one of the lights, the relative size of the umbrella light source would increase as the model approached it, and the light would become softer, with the light from the opposite SB-800 getting harder.
Combinations of sideways shuffling could then give some really nice changes to the look, without touching the lights at all, so pretty much a fixed setup, but with flexible levels, just my moving a slider (or to put it another way, the model!)
The only physical adjustment required was to move the position of the rear SB-26 to ensure that it was doing something sensible, but more importantly, wasn’t in shot (or was masked by the model).
For the odd shot, depending on the exact position of the mode, I also added in the light from an on-camera Nikon SB-900, powered right down to either 1/64, or 1/128, to add in a splash of front fill for when the side lighting left a little too much shadow on the front “edge” of the model’s face.
The models were Earl and Maria (drop me a line with you Model Mayhem IDs, and I’ll leave a link here) – thanks for posing.
You can take a look at some more of the shots here on Flickr.
Finally, the usual video slideshow in YouTube is available to view:
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