photo shoot this week, need help pls

[bliss604]

Hey guys, i have a photo shoot this week and am going to be using a canon eos 20D with a sigma ef2y-70 lense. lighting is what i'm a little worried about. We want the end result to look similar to this photo that I attached of Jessica Beil. We will be giving it a digital treatment as well so it does'nt have to be exact, but I'm a little lost as to how the light placement should be to achieve this end result and which lights I should be using, any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

[tim]

lmfao. That picture has at least 4 lights on her, probably more like 6 of them, along with plenty of modifiers like soft boxes, probably along with barn doors and grids to limit spill. There's a team of makeup and hair artists, an expert digital retoucher, and a photographer who most likely has many years of of experience shooting models. You're not going to get instructions on how to reproduce this here, though someone might take pity on you and give you some quick tips.

[bliss604]

haha well i can get the lights , and I have the make up and hair artists, and the digital retoucher together, now I'm just hoping to get some tips on light placement and which kinds of lights to use, thx for the quick reply .

[tim]

I'm not an expert, but here's my "guess" (and I could be completely wrong):
- Soft box picture right, at a good angle to the model (think this because mode shadows on the left of the model).
- Fill light somewhere near the camera.
- "Rim" light with barn doors on each side, pointing at the sides of both arms. The left one looks stronger than the right.
- Hair lights positioned behind and below the model.
- There might be another light on her face.

[bliss604]

haha thx, i do hope your right, I'll try out that combo and post the end result if you're interested. If anyone else has some educated guesses i'd like to hear those as well and I'll post those too once they're done

[tim]

Yeah do post the result, i'd be interested to see what you manage with my half-arsed instructions! The guys from the glamour and nude forum would be able to give you better advice, but I don't think you can post there until you've got 500 posts.

[PhotosGuy]

There's a thread in the lighting forum that might help. Look for it.
So, you took the job without having a clue? Seems I see a thread on that a few times a week. Good luck.

[chtgrubbs]

There is one hard light directly above the camera. Note the shadow under her chin and nose which is very sharp and black and directly perpendicular to her features. Highlights on her left side and hair mean a light on the left and slightly behind, also probably direct light by the hard look of the highlights. There is a slight highlight on her left side which might be a light or could be a specular reflector.

[tim]

There is one hard light directly above the camera. Note the shadow under her chin and nose which is very sharp and black and directly perpendicular to her features. Highlights on her left side and hair mean a light on the left and slightly behind, also probably direct light by the hard look of the highlights. There is a slight highlight on her left side which might be a light or could be a specular reflector.

Someone knows what they're talking about! So there's only two lights on her? Main above the camera, hair/highlight to the left? I can see now there's probably not a light on the right once you pointed things out.

[Wilt]

Looking at image highly magnified, I agree with chtgrubbs, but there is MORE! Frontal lighting via large slim source at 6 o'clock (subject at center of clock) provides lighting on body with highlights along the fronts of legs and arms. The even higher specular light also at 6 oclock shines somewhat downward provides the hard shadow previously mentioned. As for light sources on either side...about 10 oclock and 1 oclock...with maybe more than one source on the left, which provides highlight at top of hand on that side of the body

[Longwatcher]

There have to be at least fo..I mean three lights on her.

- The brightest is at 4 o'clock (as model faces forward camera at 12) it is mid-level to the model aimed up at her head/hair. [this is a correction after noticing the hand]

- Next is another back light at about 7 o'clock high shooting down at her hair and shoulders (it is not angled correctly to be a reflector)

- then a light high almost staight on at 12 o'oclock (above or behind the camera ) aiming at face with some hitting hair (there may possibly be another light just for hair, but it could be this one)

- and lastly a fill light at about model's head level at about 10:30 aimed at mid-section. [never mind, I think I imagined this one - I wish I had looked at the picture and type at the same time]

These are the lights I can confirm, there could be a light also on the opposing side of the fill, but if so it is just balancing the light at 10:30 and the head on light is making it difficult to confirm or deny. and there may be some more subtle lights, but the other's overwhealm them.

As to softboxes and the like, who knows, I would guess the front ones have softboxes or umbrellas, but can't guess on the back as I can do the same thing with or without.

Just my experience and opinion.

[bliss604]

you guys are awesome! i'm gonna try all of these combinations out, and i'll post the results. the photo shoots going to be from the 3rd of november till the 10th. Just booked the models, the hair and make-up artists i got my stylist sorted out and most of the equipment, now i guess i'll book the lights. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is gonna be soooooooo fun!!!