Jennifer Lawrence in Vogue - how was it lit?

To me it looks like a beauty dish, right of the camera.

I'm new to lighting. In fact, I have no lighting experience other than macro. But I came to my conclusion based on how the light is hitting her, and the reflection in her eyes.

My guess:

Two or three assistants holding a giant scrim above her to block the direct sunlight, then a relatively soft light source to camera right.

Clues:
Bright blue sky in the background, so it's daytime and the sun is out.
No hard shadows from direct sunlight on her face, chest, or legs = scrim to provide shade from direct sun.
Catchlight in her eyes, a bit to the right of the center of her eyes = artificial light source to camera right
Soft shadows on the camera-left side of her face, and in the wrinkles on her swimsuit = artificial light source has a softening modifier such as umbrella or beauty dish.
The shadow on the ground from her left (camera right) arm gives another clue as to the positioning of the light.


However. I can't quite figure out the relatively hard, crisp shadow of the sleeve on her left (camera right) wrist. Perhaps the scrim is feathered to allow just the edge of the direct sun to fall on the near edge of her arm and body?

I'm also not good enough yet to differentiate between a beauty dish and am umbrella. The catchlight is too small to help me identify the shape.

nathancarter wrote in post #14870301
Two or three assistants holding a giant scrim above her to block the direct sunlight, then a relatively soft light source to camera right.

Definitely see this.

I think two more light sources (aside from scrim/sun). One is closer to the camera set up at a low angle maybe right above the camera and to the right. Unless the catchlight was photoshopped in, you can tell because the catchlight is at the top of the eye but it is not covered by her eyebrow. Small lightsource that's meant to light the shadows a bit.

The other looks to be higher up and further to the right. Pointed down. Definitely more pop to this one. What's a little strange to me is how big the hotspot is on her thigh compared to the hotspot on her forehead and cheek

aIpha wrote in post #14897888
Definitely see this.

I think two more light sources (aside from scrim/sun). One is closer to the camera set up at a low angle maybe right above the camera and to the right. Unless the catchlight was photoshopped in, you can tell because the catchlight is at the top of the eye but it is not covered by her eyebrow. Small lightsource that's meant to light the shadows a bit.

The other looks to be higher up and further to the right. Pointed down. Definitely more pop to this one. What's a little strange to me is how big the hotspot is on her thigh compared to the hotspot on her forehead and cheek

and there's no telling what they did in post work either to tame or enhance lighting

hawk911 wrote in post #14900818
and there's no telling what they did in post work either to tame or enhance lighting

Yeah, I was thinking there had to be a fair amount of post. That hard shadow on her wrist just doesn't fit with the rest of the lighting,

I haven't a lot of experiences, but i really like the pic. thank for sharing.

I agree with your guess. I thin kits a large sized softbox on camera right and the light was feathered. The color of the sky looks fake and was bought back to blue in post, which leads me to believe it shot during a bright sunny day.

nathancarter wrote in post #14870301
My guess:

Two or three assistants holding a giant scrim above her to block the direct sunlight, then a relatively soft light source to camera right.

Clues:
Bright blue sky in the background, so it's daytime and the sun is out.
No hard shadows from direct sunlight on her face, chest, or legs = scrim to provide shade from direct sun.
Catchlight in her eyes, a bit to the right of the center of her eyes = artificial light source to camera right
Soft shadows on the camera-left side of her face, and in the wrinkles on her swimsuit = artificial light source has a softening modifier such as umbrella or beauty dish.
The shadow on the ground from her left (camera right) arm gives another clue as to the positioning of the light.


However. I can't quite figure out the relatively hard, crisp shadow of the sleeve on her left (camera right) wrist. Perhaps the scrim is feathered to allow just the edge of the direct sun to fall on the near edge of her arm and body?

I'm also not good enough yet to differentiate between a beauty dish and am umbrella. The catchlight is too small to help me identify the shape.

it was lit with photoshop id say

Look at the shadow on her wrist. It's crisp. But elsewhere the lighting seems softer. Also check out the size of the reflection on the left from of her jacket. Looks like a large reflector or possibly a scrim that was there to soften flash. But somehow the flash near her wrist was NOT softened. Sloppy.

The best way to tell how a photo was lit it by looking at the subject's eyes. They'll reflect how many lights were used and whatnot. So by looking in her eyes I see the reflection of one light source, it looks like there's an umbrella on it and it seems to be to the camera right. It is daytime like someone else mentioned but there are no harsh shadows. So there are probably some assistants holding a couple of diffusers around her.

I can appreciate dissecting a photo, but with so many digital artists in the industry now, you can guess all you want and surmise the photo was shot one way or another. In reality, I doubt we'd get it 100% accurate. What we can do is try to emulate the photograph/image ourselves and shoot it how we think it should be shot. Catchlights can be added/removed easily enough, as can shadows.

Absolutely there's a big scrim over her--look at the grass behind. It goes from the same lighting she is under to much brighter farther back. This image was heavily processes to bring all the lighting back to even levels across the board, with the exception of the hard shadow on the wrist as others have noted.

Personally, I think the main light to the right is a large softbox rather than a beauty dish or umbrella.

Could the sharp shadow on the wrist be from direct (or at least more direct) sunlight hitting there? If the sun was being reflected in, under the scrim from camera right, the light could be "feathered" to bring "just enough" to the face, but the wrist was left in brighter, more direct light. That could also be the reason the bright spot on her thigh is not proportional to the face.