Recreate this lighting (nsfw)

I got asked to take some art nudes for a girl and we both like the low key look for this. I'm not as familiar with shooting low key, what's a go to method for achieving this look. I have speedlights I can use off camera, no studio strobes

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com …c657f2916c4779d​dbf9f1.jpg

dark room then shoot 1 flash and grid from the top left illuminating her back/hair

taemo wrote in post #17082015
dark room then shoot 1 flash and grid from the top left illuminating her back/hair

What about a snoot?

yes you can use snoot, both grid and snoot can be used for the same thing but the grid has a smoother transition of light

I think you could do it in any room light and use high speed sync with a high enough shutter speed to kill the ambient and dial the power of the flash in until you get the desired result. A snoot or maybe a reflective umbrella bounced onto her back?

You can use just a stock reflector and use the inverse square law. Light in close falls off fast

abbadon31 wrote in post #17086216
You can use just a stock reflector and use the inverse square law. Light in close falls off fast

So one can do it with a softbox as long as it's close to the model, true?

Vitoflo wrote in post #17087297
So one can do it with a softbox as long as it's close to the model, true?

You can but you might need a flag so not to put light on the background

Controlling where the light falls is important, but fairly easy post processing means you don't need perfection with it.

Working in a fairly large area, highish ceilings and being able to keep the subject well away from any wall, will make things easier for this kind of lighting to avoid the issue of light bounce, but I wouldn't worry about getting the blacks perfectly 100% black. The really important thing is to establish a smooth transition into the area you want as a deep shadow point, but once you are at that area you really don't have to care about what light is falling on it as you can drop it down to near nothing/pure black in post. (It is a whole lot easier to drop light after the fact than it is to add light in that wasn't there.)

Doesn't have to be a dark room, you can make a room dark with your camera settings. I also don't think thats a snoot, looks like a strip box to me probably gridded and feathered back, if so then the wall has to only be about 4 feet back.

First step. Find a gorgeous woman who can pull off underwear like that

Ahem...