Lighting a back ground?

This is how I currently light my back ground. I angled the strobes slightly lover so that it lights the bottom of the back drop and floor. I cannot increase the strobes from the back drop anymore as I don't want any spill on the model.

With this position the top corners are -2/3 compared to the center. I would like this angle to get a better lighting on the bottom and floor as I don't really use the top corners.

Will a two medium soft box illuminate the back ground more evenly?

Thanks

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doubt a softbox would do anything but kill power.. i think the problem here is the position of the lights, try angling the lights more out, it seems like you have both lights dead on the center... either have the left light hitting the left side or right of the BG, not the middle. same for the right.

k.CHU wrote in post #12243428
doubt a softbox would do anything but kill power.. i think the problem here is the position of the lights, try angling the lights more out, it seems like you have both lights dead on the center... either have the left light hitting the left side or right of the BG, not the middle. same for the right.

Thanks for the suggestion, although it looks like the strobes are aiming for the center its really positioned about 1/3 into each side.

Another poster once mentioned to cross the light that they light the opposite sides but maybe I'm too close it did not work out better.

I was thinking a soft box because of the size would distribute the light over a wider space compared to the 7" reflector. Now I'm thinking if I can find a larger reflector 9" that might work better.

A great solution is to use wide angle reflectors on the background lights. Increase the coverage and turn the lights so they're close to or facing the background rather than angling them en as you're doing.

I can't tell which strobes you're using but if there is a wide angle reflector it's great solution. I have a relatively small studio and that's how I light my backgrounds when I'm rendering pure white.

TMR Design wrote in post #12244784
A great solution is to use wide angle reflectors on the background lights. Increase the coverage and turn the lights so they're close to or facing the background rather than angling them en as you're doing.

I can't tell which strobes you're using but if there is a wide angle reflector it's great solution. I have a relatively small studio and that's how I light my backgrounds when I'm rendering pure white.

Thanks I did a shoot in Dec and I had the back ground lights at the side and about half way up about 4 feet for a 8 foot high setup. Level and pointed 1.3 in and the results was good. I saw and someone recommended to raise them up and cross angle them instead so that was what I did.

I think I will lower them quite a bit and more level.

Thank you all for the input.

There are many ways to get it done and a lot has to do with the size of the space. Once you turns those lights in you have to be really careful of the spill contaminating the subject area. When working that way, gobos or large flags become really important.

use a light meter, and just flag your lights if you're worried about light spilling on to the model.

Thank you all for the responses and suggestions.

First I do have a selkonic 358 light meter and I meter the back ground, main center +1(F11) over my main at F8.

The reason I also had the lights up high was to ensure there is no spill from the back ground strobes.

Today I tried lowering the lights and did some tests. To me because I don't have that much distance I can only position the lights from the back ground so much that the lighting looks more centered. What happens when I get these models that are 5' 9-11" and they wear heels.

I see strip a softbox 12x56" on amazon and was wondering would buying two and placing them right beside the back ground and angle them slightly towards the background and they fire towards each other give better back ground lighting.

I have seen this setup before posted and the lighting results looked good.

By the way I called the distributor and he thinks I have over heated the strobe. He said that because I'm only using the strobe at 1/4 power its also harder on the strobe compared to 3/4 or full power?? The weird thing is that the other identical strobe was fine and I have shot 3 other times more photos with no issues. Wonder if the owner(of the distributor I spoke to him) is trying to weasel out of service or warranty exchange. I will keep a eye on it and if anything when I go to the states next month will buy another two more 400ws genesis strobes.

Rob I asked the owner if he sells a 9" reflector he said no. This is why I'm wondering as another option can I use two medium soft box and point it towards the back ground will this work better than my current setup?

If the strobe gives me a problem again I will insist they repair or exchange it since it under warranty will say inconsistent power output.

Matt what do you mean flag the lights?

I often use one or two 1'x6' strip lights on my background and feather the light to get pretty even distribution. I have to play around a little and take several meter readings before I don't see much variation. Regarding flagging the lights, I think he meant to use flags between the background strobes and camera to block light that might cause lens flare, assuming you don't want that.