Lastolite’s HiLite Background

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These shots look very overexposed and when opened in Photoshop show overexposure.

Let's try again

I had promised some photos with a 580 EX II solo, and the results you might expect.

First photo: 580 EX II Half power, 24 mm zoom with FongShere cloud mounted to give me a nice even spread. Flash mounted in top of hilite via boom, centered. I have found this gives me a "hair light" effect. AB800 camera left fired into 60" reflective umbrella at 1/8 power

Additional note: By blowing the background out, I was able to cheat the floor lighting away. That wasn't apparent to me initially, but adjusting in LR2 brings the floor back into contrast.

Matt,

I took a look at the facial mask histogram and looked at the numbers on the highlights on the face and hair. Very blown out. Not just the background. The true tonality of the face is lost. By 'blowing' the background as you have, you also have significant wrap and subject area contamination.

What can I tell you.... I'm an amateur!!!

I have alot of work to do in learning how to use this correctly, for sure.

HI Matt,

Of course we all start somewhere but here's one thing to try as an experiment.

When working on pure white you want your background to be rendered as white and that means having enough light to do that but no more than is necessary. Too often, photographers pour huge amounts of light on the background, thinking that it must be blown out. Pure white can go into clipping, as can any color or part of your shot and that's not what we want.

Everyone seems to have their own method for determining how to render white but very few are technically correct. So let's say that rather than give you a meter reading to look for, you do this...

Set up your subject area, with or without a subject about 4 to 6 feet from your background (assuming you have that much room). Use your hand held meter to determine the correct incident exposure so that you've properly exposed for the true tonality, or the diffuse value, rendering highlights accurately with no clipping.

Now light your background starting with an underexposed value. Take a shot. Now gradually increase the amount of light on your background in 1/3 stop increments and take a shot at each value until you've clearly blown out the background. Make a note of what those values are in relation to your subject area taking exposure.

Now take that series of images and open them in your RAW editor. Use your eyedropper or sampling tool to read values from the background. If you're in Lightroom then you're looking for 100% and if you're in Photoshop you want 255,255,255 for pure white. Look at the values for each image you shot and find the exposure where the background is rendered as white. Now look at the image with the background 1/3 stop under that and see if it is showing pure white. Find the exposure where the background has just turned white. If you're slightly under then use the next higher one. If you have to choose an exposure from one that is slightly hot and one that is slightly under then pick the one that is slightly hot.

That relationship between subject area and background is what you need to render pure white without blowing out the background and driving it into clipping.

Now for the meter readings.... I've done these tests many times and I don't meter my background as an incident value because that value will vary based on the color or tint of that background. Also, since you're lighting the HiLite internally you don't want to measure the light that falls on the background and really want to know how much light is being reflected back at your subject area. This is the perfect time to take reflected readings and you'll always be able to render any background as pure white by using the same reflective reading.

The value you should have gotten is 4 stops difference between the subject area indicent exposure and the background reflective exposure. This will always work.

So, for example, if you take an incident reading of your subject area and determine that the proper exposure is f/5.6 then you know that you're going to need a reflective reading of f/22 from your background. Any less with give you less than white and any more will appear white but it will be clipping and 'blowing out' one or all of the RGB channels.

One very important reason to only have enough light on your background as necessary is because when working with small distances between the subject and background you're more likely to have wrap, halo's and ghosting appearing on and around your subject.

In the images you posted there is significant wrap coming back on to the boy's cheeks, ears and the back of the head. Those areas are overexposed and clipping.

Work on getting the subject exposed properly and then as you light the background you'll be able to see the subject area contamination. If you have the correct background exposure you'll minimize or perhaps eliminate all the wrap.

Excellent information Robert. I cannot wait to give it a try. This also sounds like a perfect time to learn how to shoot directly to my laptop.

Robert
When using the hilite, measure my subject exposure - say f8. then i measure (incident) the light falling on the hilite and adjust power until it's around 1.5 to 2 stops over my subject exposure.

One of the things with the hilite that many may get is that unless they use two lights, the background lighting will be uneven. The only way to get the light even is to clip the background across the whole visible area (sop pumping in more light than is needed).

With one light I'm not sure I can get an even light although I didn;t think of using the light from above!

Jim

EOS_JD wrote in post #6887766
Robert
When using the hilite, measure my subject exposure - say f8. then i measure (incident) the light falling on the hilite and adjust power until it's around 1.5 to 2 stops over my subject exposure.

One of the things with the hilite that many may get is that unless they use two lights, the background lighting will be uneven. The only way to get the light even is to clip the background across the whole visible area (sop pumping in more light than is needed).

With one light I'm not sure I can get an even light although I didn;t think of using the light from above!

Jim

Hi Jim,

I see the HiLite as a great tool but lighting for pure white is all about the evenness of the light. If you flood the HiLite with enough light to have the areas withe greatest falloff showing pure white then of course the areas closest to the light source are going to be seriously clipping. Unfortunately that is still not good. The hot spots are way too hot and that causes the extreme wrap. Sadly, I don't see using one light source as a good idea for such a large device.

I always questioned how the background could be completely even, no matter what the materials or design because physics does not allow for that to happen. I'm sure the device is great for some people and certainly for location work is makes sense but if the bottom line is that you must overexpose large areas of the HiLite just to get the entire face lit evenly then it also requires enough distance between subject and background to negate all the adverse effects such as wrap and halo's.

A great shot of a bride and groom can be completely ruined by wrap coming from behind. Personally, I would rather make sure that the central area behind the subject(s) is exposed properly for pure white and let the edges and/or corners be slightly underexposed and then clean them up using the dodge tool (set for highlights) to remove any gradations or vignetting.

TMR Design wrote in post #6888140
Hi Jim,

I see the HiLite as a great tool but lighting for pure white is all about the evenness of the light. If you flood the HiLite with enough light to have the areas withe greatest falloff showing pure white then of course the areas closest to the light source are going to be seriously clipping. Unfortunately that is still not good. The hot spots are way too hot and that causes the extreme wrap. Sadly, I don't see using one light source as a good idea for such a large device.

I always questioned how the background could be completely even, no matter what the materials or design because physics does not allow for that to happen. I'm sure the device is great for some people and certainly for location work is makes sense but if the bottom line is that you must overexpose large areas of the HiLite just to get the entire face lit evenly then it also requires enough distance between subject and background to negate all the adverse effects such as wrap and halo's.

A great shot of a bride and groom can be completely ruined by wrap coming from behind. Personally, I would rather make sure that the central area behind the subject(s) is exposed properly for pure white and let the edges and/or corners be slightly underexposed and then clean them up using the dodge tool (set for highlights) to remove any gradations or vignetting.

Hi Robert
Thanks for the quick response.

Yes I see what you say. The alternative is to use two lights to evenly light the hilite background. this is probably the way it's meant to be lit but obviously in the right situation, one can a fairly decent job.

I use the 6' x 7' Hilite and there's about 1.5 stops difference between the lit and non lit edges (of the 6' side)

With some creative light placement (perhaps from the top) this may help alleaviate the spread some. I don't have the space to light from the top at the moment but I'm now seeing where my wrap is coming from (i do get it from the lit side).

I'll have another play with the hilite and see what I can achieve.

thanks for the help.

Regards
Jim

Part of my enthusiasm for using the top came from my "nukin" problem. Since I couldn't avoid the wrap issue, I figured I'd put it "up top" like a cheater hairlight.

I think, all in all, its surprising how little light it takes to drive this thing -- or how powerful speedlights really are.

mattograph wrote in post #6889524
I think, all in all, its surprising how little light it takes to drive this thing -- or how powerful speedlights really are.

I think it's a little bit of both.

I will physically put 3 Speedlite's inside the HiLite to save room.

I could probably get away with two, but I get faster recycle times.

Canon's Wireless TTL works fine right through the HiLite...

-Mario

Hi Guys,

Thought you might be interested in seeing some shots I recently took with my HiLite. All the shots were taken with 3 Lumen8 F400 flash heads, one for the background and 2 in softboxes (90cm and 60cm).

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Cristian@btinternet.co​m wrote in post #6904129
Hi Guys,

Thought you might be interested in seeing some shots I recently took with my HiLite. All the shots were taken with 3 Lumen8 F400 flash heads, one for the background and 2 in softboxes (90cm and 60cm).

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ISO160 1/200 f8

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ISO160 1/200 f8

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ISO160 1/200 f10

I have found lighting the HiLite to be quite tricky at times, I usually place the background light to the left side and try and compensate with the right light if I can to make sure the background blows out evenly. I think there is a fine line, but the more I use it the more I love it! I tend to set the lights up with a light meter first, then start shooting and see what turns up, I find a 2 stop difference between the background and the subject is the sweet spot.

I have never thought of using my Speedlight in the right side of the HiLite, but I will next time. Unit I saw this tread the idea hadn't even occurred to me.

The best thing about this set up is the whole rig folds down small enough to fit in the boot of my Smart Car, lights, background the lot

Comments welcome.

Lighting for pure white in any situation can be challenging. The trick is to always get the most even light possible and watch the exposure and hot spots.

Nice images , by the way.

Am I missing the boat with this thing by NOT using a light meter?