Playing with Light
A while back I promised that I would be writing a little more about the lights and setups I use for my shoots. This photo shoot with model Pratik (@pratik_bhagat007) is the perfect opportunity to keep that promise. During this session we experimented a lot with the lights I had prepared for the shoot.
I have three continuous lights that I use mainly. These are a point light source (Amaran 150c), a tube light (Amaran 2tc), and a small LED panel (Aputure MC pro).
In this case I have used a grid and a soft box modifier for the point light.
The picture to the right shows my starting setup for the photoshoot.
If you know my photography, you probably know that I like to keep my backgrounds simple, often black, and to use this and the lights to have my subject stand out and keep the focus on them alone.
At the start I had all lights switched on in pretty much the places you see above. Of course, all the other lights in the room were switched off and the curtains closed.
Below you can see my favourite shots with this setup.
For the next part I switched off the tube light, and quickly after also the LED panel that served as a hair light. With the grid placed in the soft box the Amaran 150c does a great job of lighting the subject without throwing light on the backdrop. When placed right on the right side of the model even their left side vanishes in the shadows. An effect that I personally really enjoy.
The first two images below have been takes with the hair light still on. The third and second with only the modified point light.
Next we did the same thing with only the tube light switched on and placed left of Pratik. The light is noticeably harder and it is even easier to place the light at an angle that allows for the model to sink into shadows.
To create even more shadow we tried the same thing with only the small LED panel placed to the left and slightly to the front of Pratiks face.
In this case even his eyes do not catch much light anymore, which gives him a grim and dark look.
For a last fun experiment before the end of the session we placed the tube light to the left and the LED panel to the right of Pratik, and made use of the colour options on both lights.
Lately I haven’t had many opportunities to use coloured lights, and also this time we were running out of time already and couldn’t do more than this.
But if fitting for the theme of the session I really like using colour for side or hair lights to add a bit of interest to the scene.
Overall I would say this was a very successful session and we got many good pictures.
Thank you so much for reading my blog, make sure to check out Pratik’s Instagram @pratik_bhagat007, and I hope to see you back on my website soon.