The Double Main Light

Today's post comes from the book Christopher Grey's Advanced Lighting Techniques: Tricks of the Trade for Digital Photographers. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

I’ve written about using a double key light approach several times, both in my Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers and in my columns for shootsmarter.com and prophotoresource.com. It’s such a cool technique that I imagine I’ll write about it again in the future, as I keep finding uses for it and new ways to work with it. If you play with it just once, I’m sure you’ll be impressed by the level of its coolness and will find many applications for it in your own work.

The principle is simple: Use a large softbox (the bigger the better; in this case, I opted to use a 4x6-foot unit), along with another light fitted with a gridded parabolic reflector or beauty bowl (image below). The softbox will provide an underexposed but overall soft light, and the reflector will give the most important part of the image a correct and proper exposure.


To prepare for the first series, I began with a grid-spotted beauty bowl and set both lights approximately 6 feet from where my model would be standing. I placed the softbox behind the beauty bowl, keeping both lights at roughly the same angle. This meant that the softbox (as measured at the height of the strobe unit) would be higher than the beauty bowl when the beauty bowl was centered against it. Think of it as a straight line between both strobe units, because we want the same angle to the light so that we can avoid any possibility of conflicting shadows.

This setup takes a little extra time because both sources must be measured separately, then together. While my model was in makeup, I found the hottest area from the gridspot and measured it with my flashmeter, tweaking the power output from the pack until I had a perfect f/11.

I wanted the softbox light to be two stops under the other light. I turned the beauty bowl light off and sparked up the softbox, changing the power output until it was a perfect f/5.6—two stops less than the other light.

When I switched the other light back on and again metered at the hot spot, I found that the extra light increased the exposure by 1/3 stop (the effects of light are additive), which meant my camera’s effective aperture would be f/13.

Finally, I placed a strip light on a boom, centered directly over the model’s space but about 2 feet behind it to avoid having light spill onto the top of her nose. This light was powered up 1/3 stop brighter than the double main light.

Once you have the position of the lights figured out, it’s a simple matter to make adjustments if you change the position of the gridspot or the softbox: simply turn off whichever light you didn’t move and change the power of the other until you get to the same, original, f-stop. I had to do that for this first shot (image below) because the 25 degree grid threw a light that was too broad at its distance from the subject and the actual effect of the double main light was diminished. I found I had to move the beauty bowl in about halfway, to about 3 feet from the model, in order to get the effect I was looking for—a combination of the two lights that would show both underexposure and perfect exposure on the same subject and location.


Notice how the gridspot forms a gentle circle of soft light that seems to dissolve in from the slightly darker light below. This is the beauty of the double main light setup. You can spotlight your subject but still maintain a great deal of detail in the remainder of her form.

Of course, you can use regular parabolic reflectors, too. For the next shot (below), I removed the beauty bowl and replaced it with a parabolic reflector and a 20 degree grid. I had to re-meter and re-power the parabolic as its light is more concentrated than that of a beauty bowl. When I had achieved my target reading of f/11, my model and I were good to go, and we continued with the shoot. Notice that the background is slightly darker here because the reflector is more narrow. You’ll also note that the circle of light is more tightly defined and the shadows are harder because the light source is smaller.


When your subject wears white or light-colored clothing, you can drop the exposure from the softbox even more than two stops and still retain detail. If your strobes don’t allow linear power changes (and are accurate when making adjustments up or down), you’ll have to turn off the gridspot each time you re-meter the softbox. The exposure from the softbox, for this shot (image below), was dropped an additional full stop to an effective f/4. You will still have to re-meter the two lights together to get a working f-stop because the sum output of the two lights will change.


I switched to a 10 degree grid for the next shot (image below) to show what a narrow gridspot would look like. It’s a look that I personally like very much, and I often use it for senior portraits because my clients like the unusual look as well. I also bumped the power from the softbox down an additional stop, making it four stops below the parabolic. I could tell from my camera’s LCD that the exposure on the background was becoming dangerously dark and would soon be ineffective for this series. The solution was to move all of the lights farther from the background (ahh! the Inverse Square Law at work!). By moving everything farther from the background, the amount of exposure reduction due to falloff was reduced and background detail was maintained. The ratio and spacing of the three lights to the model remained the same.


This double main light technique is something you’ll never see the “fast photo” outlets attempt. They use preset lighting scenarios that, to my eye, look like junk. They are simple, foolproof, and without a spark of creativity. Play and practice with techniques like the double key and you’ll produce results that those practitioners can only dream about.

Please note that your results, based on your equipment, shooting style, etc., will, and should, be different from mine. The amount of reflectivity from the walls of your studio, the size of your studio, and other factors will make a difference in your results. However, the premise is sound and will work beautifully. Your assignment is to make it work for you.

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Simulated Sunlight

Today's post comes from the book Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography. This book is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

One of our jobs as successful photographers is to identify and exploit trends, which frequently make themselves known through commercial advertising. Like many advertising shooters, I have a love/hate relationship with art directors, those ad agency folks who dream up the ads in the first place.While I hate it when they make what I might think are dumb creative decisions during a shoot, I love them because they are paid to dream up attention-getting visuals for typically mundane subjects (and for paying me handsomely to produce the images). Art directors are often responsible for trends, because when they see a successful image from another agency, they tend to use it as a point of departure. When enough art directors do this, a trend is born through “trickle-down creative,” eventually making its way through the entire industry as clients begin asking for the “look.”

I’ve been seeing more and more national advertisements shot with simulated sunlight—beautiful images with clearly defined shadows and small, specular highlights. Is this a trend? Probably. I think we’ll see this style continue for quite a while. Is it cool? Absolutely.

There are several ways to simulate sunlight, and simply going outside is not a viable option because you have no control over the situation. It’s simply impractical.

HMIs were created for the motion picture and video industries. They are continuous sources like traditional hot lights and are pricey to rent (usually only from cinema supply houses) and very expensive to buy. However, they produce a very convincing “sunlight.” Larger HMIs can illuminate entire city blocks.

If you use hot lights, you should use something with a focusable fresnel spot in order to keep the shadows sharp. Pay attention to the crispness of the shadow and also to the amount of fill you might need.

Far and away, the most practical lights are studio strobes. If you simply attach a small reflector, however, you may not get an authentic look, especially when lighting someone in a larger area. Light modified with a reflector will not spread out in all directions as sunlight does, nor will it create a correct shadow shape. I think it’s a good idea to tilt the strobe head to the 11:00 position, relative to the subject, so that the subject receives the full blast of the tube without any additional reflection from the strobe unit itself.


Deeper shadows can be achieved by adding a subtractive fill device, like a black bookend, to the shadow side of the image. There is a slight loss of bounced light against the background, which would not be as noticeable if the background were a darker color.

The next shot (left) would have appeared flat without the addition of a narrow strip light between the subject and the background. The strip light was angled carefully to avoid any spill onto the model or the towels. It was powered at 1/2 stop over the main light, as measured at the top of the frame, and allowed to fall off to give the image vertical depth, perhaps like a skylight. If I’d wished to keep it even, I’d have set the strip light vertically at camera left and feathered it evenly across the background.



The barebulb strobe, placed above and just slightly to camera right, threw beautiful, even light on the model. The crisp shadow shows plenty of detail because the bulb sprayed light in all directions and it bounced around the room. The texture of the towels looks great because the small source created a small, sharp shadow on each fabric loop (image above and diagram below).



If you need to give the illusion of sunlight as an accent, take advantage of the barebulb’s ability to produce distinct shadows and mimic the shape of a window and direct light through it. I used a pair of black bookends to create this shape. The black absorbed a lot of the extra light before it could bounce around the room and possibly affect the exposure of the main light. The window light was powered to 1 stop over the main light, a medium softbox. Even though that light was so much brighter than the main light, it brightened the dark wall, just not enough to overexpose it.



I wanted to give the image above a look of stage light, which is often perceived as a little hot, so I powered both the hair light and the background accent light to 2/3 stop brighter than the main light (image above and diagram below).



Creating a window with panes is really easy. The image shown on the facing page, shot for a magazine cover, uses an additional technique that you might find interesting. The basic window shape was made as before, by sectioning off a piece of the studio with black bookends. After moving two light stands into position behind the bookends (so their shadows wouldn’t show), I used clamps to attach a small wooden plank between them. Leaning a wider plank vertically against the crossbeam completed the illusion.


The main light, a 3x4-foot medium softbox, was aimed at the model at the same angle as the simulated sun. Another softbox was placed at camera left, very close and powered 2 stops less than the main light—just enough to open up the shadows. The modeling lamps for the main light and the window light were turned off, but the modeling lamp for the side light was left on. My shutter speed was 1.5 seconds. The strobes fired at the start of the handheld exposure, and the additional open shutter time created the warm fill and slight motion blur (diagram above and image below).


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Feathering Light

Today's post comes from the book Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

Some time ago, I was involved in a conversation between photographers who believed that digital cameras simply could not record an adequate contrast range. Horror stories flew about the difficulties of shooting blacksuited executives with white shirts, tuxedoed groomsmen and whitegowned brides, and interracial couples. The problem, as they saw it, was that one side of the contrast range had to be slighted in favor of the other. The ultimate dilemma, of course, was deciding which side would take the hit. Most decided it would be best to shoot for the bright side and fix the rest in Photoshop.

Though that approach works in theory, it’s misguided in reality by assuming that exposure deficiencies can always be adjusted to “normal” by using Levels or Curves adjustments. They cannot. After a certain point (1/3 stop of overexposure or 2/3 stop of underexposure), straight Photoshop adjustments will not look the same as a perfectly exposed counterpart. The second flaw in the argument is the tremendous amount of extra work a photographer would have to do just to make the proofs presentable. In other words, one would have to do major, time-consuming retouching on each and every image before making a single dime on prints. Such an investment of time is simply not acceptable in a successful digital workflow environment, even if you go through the trouble of shooting RAW files.

In truth, a little more planning on the front end would mean no work at all on the back end—no masking, no adjustments, no RAW processing—just a quick trip to the printer for terrific proofs (cosmetic retouching optional). We can accomplish this task in the studio by controlling the
strength and direction of the light.

The models for this chapter are friends of mine, Sandra and Keith, who are very much in love and engaged to be married. He is African American, she is Latina. To make this exercise more difficult (and to prove how easy this actually is), I requested that Keith wear white clothing and Sandra wear black. Because I want substantial modeling of the planes of their faces, I will use only one light for my main light, plus two kickers and a background light.

Given enough distance and a large enough light source, such as a large softbox or umbrella, it’s quite possible that you could keep your source far enough away from the subjects so that the light spread will be constant over both (or more) of them.

But what if you don’t have that option? Many photographers work in relatively small spaces and have to make the most of them. Also, many, if not most, do not have the luxury of working with large (4x6-foot) softboxes or umbrellas with a diameter larger than 36 inches.
After my friends arrived, I placed two tape marks on the floor to indicate their positions and began to tweak my previously roughed-in lighting scenario. My main light was a strobe in a 3x4-foot softbox, set at the optimum distance (in my opinion) of 7 feet from the two subjects. At that distance, when the main light is aimed to the center of the two people (which is the logical place to aim it), the difference in exposure from his right shoulder to her left shoulder was 4/10 of a stop, 2/10 on each side of my target aperture of f/5.6 and too wide a range to properly expose everything. I decided I’d fix it after the other lights were set (diagram above).

To separate the subjects from the background and add visual interest, I added two strobes in strip light softboxes, one on each side behind the couple and camera-blocked with black bookends. As a twist to what’s usually done, I powered the two lights down to 1/3 stop less than the main light. I knew I would still have a highlight along the edges because the angle of incidence of those two lights bounced light straight back to the camera along the lens axis, which, by itself, looked like this (image below).



To add depth, I mounted a strobe with a beauty bowl and a 25 degree grid (a favorite combo) on a boom arm. From directly above the couple the light was aimed behind and below shoulder height. This background light was powered 1/3 stop less than the target value for the main light, as measured at the hot spot (image below).


Once the secondary lights were in place, I angled the main light softbox significantly to the left, actually aiming it past her left shoulder. At first blush this doesn’t make sense because logic dictates that he will not get enough light. In truth, however, that’s exactly what we want.

Good softboxes are designed to spray light evenly, but not necessarily with the same intensity, in all directions at it exits the box. What I did was feather the light, by angling the box, until the strength of the light on the right side equaled the strength on the left. From there it was a simple matter to power up the generator to get my target f-stop of f/5.6. I know it looks and sounds odd, but if you try it, I guarantee you it will work (diagram below).


The shoot began with Keith. If he would be overexposed, it would most likely be from this side, as it’s closest to the light. Note that there is detail in even the brightest parts of his shirt as well as in her black outfit. Note also that both faces are represented perfectly, even though no other lights are in play (image below, top). (By the way, all of these images are JPEGs straight out of the camera. A little cropping, but no Curves or Levels adjustments at all [image below, bottom].)




When all lights are up, the true beauty of feathered light becomes obvious. The exposure is even across the board, the kicker lights add contour and visually separate the couple from the background, and the background light provides dimension. The feathered light is so constant and perfectly controlled that their positions make no difference at all, as long as they stay on their marks (image below).



A Bonus
As we were wrapping up this shoot, it occurred to me that this scenario would be very romantic without the main light. I turned it off but maintained the camera’s aperture at f/5.6. The background light does wonderful things, adding a sense of mystery to the image, while the side lights contour my friends and give them some dimension (image below). The ability of light to feather itself across a large area is something that you’ll be able to use in dozens of situations. You only need to play with this once to get the concept, and each additional time you use it, it will become easier to estimate just how much angle you’ll need. The first time I tried it, years ago, I spent ten minutes getting it right. These days, it takes only a minute or two. The best part? You can feather light from much shorter light-to-subject distances.



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Hollywood-Style Glamour Lighting

Today's post comes from the book Professional Portrait Lighting by Michelle Perkins. In this book, Perkins profiles 11 of today's most successful professional photographers. This post is an excerpt from her profile of photographer Christopher Grey. This book is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.



“Being able to call up a technique that your client may not even have thought about can produce a positive difference in your bottom line,” says Grey. The Hollywood portrait look of the late 1930s to mid-1940s is one such style.

To emulate this classic lighting, your accessory list will include grid spots, barndoors, snoots, cutters, and flags. These will be used only with direct lights, just as traditional hot lights were used in the past. Although they might be bounced off a fill card or bookend, they won’t be modified by umbrellas or soft boxes. “This is the key to success,” says Grey.

Direct lighting is one of the critical elements when creating classic Hollywood portraits.

For the image below, the key light was tightly barndoored to almost exclusively light the subject’s face. Since the key was set high to get the deep shadows of her eyes, and because it was placed close to her, the light fell off rapidly. The first of the two backlights was aimed more at her shoulder than her hair and produced the hot spot on her shoulder. It was set 1/2 stop over the key light. The second was aimed at her hip and was set at 11/2 stops over the key
light, because it was aimed at black cloth. Grey also set a small fill card just above the camera to catch some of the backlight and open the shadows.



For the images below, an 18-inch dish, with the strobe set at its lowest power output, was the key. At about five feet from the model, it metered at f/8. Grey placed a hair light on each side. The camera-left hair light was fitted with vertical barndoors, throwing light down her side. The other hair light was a six-inch dish with a 30-degree grid spot.

Making small adjustments to this lighting setup and the position of the model allowed Grey to create the range of looks seen above.

The background was comprised of medium-gray seamless paper and a red flat, which appears dark gray when rendered in black & white. To light this, Grey placed a six-inch dish with a 20-degree grid spot on the floor almost directly behind the model. This was aimed at what Grey calls a “reverse cookie” (shards of broken mirror mounted haphazardly on a piece of plywood) to reflect a pattern onto both surfaces.



With his model in place, Grey tweaked the lights slightly and brought the camera-left hair light closer to camera and lowered it to widen the highlight and light the side of her nose. “Originally, I had placed the key just to the right of camera,” says Grey, “but I decided to move it over the camera instead. This little move gave me broad light (below, first) to butterfly (below, second). When she turned to profile, the slight move of the camera-left side light produced a perfect closed loop highlight (above).”



*excerpted from the book Professional Portrait Lighting

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