How to get this soft, golden spotlight on model?

moodlover · May 12, 2017

http://imgur.com/a/sJZGs

Planning to shoot this style in a studio, will have to go out of my way to buy 3 lights of course (key, fill, hair). My style is much tighter shots though, like shoulder up so I may want a smaller beam. Open to cheap 3-light kit recommendations that are quick to set up and output similar light. I am not sure if a $50 head's light-quality is much different than a $2000 head's light-quality but I like to make the most out of my gear.

Anyways, love how soft and golden this light is. How is that done? Whenever I gel my flash it just comes out orange, how amateur of me to not know how to make it yellow/gold! I also love how the edges of the beam fade smoothly thats a must.

On the 2nd photo (right), you can see on the model's face shadow side is not pitch black but looks to be filled, how the hell is this done at night?

moodlover · May 12, 2017

Before anyone recommends a snoot, I see a lot of snoot photos that just look cheap, generic, low-quality:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=snoot

The light in my desired example is bright, smooth, soft, doesnt look like flash (probably isnt)...

Luckless · May 12, 2017

The issue of golden vs orange light sounds like something coming down to getting the proper colour gel in place. Ordering a swatchbook with a wider range of colour options might be a good idea. Lots of options to burn a lot of film on test shots, so 'other devices' may come in handy to narrow your gel selection down to a shorter list before spending film on detailed test shots.

The 3x6 swtchbooks aren't what I would describe as cheap, but they sure are handy for testing and deciding what gel you need for a given end result.

As for the modifier, that's a good question. If you look at the ground it seems to be casing a decently hard edge on the shadow, so it isn't being done with a super large modifier. Maybe look to a small to mid sized modifier, something bigger than a speedlight head, and possibly adding a grid to control spill.
Being able to build and readily modify your own reflectors/modifiers is a very handy skill when it comes to crafting light.

Mr Bill · May 12, 2017

Luckless said:
The issue of golden vs orange light sounds like something coming down to getting the proper colour gel in place.

Yes, this is true, but there's more to it then that - the image can also be adjusted at the printing stage. Now, if you just take a "normal" image and color balance it to be way yellow, it doesn't look like a yellowish light - it looks like a badly color-corrected print. To make it look like a yellowish light, the rest of the scene needs to look anti-yellow, that is, bluish.

I would suggest trying some test shots at dusk, when the light is bluish (after the reddish sunset is gone), then combine an older-style flashlight (or hand "torch," depending where you're from), with a filament bulb, not LED. Such a lamp will be strongly yellowish compared to the ambient. If you "paint" the subject with the flashlight, using a longish exposure, say 1/4 second or so, I think you may get something like your examples. You'll have to roughly balance the exposure, with ambient light a couple stops underexposed. Overexposing skin with the flashlight will probably increase the yellowish effect, provided that you actually print it that way (if it's auto-printed, it can be a toss up as to how it comes out).

If you want to shoot with an electronic flash, use a strong yellowish filter on it; you may have to experiment as Luckless suggests.

moodlover · May 13, 2017

Mr Bill said:
Yes, this is true, but there's more to it then that - the image can also be adjusted at the printing stage. Now, if you just take a "normal" image and color balance it to be way yellow, it doesn't look like a yellowish light - it looks like a badly color-corrected print. To make it look like a yellowish light, the rest of the scene needs to look anti-yellow, that is, bluish.

I get this, I just want to get it as close as possible in camera then do my adjusting in the scan/digital stage to finalize the small color tweaks (yes im hybrid lol)

I would suggest trying some test shots at dusk, when the light is bluish (after the reddish sunset is gone), then combine an older-style flashlight (or hand "torch," depending where you're from), with a filament bulb, not LED. Such a lamp will be strongly yellowish compared to the ambient. If you "paint" the subject with the flashlight, using a longish exposure, say 1/4 second or so, I think you may get something like your examples. You'll have to roughly balance the exposure, with ambient light a couple stops underexposed. Overexposing skin with the flashlight will probably increase the yellowish effect, provided that you actually print it that way (if it's auto-printed, it can be a toss up as to how it comes out).

If you want to shoot with an electronic flash, use a strong yellowish filter on it; you may have to experiment as Luckless suggests.

Wow very interesting and clever response. The original photographer got back to me about this with a very vague response "play with gels and torches". Was hoping for more detail but I guess artists are secretive. He also said he did it when the light was nearly gone which helps showing the torch, so you're right about both the dusk part and the torch part. Im from USA and torch means a fire you carry by hand on a long wood branch or something. Where can you get such a powerful old style flashlight??? Would love to try that but not sure what flashlight outputs that much power. Basically a portable continuous light with slower shutter speed...

moodlover · May 13, 2017

There is a photo of the catchlights here if it helps anyone guess

If I zoom in all the way it looks like rectangular LEDs with gels on them, could be wrong though

MattKing · May 13, 2017

Probably used something roughly like this Halogen flashlight: https://www.wayfair.ca/Wagan-Brite-Nite-Mega-Spotlight-WXY1119.html?source=hotdeals with an appropriate gel and some sort of modifier.

Soeren · May 13, 2017

Could be "lightpainted" with tungsten type flashlight (or maybe a gelled one" zoomed in tight.
Also could be done with a couple of gelled, zoomed and gridded speedlights, snoots as mentioned could also have been used. DIY Grids can be made of straws.
I wouldn't overexpose since the more overexposed the more white the result.
These are pretty powerfull but gels are needed

jernejk · May 13, 2017

Light is not soft, it's hard. Look at the shadows, no discussion there.

Source is either one light with some kind of custom gobo or multiple lights coming from the exactly same direction. I'm kinda leaning to the later. The light(s) themselves have quite a-lot of falloff - bright in the centre, weaker in the edges.

Color is either gel, or the lights are tungsten.

Also, there's no hair light or kicker. Light is just coming from the front.

Lachlan Young · May 13, 2017

jernejk said:
Light is not soft, it's hard. Look at the shadows, no discussion there.

Source is either one light with some kind of custom gobo or multiple lights coming from the exactly same direction. I'm kinda leaning to the later. The light(s) themselves have quite a-lot of falloff - bright in the centre, weaker in the edges.

Color is either gel, or the lights are tungsten.

Also, there's no hair light or kicker. Light is just coming from the front.

Gridded source most likely, CTO or stronger gel. Tungsten would have to be quite powerful for that level of fill & would be a bigger source in general. Definitely not lightpainted or assembled from multiple shots - subject movement would be an issue.

For OP: you really only need to buy one light - whether that's a strobe on a stand, a 500 w/s monoblock, or a 1200w/s pack & head - depends on format & desired aperture/ shutter speed. Or you could shoot tungsten or HMI or Kino Flo type fluorescent (I generally prefer continuous as being able to see where the light is going is handy...). flags and reflectors to shape the light are more important than extra sources. Remember, the world has only one source of natural light - something that photographers seem to spend a lot of time forgetting...

Zack Arias has written a book about working with a single strobe setup - probably worth a read - as is Christopher Broadbent's (cjbroadbent) commentary on using single source light with 8x10 over at the Large Format Forum.

You'd be surprised what you can do with a brolly and a grid or two.

John Koehrer · May 14, 2017

The woman withe the gray boots uses two, maybe three lights*.
Look at the shadows from her right leg. Strong from her left and weak from right front but
bright on her ankle.

* third light maybe at an angle from her right front, it's hard to tell but there's no shadow
from her left on the right arm.

moodlover · May 15, 2017

Lachlan Young said:
Gridded source most likely, CTO or stronger gel. Tungsten would have to be quite powerful for that level of fill & would be a bigger source in general. Definitely not lightpainted or assembled from multiple shots - subject movement would be an issue.

Which gel for my strobe?

https://www.amazon.com/Tough-Cinege...=UTF8&qid=1494823672&sr=8-45&keywords=cinegel

or

https://www.amazon.com/Cinegel-Doub...=UTF8&qid=1494823630&sr=8-16&keywords=cinegel

Or are these the wrong ones?

Lachlan Young · May 15, 2017

moodlover said:
Which gel for my strobe?

https://www.amazon.com/Tough-Cinege...=UTF8&qid=1494823672&sr=8-45&keywords=cinegel

or

https://www.amazon.com/Cinegel-Doub...=UTF8&qid=1494823630&sr=8-16&keywords=cinegel

Or are these the wrong ones?

I'd go with the latter - perhaps get a 1/2 CTO, full CTO & double CTO. Keep an eye on exposure compensation, but between them, those should get you in the zone.

removed account4 · May 15, 2017

using tungsten light used to do this sort of effect "by mistake" if you didn't use an 80A filter
( i think that is the right one ) .. sounds like a fun shoot! good luck !

Jarin Blaschke · Jul 11, 2017

Looks to me like regular tungsten fresnels used in daylight, on daylight film. there are three spotted lights used in the left image; and two on the right. Fresnels don't make perfect spots, so the light leak from both lights still contribute to lighting (a fill of sorts) the space between the spots. There would be plenty of color contrast with daylight, especially at twilight when the example was taken.

If you still want to use gels, and prefer more yellow and less orange, you can always use CTS ("S" for straw) rather than CTO.

-Jarin

AWS_ATL · Jul 28, 2017

That image is either constant lit or painted with a flashlight. model had to be stupid still to do it with a flashlight though.

JohnArs · Jul 28, 2017

It looks like an amber gel in my experience!

cliveh · Jul 28, 2017

Gold umbrella.

How to get this soft, golden spotlight on model?

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