Page 34 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 2 #2

29 LIGHTING THE UN-LIGHTABLE

Sounds easy. But it isn’t. I have known this
for nearly five years. Knowing what to do with
that is another matter.

Let’s analyse the image on the previous page.
Note the pattern on the floor. Note as well that
you can see the trees outside the window and
the light coming through the shades – this is
a strong indication that the volume of light
in the room is correct. (In post processing I
decided to de-emphasize that light a bit more
for the sake of this article.) There is a single
light, hanging over the bed and I had to take
that into account as well. Given the white of
the comforter on the bed, a disproportionate
amount of light could have been reflected up-
ward. This would have made the model from
the waist down overly dark, or would have dis-
colored her skin.

Likewise, I didn’t want to create any harsh
shadows that would have made the room look
like it was artificially (or overly) light. The only
shadow on the wall from the model looks like
it was caste from the lamp over the bed and
not from the lights I added to the scene.
All and all, the photograph looks just as the
human eye would have seen the room.

So, how did I do it?
I played to the strength of the tools I had with
me – two Canon flashes (a 580 EX and a 580
EX II), my PocketWizard Flex TT5s, and the the surface of the bed and were pointed at
new Chimera OctoBeauty dishes. The combi- each other. That’s right. At each other. Why
nation of the flashes, Flexes and beauty dishes did this work? Well, for several reasons. First,
were mounted on two light stands. As the dia- it left the volume of light above the bed just
gram shows, I placed them at the foot of the a little bit higher than that below the surface.
bed – one up against the doors to the deck and This is just as the human eye would see it.
the other almost up against the bed. Second, by pointing the flashes at each other at
So far, so good. Most photographers would the foot of the bed, I created the equivalent of
have guessed as much. a giant soft box formed by the collision of light
from each of the flashes. Soft light creates soft
However, here’s the real difference: The beau-
ty dishes were placed just slightly higher than shadows and adds to the three dimensional
sense of the scene. This enabled me to “hide”

nyghtvision magazine volume 2, number 2, summer 2012