Once again, we have a rather easy tutorial for you: How to take really beautiful low key images of women, men, in the nude or in beautiful lingerie. Altough the results are stunning, the procedure is rather simple: You light the model from the back to outline the body. This is the general idea, but there are myriads of possibilities (you’ll find some examples in my older post HERE).

The obvious variations are: the type and angle of the lightsource, its distance from the model (and associated hardness/softness of light) and of course the number of lightsources.
Here is the image I’ll discuss today:

The room/studio

If possible, use a big room and position yourself in the middle to avoid spill light on the back and from the front and sides. Using a background paper or cloth is very recommended! If your room is small and you have white walls, cover them up if possible by using dark cloth.

Camera settings

You have to use flashes/strobes, so you have to stay below the synchro time of your camera, which should be around 1/200th of a second. To be on the safe side, I like using 1/160th. Then, set the aperture so that your background is plain black. To achieve this, use live view or take multiple shots, and finally control the result with the histogram.

Left: Light coming only from the right
Right: Light coming only from the left

The strobes

Set up one or more strobes (striplights are ideal) behind the model’s position. Put it farer away for harder light and edges, and nearer for smoother contouring. Positionning the light more from behind than from the side will produce darker shadows (on arms, legs, face, stomach). Play with that position to hide or highlight the features you want!

Now set the power of the strobes. I don’t use a light meter so I proceed by trial and error: Set one flash on the lowest setting and take a test shot, then dial the power up or down to suit your needs. Proceed the same with any other light you want to use and remember to check the exposure of your background. If you see some unwanted structure there, lower the power of your flash and put it nearer to your model. Additionally, you can try to dial-in more contrast in-camera or in post-pro.

Post-production

Hm, not much to do here: convert to grayscale, increase the contrast, color the image lighty (sepia tones…) and that’s it. Enjoy!

Many thanks to the lovely model!

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Today, I’ll present you one way to achieve a classic head-shoulders studio portrait. Instead of providing precise flash-distance, -size and -power information, I will concentrate on the workflow.

Three flashes are necessary for that kind of portrait. I encourage you to set up your flashes individually instead of all of them together. That way you will see, control (and learn) what each light does. If that works out well, you may combine the setting of more lights simultaneously ;)

This Setup is, as said, very classic, some may consider it boring. But master that lighting and you’ll be able to adapt it to many other Situations, including outdoor with strobes or reflectors.

The main or “key” light

You want to light slightly from the top and from the side. Lighting the face from the front (in line with the nose) would result in a flat look. Lighting a bit more from the side in relation to the nose (the broad side) gives more volume to the face. As you will understand from the shadows of nose and chin, the light in my picture comes from top left.
In order to get a big enough depth of field, set your camera to a medium aperture (for example f6.3 to begin with) with at least 50mm focal length. Set then the flash output so that you have a pleasing lighting of your models face by trial and error (when not using a flashmeter). You should get an image looking like the first one below.

The hair or “rim” light

You need that light to separate the model from the background and again, give some depth and make hairs shine (especially dark hair). Angle a flash from the back (and right top) onto head and shoulders, if possible with a softbox. Switch off your key-light, make some test shots and set the flash-power so see the outline of the head. You can set anything between very subtle or rather harsh, but try to not overexpose any part. You should then get an image looking like the second one below.
Switch back on your key light and do a test shot. It is possible that the  light from the front may suddenly become too bright, because light from the rim-light is bouncing back from your key-softbox as well as from surrounding walls. It that’s the case, lower the flash power a little bit. You should then get an image looking like the third one below.

Now that is not bad already! See how the head nicely separates from the background and the model pops out from the image! Depending on your background, you may even stop here. But today, we’ll go a little further and add a third light for the back, mirroring the color of the scarf and even further separating our model.

The background light

Switch off all flashes again and set up a flash behind the model or outside the frame, pointing to your background. Dark backgrounds accept colors much better, so don’t try to color a white wall in red or blue, it won’t work. Use gray or black background paper rolls instead.
The position of that flash is a bit tricky because slight movements from the camera or the model can ruin the effect (the spot of light won’t be behind the model, but next to it). Color the light with gels if necessary (I used 2 gels: orange and pink to get the right color). You can either use a grid reflectors or an umbrella reflector that you soften up with a translucent gel. Be careful tough when using the modeling light, it becomes very hot and may burn or melt your gels!
To vary the size of the light-spot on the background, move your flash closer or farer away, or use another sized grid. You should then get an image looking like the first one below. Note the great separation you get now when usig the background- and rim-light (second image below). Switch everything back on again (third image below), make some final adjustments and shoot!

Note that, in a smaller environment, all lights may add up, bounce around in the room and spill light on the background which becomes grey in the corners… But that is easy to fix in post-production. See for yourself (click):

Thanks Manu!

And finally, here is a diagram of the lighting used:

The other day I drove to Reutlingen, southern of Stuttgart in Germany, for a collaboration with Elena from siehmichan. She had a shooting for a local fashion journal and I was in to provide, decide-of and set-up the lighting. I’ll cover that probably later, when the issue is out.

Anyway, the day before, we decided to have a shooting together. Elena invited Vanessa; both girls then went out for a lil’ shopping trip to buy some required items. Elena then did the whole styling, hair and makeup :) Very good job! In the meantime, I set up our lighting in a rather hard fashion, for a change.

As you will see, there were two outfits. For the second, I had to act like a weird rabbit and thus couldn’t shoot the beautiful Vanessa. And as I had Rabbit face with eyes facing sideways, I couldn’t really SEE her either. Poor me! And to make matters worse, she hit me with a stick! So that is to be seen in the last picture, shot by Elena. Enjoy!
What image do you prefer (comment below)?

After the success of the first workshop, I just organized another one. As on the first time, it was aimed at beginners and “intermediates” who want to have a go on portrait photography as well as learn more about photography in general (techniques, composition, general guidelines…).
To suit the beginner-orientation, and because it is summer, I chose to do the workshop outdoors. But in central Europe, we are in a period of… global-cooling; the weather forecast announced rain all day long on the set date, the day after that was said to be even worse. So I organized a backup indoor-location, which was much less interesting. Fortunately, God and his staff heard my prayers and decided to send enough sun and just a few clouds. We could go outside and work with diffusers, reflectors and the location. Good stuff!

This time I managed to do more shots myself, so below this text you will find a part of my selection of images, followed by making-of pictures taken by the participants.

Many thanks to the Model Anna who did a fantastic job and to Bernhard, Carsten, Joachim, Martin, Rainer and Reiner for participating and making this a great day!

There will be another workshop, probably with more use of flash. The next model is already waiting!

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This is an easy one… In fact, it’s more like a quick-tip: How to easily lessen local contrast in the face, and increase the face’s global contrast with the background. In other words: Make it nice, and “pop”.

To shoot the image I present you today on the right (click on it for a bigger view), I went with Vania to a nearby park in Strasbourg. Something like an hour before sunset, the sun was fairly low and the light was nicely colored. Rather good conditions to take a sweet picture of Vania lying onf the grass and looking up to the frolicking birds ;)

To avoid direct, hard light from the front, Vania laid down into the shade. When positioning myself, I tried to get an interesting, yet not distracting background. The specular highlights are from leaves reflectin direct sunlight. You can see this light on the left side, on the brown wall. The front is dark, whereas the part directly “above” Vania’s head is lighter: the direct sunlight on the wall.

Now to the real “quick-tip”: Vania’s head is not much above the ground, but the light globally still comes from the top. So there are shadows below the eyebrows, the nose etc. And because we were in the shade, the lighting was rather flat. No difference between the front and the back. Very smooth, pleasing, but lacking “pop” or ”interesting-ness”. What can we do? Well, reflect light from the bottom to fill the shadows and lighten her face! The reflector only adds light to her face (and hands), and obviously doesn’t to her feet and most importantly, the background.

To get a right exposure for her face in comparison to the situation without reflector, I reduced the shutterspeed (by something like 2/3 of a stop). The consequence: The Background gets a bit darker and the face is much better featured. Note however that the effect ist a little bit too strong in this example, because it was initially set-up for the up-looking shots. Without reflector for the original picture on the top, there would be a darker shadow below the nose, a shadow below the eyebrows and her upper eye would be much darker and undefined.

(Move your mouse over the image to see the version WITH reflector)

It’s been a while since the shooting with Carmen. Actually, it was at the same day as the shooting with Marie. Both girls got to know each other while taking a car together from their nearby city to Stuttgart, where the shooting took place. It was a very nice, warm, sunny day. Perfect conditions and many possibilities to play with the light. After a session next to a lake (the portraits with vegetation in the background), we went down to the city centre. It was Carmen’s first fotosession ever! And she did a great job, that funny little girl :)

Have a look:

As you may have read, I held an outdoor workshop last week-end in Stuttgart. I have to say, it was much more fun than expected!
A total of 7 participants of different ages came to the Killesberg park to join me and of course the model Juliena. As I’ve heard, everybody enjoyed the day and the participants learned many new things and took very nice pictures :)
The weather was absolutely fantastic and gave us plenty of opportunities to modify the light and use the scenery to compose nice images. I’ve compiled some making of pictures (thanks to allparticipants for sending me these!) in the gallery below as souvenir.

Because I was busy explaining lighting and holding reflectors, I didn’ shoot many pictures myself. But… that was not the goal of the day anyway. I added some of the pictures I did of Juliena to the beginning of the gallery.

I’d really like to thank all of you, the participants and the model Juliena, for coming to the park and making this a great day!

P.S.: A new workshop is planned on 6/7 August.

Marie contacted me over the german model-website “Model-Kartei” and asked for a shooting in Stuttgart. No problem! First, we went to a lake which… was enormously crowded because of the perfect weather that day. After many shots, we then took the cars towards the city centre of Stuttgart and settled in a quiet “backstreet” for the last shots.

Check it out:

Let me use the opportunity and remind you of the outdoor-photoworkshop I organize in Stuttgart mid-july: Check it out here.

Today, I’ll comment a bit on how I did this picture of Helena (click to enlarge):

It is part of a series of pictures I’ll post… later.
So. Let’s analyse it first:

• It is outside (actually in the woods), so the main light is probably the sun.
• There are some highlights on her arm, bottom and hairs. So, there must be light from behind.
• Her face is illuminated and her eyes “glow”. So, there must be light from the front.

I highlighted those 3 points HERE.

We know that there is sun, but from the front or the back? One possibility (and that’s the one I used) is to reflect the light with a reflector. So the light comes from behind and is reflected onto her from the front. You can see this easily on the making-of pictures below. And why the light from the back? Simply because light from the front is often very harsh and casts ugly shadows everywhere.

Well, that’s almost it. I used a tripod to hold the reflector, so my assistant could take the making-of pictures I present you today.

Further explanations on the setup:

• The reflector is positioned where it is (under a tree) because the sunlight actually hit it correctly only at that spot.
• The light would have been softer if the reflector was closer to Helena. But she couldn’t get much nearer because of my position. I wanted to shoot slightly from the bottom; getting her nearer to the reflector would force me to get further back. But then the leaves from the tree would block my view.
• Additionally, the angle of the light would me more of a problem. As you may notice, the reflector reflects the light slightly from the bottom, which can cause an unseralistic lighting in the eyes, the neck/chin area etc. So, when standing further away, this effect is less pronounced (but notice the shadow from the arm and the nose). So we were stuck in this position, which was still ok.
• I laid an additional reflector on the floor. This didn’t have a big effect and was only used as a way to lighten everything a tiny little bit. Actually, the lazy-man option ;)

Elvira was presented to me by a friend, but he has never seen her or spoken to her in person. So… we met online. At the day of the Shooting, the sky was cast. Thus, Elvira suggested to cancel the shooting. But as you may know, a cast sky is not that bad for taking pictures, so we decided to give it a go. But God and his friends tried to interfere with our plans and asked Cumulus, the rain god, to do his thing. But in all their mischievous planning, they forgot that the human race already managed to build houses. So we just began shooting in the stairwell and entrance hall. Ha!

Elvira currently lives in Strasbourg and does an internship in “communication”.

Check out what we came up with:

Pictures updated!

At the beginning of the week, Vania made a visit to my little studio for a little shooting. She is a pharmacologist and trained molecular biologist, so she can clone your entire face! But she can also bake nice cookies. Thanks! ;)

Vania is very tall… I am not. So climbing on a small stool was more than just an option. Speaking of which… We began with the wide-angle pictures because they are fairly easy to make, then moved to fashion-type portraits. See for yourself!

(The two last images are “making off”)

Technical Details

For the closeup shots, I used my tele-zoom, for the wider shots, the normal-zoom (for additional lens details see the about page). To get a white background, I used two strobes (left and right – you can see them on the last picture). For the wide-angle shots I used two umbrellas, for the “vania on the table shots” small softboxes, because I needed an umbrella to light from the front (much lighter than the octobox). Another strobe was used to illuminate the hairs slightly. You can see the strobe in the last picture pointing down from behind, albeit the effect is not that visible in this selection of photographs. Vania’s hair is “randomized” purposedly on the second wide-angle shot (and the eighth) with a simpla hairdryer.

Post production

Nothing special done here. A slight bit of contrast tweaking and a bit of desaturation on some images I think. The second image was processed more heavily (contrast and saturation up) just to be different than the fifth.

As promised in the last entry, here are some more close- and very close-up images!
Let me guide you through the pictures:

• In the first picture you’ll see the “fly amanita/agaric” (Amanita muscaria). I found it this october in a forest in the french Vosges. Despite the warning red color (it is toxic and hallucinogenic), some animal is now probably high, very sick or dead.
• The second image depicts the common honeybee (Apis melifera) sipping nectar from a forget-me-not (Mysotis sp.). It was taken last spring in a park in Kehl/Germany.
• The third image is just the crater formed by a falling waterdrop (highspeed photography… uuuuh).
• Next, in vivid green, there is a “Day Gecko” (Phelsuma sp.) living in the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart/Germany.
• In red, two Damselflies (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) doing the nasty thing next to a flooded gravel pit
• And finally, a species of Dandelion (Taraxacum sp.) from some park somewhere in Europe;).

Technical info: (Remember to check the “about” section at the top of the page for more information regarding our equipment.)
Some pictures were taken with the normal-zoom, others with a macro lens.  As some images are older, they were taken either with the 7D or a 450D.

• The amanita-mushroom was taken handheld in the shade. Higher sensivity (ISO400), a longer exposure (1/25 s) and an image stabilizer (or a tripod) were necessary. The colors are original! The thing is THAT red.
• The bee was “captured” with the help of the on-camera flash. The warmer it is, the more (flying)  insects move quick (and randomly!). Using a flash and smaller apertures (f/8), to widen the depth-of-field, increased the odds to get a sharp image. Doing all this in the morning when the insects aarree sssllloooowww is better. But you have to wake up early! I preferred afternoon ;)
  The same applies to the damselflies…
• The drop was shot by dripping water into a black container. The light came from a softbox in the back, facing downwards towards the water and camera. I used the 430EXII hotshoe flash to get the necessary short flashes that freeze the motion. To increase depth of field, I used an f/13 aperture.
• Mr. Gecko didn’t move much in his enclosure in the zoo.  Dealing with distortions and reflections of the glass was however a bit trickier and partly dictated the framing and viewangle.
• The dandelion was shot in sunlight with a moderate aperture of f/8, lying on the floor. Nothing fancy here.

Natassia and I got in touch for a little photosession ;). Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time, but still managed to get a few nice shots. She will come back in the nearer future, so watch out for the new pictures!

In the meantime, see for yourself why I call her “Fire”. At the bottom of this post, you’ll find some “outtakes”.

Remember that you can comment Natassia’s and my work at the bottom of the page.

The last 3 photos are outtakes from the shooting – good lighting, but… strange posing ;)

Technical Info:

I used the Canon 7D with the tele-zoom and the normal-zoom. The lighting was set as described in the two pictures below. The wideangle highkey image was done by illuminating a white paper background with two umbrellas. Natassia was lit by a 60cm octobox from the top-right-side. An additional 150cm octobox (set fairly low) from the left side provided fill light.

The closeup portraits were shot with a setup evolving around the description in the second image (and using the tele-zoom). A flash was directed against the (grey!) background, wheras two smaller softboxes lit Natassia from the side and slightly from behind to “sculpt” neck and cheeks. The 60cm octobox lit her from the front-top and a 120cm white reflector provided some fill from the bottom (you can see the reflector wit the silver/gold-side in the second image from the outtakes). Genreally speaking, I used apertures between f/11 and f/13 because I couldn’t lower the light more. But this is ok, because everything was easily kept in focus and the background was neutral.