Sometimes I have an unexpected headshot session, this one was in the in the middle of a furniture shoot! However it gave me the opportunity to try something different with lighting. Sorry if this writeup is a bit techie.
The room has a fairly low ceiling but it is painted white as are some of the non-panelled walls. For the furniture I was lighting with powerful (1000 & 1500ws) strobes bouncing off the walls and through sheets of unbleached muslin, this gives a nice soft light. The muslin is one of the go-to tools of many cinematographers, particularly local hero Roger Deakins (Bladerunner 2049 – and the rest!)
I’d photographed Elizabeth a little earlier in the day with a small Octabox for the key light (supported by the existing setup). However she returned asking for a couple more shots so I thought I’d try tweaking the existing setup without re-building the Octa (no pressure). In truth it’s a lighting setup that I’d wanted to try for a while.
The left strobe was bouncing off one of the fundamentally white walls then back through the muslin giving a large wash of soft light and it is the nature of this light that I like so much.
The strobe to the right was firing along more muslin but aimed at a 200cm reflector to provide the slight cheek highlight, the black muslin takes the edge off and avoids overlighting the face and allow some shadows and the unbleached muslin section near the strobe generates a bit of soft fill.
Bottom line is a shot that I love, thanks Elizabeth!
