As promised, I prepared lighting setup and a video from our last workshop (more about this here). I am not going to post simple setup we started from, it should be self explainable, if you look at the photo. Below is what we have done by the end of workshop, after playing with ratios and different light modifiers. Setup like you see below can be considered “basic” for a standard fashion-like style portraits.
- What do we do:
Atlanta photographer workshop: ligting setup
Like I stated previously, I do not use a light meter, therefore can’t tell you exactly what ratio I have between flashes. See and guess yourself, after a while it will be much easier to get any look you need when you shoot tethered.
- What do we get:
Atlanta fashion workshop studio lighting setup
Notice how deep the shadow under her neck. Without reflector, it looks too dark. So, instead of using a reflector, we did this:
- We do it differently, as the model has hat which hide the eyes from a beauty dish lights. Without that snoot eyes are completely dark:
atlanta photographer workshop ligting setup with snoot
Also, instead of small grid reflectors for hair lights we used strip softboxes with grid, which reduced shadows on a model’s face.
- This is what we get:
workshop studio lighting setup, additional light for the eyes
You can see how that additional snoot (along with reflection from a book) filled shadows under her nose and chin.
Update 3-19-10: Video from the workshop:
Feel free to ask any questions you have, will be glad to answer here. I also would like to hear any ideas of what we can do on next workshop.
-Alex
March 4th, 2010 | 
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Hey, your photo is pretty creative and thanks for adding more description on them on how you made it. Good for learning. At Strobox, we believe in sharing knowledge as well.
Please help us to educate others and contribute your photo and its lighting setup diagram info on strobox.com. Our hope is that everyone can gain insight into the great work of contemporary top-class photographers from all over the world like you.
Regards,
Janis
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Awesome!!! Thanks for posting this. I always find set-up explanations intriguing. Thanks again for posting! :)
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Dear Alex
Why you used softbox with grid instead of spot grid?are they any differences between these two stuff?
Thx
Hadi
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Alex Koloskov Reply:
October 3rd, 2010 at 10:54 am
Hadi,
The only difference between spot grind and soft-box grid is the spread angle: softbox produces much larger light spot then spot grid on a beauty dish, or 7 inch reflector can do. Knowing that my little model will be running around the stage, I needed much larger spread of light , to cover the whole scene.
Also, round-shaped spot won’t work well there because I need to highlight the model outfit from top to the bottom, not only her head: this was not a portrait. Therefore narrow strip-box was selected.
Hope this will help:-)
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I am getting into doing head shots, and I found the diagrams and descriptions very beneficial — thanks!
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Hi!
Thanks for this, I’m just starting to learn about photography….actually I just bought a camera. After months of saving, I was finally able to afford one, I’m excited to use it and learn more techniques. A lot of my friends have lent me a lot of books and magazines, but at this point, everything is quite vague. I’m pretty sure I will be able to adapt more techniques as I go along. Thanks for posting this, its very user friendly for beginners like me. Looking forward for more updates!
Thanks
Summer
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Thanks for sharing. I am missing something: the hair blower! What did you actually use to get blowing hair look in the first photo?
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Alex Koloskov Reply:
September 17th, 2011 at 10:11 am
Marc,
Hope you asked this question not only to get a back link ;-) it can be any blower…. ;-)
all the best!
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