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shower portraits
I'm doing some shower prtraits with a model against a white background. does anyone have a setup they use that would light the subject without whiting them out? Feb 20 18 10:41 pm Link The trick when shooting on white is to let the background be about a stop brighter than any whites or highlights in your subject. Blast the background with light, then tone it back until you have a hint of detail. Then light your model, keeping him or her slightly darker than the back. I often think of lighting in layers. Background, subject, foreground, etc. If I am working with strobes, I try to light each area independently so that I can control the relative values of each. This is easy to do in a large studio but very challenging when working in small areas on location. The other trick when lighting people on white is the light them from the front so that there is almost a shadow on their edge, the side of their body that is perpendicular to the camera or parallel to the background. Even a little fall off, caused by a front light, from their nose to their ears can help bring them out of the white background. This gallery has a lot of white on white stuff: https://www.zavesmith.com/Still/Black-&--White/1 Hope this helps. Zave Smith www.zavesmith.com Feb 21 18 09:22 am Link Will the shower be seen at all? I mean, will the shower itself be important to the shot? If all you need is the cascading water, don't shoot in a shower. A kiddie pool and a garden sprinkler head in the studio will give you a shower shot, without the restrictions of being in a confined space. It's what I had to do here:  PS-- water droplets doesn't show up well against a white background. You might not be able to pick up the falling droplets until it hits the model's skin. You might be able to capture some by backlighting the water flow. Feb 21 18 10:23 am Link I usually try to do that kind of shots with natural window light in the morning, coming in through a bathroom window off to the end of the shower or tub in a residential bathroom. If you are thinking of doing this in a standard bathroom, there may not be enough room for light stands and boxes. As others have suggested you can set something up in a studio that doesn't have to involve a real shower but will look like one in the photos. Feb 21 18 11:18 am Link WoodSIE555 wrote: Yup. Feb 21 18 12:26 pm Link Michael DBA Expressions wrote: thank you for the tip!!!!! Feb 21 18 07:31 pm Link Francisco Castro wrote: I love this idea thank you for the idea!!!! Feb 21 18 07:32 pm Link I typicaly backlight water on a dark background... That's not going to work well on white, its already lit by the spill from the background. I would try using black flags near the model to add some contrast. In this case the water is defined by its shadows rather than it's highlights. Cheers, Noah Feb 27 18 12:30 am Link There are a lot of resources online that will give similar setups to what you are looking for. Each space is different and if you have multiple spaces to use from studio, small or large bathroom. Simply test in each with inanimate object until you get what you are looking for. Trial and error is how most learn. See what works and doesn't. Test with matt and glossy objects, use yourself to see how the skin looks on it's own when wet and how it's different when adding soap, oil, glycerine, syrup, dyes, etc. I'd say go with the kiddy pool option if you are just testing out solid color backdrops. Even test out using gels to color the water so you can see it against the white background. Shooting in a standard bathroom often is too small which limits the direction of light, how much you can move around and how many modifiers you can use to control your light. Next to your kiddy pool you can build a fake wall with a real shower head and hook up a hose. If it's not a permanent setup, a white laminate and 2x4's should be good enough; Home Depot even has fake tile/brick/wood 4x8 panels if you wish to use that, but I'd stick with the 1/8" laminate panels. Note that some materials aren't waterproof so you may need to add a coat of sealant. A DIY build may be too expensive if you are only doing this once, but if you do it more often then I'd say make something that you use and break down and store away to use again later. One thing that spoils a shot is some strobes have a long flash duration which makes the water droplets blur downward (ideally you'd want to freeze it completely). Try to use as low power if your flash doesn't use a form of high speed sync for a faster shutter speed. Some flashes only let you sync upto 1/400s while others go much higher. In the past speedlights were recommended mainly for their faster flash duration but strobes have come a long way since then. Feb 27 18 12:23 pm Link Lubin Photography wrote: Cool idea using color contrast with the water. Feb 27 18 11:08 pm Link |
