#1 - 52 Weeks Lit Up

So, this is the first lighting set up of my 52 week project!

Firstly, a bit about the type of image I wanted to portray:

I thought I'd try and replicate something of a theatrical lighting feel, you know as a welcome to the project. What screams theatrical lighting to me is low source light, pointing up at the subject. The lighting has to be relatively soft, but isolated to the subject.

First thing I did was set up my softbox (1mx1m roughly) so its bottom edge was on the ground and angled up toward me. In an attempt to keep the background as dark as possible (keeping in mind it will have a coupl of lights pointing almost directly at it) I went with a small appeture (big number). I screened off the top of the softbox to really bolster that angled up light and put it on full power.

Now the old theatre lights originated as lamps on the leading edge of the stage, so to mimmick this and create more than one catchlight low down in the eyes, I placed a screen down the centre of the softbox.

Single softbox infront and below with screen down the center
and across the top.

Not bad. Not good either. The shadows are simply too pronounced for my liking and with no light coming in from above my hair has completely disappeared (well more so than at the current rate!).

The next step was to introduce a light above me to get some detail on my hair and to soften those shadows. This came in the form of a strobe into a 36" umbrella. (Oh and a change of clothing, I take my work very seriously!). Power was set to 2/3 so as to not completely light up those shadows.

Aforementioned strobe below and now an umbrella above.

Unfortunately I couldn't get the detail on my hair without spilling too much light onto the background, but it has certainly softened those shadows.

So, how to separate me from the background and provide that little bit of detail? Answer: a hairlight with a homemade snoot. I rigged up my speedlight on a tall stand and placed it behind and to my left (camera right) with a snoot (a snoot is light modifier usually in the shape of a long conical piece of plastic. This creates a directional light and minimises light spilling onto areas you don't want lit.

Keeping in mind the speedlight was going to be competing with mains power strobes I bumped it straight up to full power and let rip...

I didn't give that little speedlight enough credit! Way to bright
for the look I was after.

Hmm those speedlights certainly pack a punch! Too much light and if you look closely the hairlight was just spilling onto the end of my nose - something to keep an eye out for as it creates a rather prominant and unflattering highlight.

After powering down the speedlight it is evident that its
aim is still a little off...

After a few more tweaks of the lights (moving the heads slightly) I was finally happy with how it looked on the LCD screen.

The final shot. 

Final settings were:
1/200s @ f/22, 70mm. Softbox, full power infront and below with the top half and center masked out. Umbrella infront and above 2/3 power. Snooted (I love that word...) speedlight above, behind and too camera's left on 1/4 power.

And my paltry attempt at a sketch (I promise these will definitely get better!):

In hindsight I still don't think there's enough separation between the background and me. To overcome this I could have eased up and gone for a wider snoot that would have allowed a bit more spread to the light from the speedlight. I also would have bumped the the speedlight up a little more just to add a bit more light over the top of my head and my shoulders.

What are your thoughts? Any suggestions to improve this shot? I'd love to hear some feedback on this particular set-up, but also on the project as a whole.

Make sure to visit and 'like' my FB page at (Will Barton Photography) to keep up to date with all my work and blog and you can follow me on Twitter: @willb_photos.