DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Lighting Ori’s One Year Old Birthday

Aug 31, 2008 by Udi Tirosh Leave a Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Ori's Birthday Lighting SetupMy son, Ori turned one today. Man, time flies. Just yesterday he was kicking back in his crib. Meditating on how the color in his room slowly fades.

Two and a half days later. BOOM, He is one. Walking (as in from three days ago), dadaing, and has a strong opinion and stand towards anything in this world – starting from the location of the kitchen chairs (always on the move) through the best place for a ball of cereal (the floor), ending with his own spot in the world (in my hands).

So yesterday we had a small family gathering to celebrate. Of course daddy was on the camera to document the event.

The Birthday Plan

My wife orchestrated the cooking, sitting arrangements, decorations, bathing the kids and setting the table. That left me with the overwhelming jib of planning the lighting.

I obviously could not use the same setup I used so my daughter can fire me, so I turned to David Hobby’s suggestions for a Karate shoot. David suggests three lighting schemes for s situation similar to mine: Both my situation and the Karate shoot are similar:
– we both have to light a big room
– we both gonna use two small strobes

But there are also some differences:
– The subject location in the room is known in the Karate shoot, while the location of my son is, well, put it this way: Ori moves faster than my flash sync speed.
– The background in my living room is cluttered at best – a complete mayhem at worst.

Now, let me go through the three different lighting options before I explain my choice:

Option 1 – Safe and Comfy (?)

This option places the two strobes in the back of the room. Each strobe is placed in a different corner. The good thing about this light is that it “floods” the room. If you know that your subject is going to be in the center of the room facing the flashes, you are on the dot.

The strobes will point up on a 45 degrees angle, and flood the room with light. As long as I stayed between the strobes, I will be safe and get great light.

But, in the likely event that I will circle about and face the strobes, I immediately go into the realm of option three – getting some backlight  and dealing with very low ambient.

Option 2 – Interesting And Symmetrical

In this option the two strobes are placed in two opposite corners on the room. (See diagram below). Now this setup will almost always produce a main light coming from right or left and some sort of back light coming from the opposite direction. This is almost like cross lighting, which is far more interesting then 45 degrees / 45 degrees lighting.

Another benefit of this setup is that it is very symmetrical. I would get very similar light no matter where I was located in the room.

The last pro for this option is that it can light the room with little care for ambient (which was very low at the time of the birthday).

Option 3  – Risky Yet Kinda Like Option One

This option places the two strobes on the two corners of the wall facing the photographer. In the original article, that would have given very dramatic back light. In my scenario, where both my son and I keep moving it will be awfully similar to option 1. 

My Choice – Option Two

I ended up going with option two – mainly because I was moving about pretty much and could not predict my or my son’s location.

Ori's Birthday Lighting Setup

I placed each of the strobes on opposite corners and using light stands got them pretty close to the ceiling. I then angled them at 45 degrees and set on 1/2 power at 70/85 mm. The original article recommended a spread of 35-50 mm. but going with that the light was spread to thin, and I had to go very wide aperture to get the full effect of the strobes or go very slow (about 1/30) to get some ambient in.

Just before I go into the sample shot, I would like to turn it over to you. How would you light such a room?

Here are some sample shots from the birthday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/udijw/2811478263/
This is how the world looks like for a one year old: legs, legs and more legs

Ori's Birthday Lighting Setup

Ori's Birthday Lighting Setup
Little Liri is happy with the presents she got

Ori's Birthday Lighting Setup

And here is one shot showing the “interesting” kinda rim light effect that I got taking a picture of great grandpa.

Ori's Birthday Lighting Setup

 

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Photographer Delivers Himself In A Box To Surprise Chronically Ill Fan For 21st Birthday Annie Leibovitz shoots British Royal Family portraits for The Queen’s 90th birthday celebration NASA’s new tool lets you see what Hubble captured on your birthday Instagram demands you to share your birthday if you want to keep using the app

Filed Under: DIY, Tutorials

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

« A DIY Optimus Maximus keyboard For GIMP, Photoshop or Lightroom
Composing an Action Sequence Shot »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Insta360’s new teaser says they’re entering the gimbal market
  • Users report blurry photos from Samsung Galaxy S23/S23+ cameras
  • Whale with severe scoliosis captured by drone video
  • Photographer builds 11-foot electronic waste skull to show Bitcoin’s impact on climate change
  • Fuji’x April X Summit reported to be cancelled

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy