I love a good living room studio. Not everyone can afford a full fledged studio and for many, the photography room living room is the only option. Probably not to the delight of the significant other.
Manny Ortiz (previously) shows a clever way to make the living room look bigger using a portable seamless black and a Light Blaster.
What grabbed my attention right away is how three dimensional the photos look, so I asked Manny about it. Manny tells that the secret is using backlight. There are three lights in each shot: A key which shines on Diana (a Flashpoint360 with a 47″ octa); A Light Blaster with a slide and a Flashpoint Zoom; and the key ingredient – a gridded and gelled strobe as back light.
Manny told DIYP that:
In order to give the projection of the light blaster a more realistic effect, I used one of two options. To make the scene more interesting, I set a hair light with a gridded strobe. To make it look more real, I (roughly) matched the gel to the color of the projection. To make the photo more cinematic, I used a complementary color gel on the hair light. Either way it really helps selling the idea that she was really in that scene
You can see the full gear list and setup over Manny’s video:
Here are some photos from that shoot:
it is actually distracting since it is lighter than the light on her face. eyes travel to lightest point first.
I do agree with the need for back lighting, when it is done correctly, this failed that test
I disagree. The eye is normally attracted to the BRIGHTEST place first.
I would argue that point would be either her face or the highlight on her hair. I think the hairlight is too intense.
sorry but it looks in no way like it was shoot outdoors.
it looks like a composit and that´s obvious.
so if the backlight was to help the composition im sorry to say it did not help here.
but yeah it´s obvious that a hairlight or backlight helps with making a subject pop.
man this is too freaking awesome!! Love it…