Multiple lights, Multiple colors setup - The Lighting Series #8

Nikon D800, 85mm f1.8 @f9, ISO 100, 1/200s

There is one genre of photography that is black and white. There is another genre that is exactly the opposite and it is full of color. Today’s breakdown belongs to the second genre.

Gear

3x Striplights with orange gel on a three 500Ws monoblocks
1x 150cm octabox with cyan gel on a 1000Ws monoblock
1x normal reflector with orange gel on a 500Ws monoblock
1x hand-painted Gravity background

Setup

Granted, this setup is complex and leaves little scope for the model – but it is pretty grand at the same time.

The main light is a 150cm octabox with a cyan gel hanging from the ceiling in front of the model. The light is being feathered (See Setup # 2).

From the left and right, two striplights create a symmetrical light edge and the whole scene is lit from the bottom-front with a third striplight, which also had an orange gel.

Behind the model, there is another strobe with a normal reflector, which gives the background a vignetted effect.

The background is a hand-painted backdrop by Gravity. These backgrounds fill the scene completely. Think of them as paintings; no painter would ignore large areas of a canvas. Their presence brings a great deal to the composition.

The camera position was not easy, because you are using very big softboxes. The mix of focal length, distance, and position is a bit tricky.

Individual Light Sources

: Main light
The octabox is directed perpendicular to the ground in front of the model. The shadows are important here. We absolutely need shadows in the picture as they are going to carry the highly saturated color.

: Side lights
The same applies to the lights from the side. Two striplights form a clean edge of light, filling the shadows of the main light.

: Main light + side lights
Used in combination, two colors—cyan and orange—result in high color saturation. If you were to mix the the two colors, you would produce a reddish white rather than the intense orange/blue tones.

: Light from below
The legs lost a bit of color, so to compensate for that we used a discreet softbox. It lightens up the remaining shadows and produces an orange tone.

: Main light + ground light
The ground light and main light together produce distinct colours but nothing is too bright to reduce the shadows.

: Background
The light for the background was hidden behind the model. This is a bit tricky, because a slight sideways movement from the model will immediately reveal the equipment. As I said, the model doesn’t have much room for maneuvers.

Downloads

For the pictures in the article, we used the light simulation Set.A.Light 3D. You can download the lighting setup and try everything for yourself.

If you’ve never worked with Set.a.Light before, you should give it a try! There is also a free demo version on the website, which you can use to open our project file