When it comes to portrait lighting, Joel Grimes abides by some basic principles to achieve just the look he is going for. But, while those principles are basic, they may not necessarily be obvious. Fortunately, Grimes is a great educator and has made this quick video tutorial to share some of his pro advice and deliver us with a very simple way to get several different lighting looks using just one strobe, a reflector, and an octobox.
Light Positioning 101
For this exercise, Grimes does one shot without a reflector, but it really helps to fill in the model’s face and is used in the majority of Grimes’ example shots. He is also using a Westcott 36-inch Rapid Box XL on his strobe, starting out with it essentially resting on top of the camera.
As he points out in the video below, the larger the light source, the softer the light will appear on your subject. Expanding on that theory, Grimes explains how moving the light closer or farther from your subject helps to adjust the intensity of the lights softness. Of course, it’s no surprise that moving the light source will change how it looks on your subject but, as Grimes walks us through the process of about four different shots (all with the light source at varying distances), it becomes very apparent just how much even a 6-inch adjustment will affect the overall style of your light.
Take a look as Grimes breaks it all down:
[ via SLR Lounge ]
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