The Black and White Portrait – The Lighting Series #10
Jan 13, 2019
Stefan Kohler
Stefan Kohler is a full-time retoucher. He’s from Germany and likes bacon. In the last years, he built up a broad community around his retouching classes at the Infinite tool’s website.
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Taking a 180-degree turn from our color-bursting portrait, here is a very soft black-and-white portrait and how to build a great setup for it.
The lighting series is a comprehensive lighting guide. We talk about flash photography, lighting, posing, color, and walk you through a series of lighting setups. Some will be simple, some complex, but in the end, they are all tools to add to your photography toolbox. Here is a complete list of the lighting tutorials.
Gear
- 1x 90cm Octabox (left open) on a 500Ws monoblock
- 1x 90cm parabolic umbrella on a 500Ws monoblock
Lighting setup
In this setup, a parabolic umbrella forms the base. The light is very defined and creates highly visible highlights.
A second open Octabox brightens the shadows created by the model’s pose and brings some light into the shadow areas.
Using an infinity cove (a.k.a. cyclorama), with its gentle curvature, ensures a smooth transition between floor and wall.
The individual light sources
Main light
As you can see in the picture here, the main light is almost parallel to the model; it’s a really hard light that casts dark shadows on the left side of the model. The direction of the light is very clear and does not raise any questions.
Fill light
The scene is brightened very subtly from the front. This light mustn’t compete with or overpower the main light. You don’t want to introduce any more obvious light sources into the scene. The shadows here, falling behind the model, are much softer than those cast by the main light.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. You can also download this series as a free ebook.
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 these setups.
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Stefan Kohler
Stefan Kohler is a full-time retoucher. He’s from Germany and likes bacon. In the last years, he built up a broad community around his retouching classes at the Infinite tool’s website.
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