The Wounded Soldier – A Lighting Walk-through

Hi, this is Lauri Laukkanen of SLR Lounge. Today, we will take a behind-the-scenes look at the lighting setups, equipment and camera settings that I used while creating this three part, WW2 inspired, conceptual photography series. For the full shoot and post production video tutorial, exercise files, click here ($19).

Photograph #1

Lighting: I wanted this first photograph to look and feel very dramatic and dark. I started off by positioning my main-light on the camera right, up high, pointed down at a 45° angle. I feathered the light away from my models face, in order to add a bit of fill light in the shadows. Then I continued by lighting up the dark cave behind the model: I placed a strobe behind him, and used a large black reflector as a flag, in order to block the light from spilling on the models face. And then finally I noticed that I needed a bit of extra light on the right side of my model, so I placed a speedlight on the ground, pointed upwards, in order to get some more fill light in the dark shadows of the cave.

Camera Settings: Shutter speed: 1/160, Aperture: f/8, ISO: 100

Photograph #2

Lighting: The second lighting setup was almost identical to the first one – the only difference was the fact that I changed the angle from which I was shooting, and moved the main-light to the other side of my subject

Camera Settings: Shutter speed: 1/160, Aperture: f/8, ISO: 100

Photograph #3

Lighting: And then finally for the third photo, I decided to go with a very simple lighting setup: only one light, coming down from up high, mimicking the sunlight. I feathered the light a tiny bit, in order to fill in some of the shadows on the models face

Camera Settings: Shutter speed: 1/160,Aperture: f/3.2, ISO: 100

Equipment

Because this shoot was organized in a cave, in the middle of a forest, I knew I’d need to rent out a pair of Elinchrome Ranger Quadra’s in order to light the scene. And in addition to the Quadra’s I used a YuongNuo 560 speedlight to fill in some dark shadows in the cave.

I used the Canon 5D MkII and my trusty Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens for this series. And finally, I of course shot all these images in RAW, as I knew I would be editing them quite a lot, both in Lightroom and in Photoshop.

BTS Video

Purchase Info

For more information on creating these images, including the shooting tutorial, post production tutorial, and planning and brainstorming process, check out the SLR Lounge Store ($19).

About The Author

Lauri Laukkanen, is an editorial and commercial photographer, specializing in creative portraiture, fashion and sports photography. People usually describe his style as cinematic, creative and sometimes a tiny bit crazy. He was recently awarded with the WDP 2012: Photographer of the Year -award, and his work has been featured all around the internet, including 1x.com, Vogue etc. View his portfolio here.