Light Arithmetic

I would like to believe that a significant part of photography is learning and speaking the language of light. And like learning any new language, there is a period of confusion and frustration. I have read a number of books on the physics and chemistry behind photography, but I admittedly still feel lost when math decides to be a party pooper comes into play. I can and will suffer through as much of it is necessary, but in deciding on how to light a particular shoot; I rely on something much simpler (though clearly less precise) — my gut.

It may not get me to within inches of where my flash needs to be relative to the subject nor does it reveal clear-cut power settings for each strobe, but it does a pretty darn good job of keeping my head from imploding. Although there is an element of insanity randomness to my method, it is the result of a few hundred hours of real-world testing. It's an odd, yet satisfying, feeling to be able to position and set a flash to within about under a stop of where I want to be exposure-wise. Some of you might argue that I could have just bought a light meter and saved myself the trouble, but with that money I would've bought one more flash without even blinking.

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Nikki and I were finally able to do the shoot she won a few months back. The theme that we decided on was that of a hip-hop/street dancer. Being as graceful as a bear, I left the moves to her and focused on creating an atmosphere that would capture and accentuate the finesse and strength of her movements. Nikki and I planned a number of wardrobe changes for variety; however on the afternoon of the shoot itself, I realized that the number and placement of lights could very well create different looks, so I proceeded to factor that in as a variable as well.

I'm a TTL (test the light) kind of guy, so I have to make sure that I set the power setting on each strobe before I hoist it up on a light stand because nearly all of my stands are much taller than I am, so it's a pain to have to lower the flash to adjust its power and put it back up again. In my experiments with multiple lights (or even with a single strobe), I always start with choosing settings that match how deep I want my shadows to look like. This serves as the foundation upon which I am going to build my layers of light upon.

One for Drama

With my camera set to give me my desired depth of the shadows in the scene, I bring one light in. In this setup, the single strobe is going to be the key (or main) light. Depending on the modifier that I'm using, I basically adjust the settings on the strobe to properly expose my subject (or a part of her). In the picture below, it is in a gridded beauty dish at 1/2 power, 3-4 feet away from the subject, at about a 45° relative to the subject, and pointing down at her.

Two to Cross

Building on the previous lighting setup, I bring in a second strobe. I decide to use it as a rim light to create separation between the subject and the dark background. It's in a 2-foot square collapsible soft box with the front diffusion material removed, so I set it at 1/16 power, put it about 3-4 feet away behind the subject, and angle it down towards her.

Three to Triangulate

A third strobe added to the mix allows me to create a more pronounced separation between the subject and the background. I was able to achieve an edgier look by using the third strobe as a second rim light. I used the same type of modified and setting as the second strobe, but positioned all three lights in a triangular fashion around the subject: two are positioned behind her for rim lighting with the third in front of her serving as the key.

Four to Finish

Before wrapping up, I wanted to create a look with less contrast, so I added a fourth light as a fill. Building on the three that we're already in place, I added a fourth light to create a clamshell-type setup in front. The setup being described here is the one showed in the picture at the top of the post. The strobe was set at 1/16 power, shot through a white umbrella, and angled up at the subject. The hair movement comes courtesy of two friends who acted as adjustable-speed 'hair fans'.

I can still remember when I go my first Strobist® kit: one flash, one light stand, a wireless trigger, and a shoot-through white umbrella. I would have happily made pictures with that single off-camera hot shoe flash (a Vivitar 285HV that's still with me today) until either the shutter count on my camera body or the tick count of my heart reached its limit, whichever came first. Unfortunately, I discovered the wonderfully complex stew of using multiple strobes and I've been sipping from that pot (burning myself a number of times) ever since.

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To my loyal readers, if you have friends or family members who are interested in photography, especially in using off-camera flash to make pictures, please feel free to share this post with them by using your social networking button of choice below. I would welcome any feedback and look forward to interacting with them as well. As always, thanks for reading.