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Some responses already! April 7, 2009

Posted by Leonard Low in Assignment, Portraiture, Strobist.
Tags: , , , , , ,
1 comment so far

I have responses on Photo.net!!!

Monika Epsefass , Apr 06, 2009; 08:40 a.m.

If they need to have a halo, you’d need a strong backlight. In addition, you could add some lighting in PS later, which you direct on their faces and calculate in ’soft light’ mode. Don’t forget to soften their skin a bit, too, to give them that candlelight look. You might also use a (turned down low) snoot light on their faces, to prevent overexposing but give them a gentle glow, maybe together with a gelled bulb…. be imaginative!

Jennifer Spencer , Apr 06, 2009; 05:42 p.m.

A gold reflector might be a nice touch to make the subject’s skin glow, no matter their skin color. If you bounce your studio light off that reflector, you might like the look. I’d try putting the reflector overhead, or overhead at an angle, and bouncing light from below. You could test this at home with a light bulb and a sheet of aluminum foil over cardboard and see if you like the look. The foil won’t give you the skin glow of the gold tone, but it will show you how the light reflection would work.

I assume you’ll be using some sort of flourescent lighting for the “ugly” shots? Nobody looks good in that light!

Charles Heckel , Apr 06, 2009; 07:27 p.m.

A skin moisturizer tends to bring out the highlights in skin, and diffuse on-axis lighting (an umbrella directly above the camera) will spread those highlights. A less diffuse on-axis light will produce more brightness in the skin broadside-on to the camera and less in skin angled away from it (a soft box with a grid).

If the subject is posed against a dark background, a soft-focus lens such as a Portragon will spread the highlights over the background for a halo effect. You can get a similar effect with a blur layer in PS.

Don’t use people–hire angels. ;-)