Changing Direction
Lately I've been wanting to produce some photos that pack a little more punch. I've grown used to shooting with a 30"x30" Lasolite Ezybox which, while fairly directional, bathes a subject in soft light. I love the soft light the softbox produces but I find myself wanting to highlight specific areas of a scene more than simply blasting the entire scene.
I recently spent some money to get a snoot, specifically, a MagMod MagSnoot; a rubber, collapsible snoot that fits nicely over my Canon speedlights. This week I decided to test it out in a studio setting and was pretty pleased with some of the results.
Starting out, I drew inspiration from classic Hollywood portraits and film noir works; the pointed light from the snoot, I imagined, would lend itself to some pretty serious shadows. I don't really have much of a studio space so I draped a crimson tablecloth over a cheap frame in my living room and sat a stool a few feet in front of it. I set up a rim light, a Canon 600 EX-RT on a c-stand, and a main light, a 600 EX II-RT fitted with the MagSnoot. I had a couple neighbors, Sean and Finley come over to test it out and we got to work.
After a few shots where my main light missed my subject's face altogether, I finally hit the target and got exactly what I was expecting: the thin stream of light hit her face, exposing it and not much else. With a pleasant rim light, I like the effect. There's still definition in her face and frame but the image has a more dynamic feel between the shadows and highlights than it would with the softbox.
There's a mysterious effect that this lighting produces that definitely has its place in portrait photography. It's simple, it's clean, but it is more interesting than blasting a subject with a huge light source.
It was time to take it a step further, instead of positioning the main light overhead and 45 degrees to camera right, I set it level with my subject's face at around 110 degrees. We added the hat to test how accurately I could aim the snoot.
Now we were getting somewhere, but it was a little bit scarce for my liking. I introduced another light, a Canon 430 EX III-RT, aimed upward to act as a global fill light and add some more detail into the scene.
The resulting image still had the contrast I was looking for in her face without losing her whole body in the process. The rim light adds some nice and needed detail to the shape of the hat and her hair an rounds out a nice portrait.
I had one more goal for the shoot; to go full film noir for a shot.
I nixed the fill light and brought the main light back to its original 45 degree position and raised the stand to aim it downward. I had Sean tilt her head pull the hat downward and shot.
Voila, her eyes and most of her face were fully cast in shadow under the brim of the had while her mouth, hair and part of her shirt were exposed.
Again, the rim light gives her some shape and gives the image a place to start and end without trailing into nothingness. For all intents and purposes, I was satisfied and finished.
As Sean got up, however, Finley quickly jumped in stating, "I don't photograph well," and promptly started posing like a professional. The unplanned red jacket on red background didn't hurt.
I quickly switched the fill light back on and started snapping shots, struggling to keep up, and eventually ended on this shot. I expected the snoot to be too harsh for any kind of glamour shots but was pleasantly surprised by how this came out.
The main and fill lights work together to create contrast in her face, giving it definition without producing harsh shadows. A little bit of retouching and it actually winds up being one of my favorite shots of the night. I find that it's almost distressingly common that my favorite shots are ones that I didn't plan. So it goes, though.
So there you have it: one piece of equipment that helps produce four very different styles of portraiture from glamour and fashion to classic noir. I actually don't do a ton of studio work: most of my photographic endeavors take place either outdoors or in "real world" spaces (for lack of a better term). I'm excited to see how I can use these techniques in organic settings to make unique lighting setups. I'm sure I'll be posting more about it in the near future.
