Comments on: Fstoppers Lighting Diagrams: The Martin Schoeller Portrait

By: Lee Trevino

Lee Trevino — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:05:00 +0000

My attempt with the v-flats…..

By: Nick Fancher

Nick Fancher — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 18:33:00 +0000

My wife Beth

By: Ben Nations

Ben Nations — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 02:34:00 +0000

That is hardly true using your terminology “style”. If you directly copy, say a photo pose-for-pose, location-for-location with the intention of replicating the original, then yes. But copying a lighting technique, no. You cannot successfully sue someone for that.

By: Vinicius Corrêa

Vinicius Corrêa — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 11:50:00 +0000

an attempt in order to better understand this light

By: photomaster88

photomaster88 — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:16:00 +0000

Yes that makes sense. What did you achieve by using the black tape in that pattern?

By: photomaster88

photomaster88 — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:12:00 +0000

Yes you can get sued if you copy a style and use it commercially.

By: Nic Cage's Hair

Nic Cage's Hair — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 03:32:00 +0000

Um, can someone copyright a photographic technique? Or has nobody stuck 2 strip lights in front of someone and shot them up close- in the history of photography except for Shoeller? Can you copy a food recipe or variation of it? Lawsuits? Thanks for the laugh, haha!

And on another note- learning is just that. Whether on our own, watching others or by being taught. A good photog takes what they learn and builds upon it into their own style. Please don’t sue me as i’m sure that last sentence has been repeated tens of thousands of times throughout history. Don’t wanna get in trouble!

And on a last note, thank you Nick- these look wonderful and really appreciate the how-to on achieving this look!

By: Tina DiCocco Pelech

Tina DiCocco Pelech — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:37:00 +0000

Great Job!… I tried this the other day also.. this is what I came up with on myself

By: Nick Fancher

Nick Fancher — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 15:50:00 +0000

My goal was to see if I could recreate his lighting with a more stripped-down setup. And I accomplished it. Plus I learned a lot about how light bounces and reflects in the process. I have no plan on replicating Schoeller’s portraits in the future. But I will likely do a variation on it sometimes. I’d rather have more tools in my tool belt than I need. Make sense?

By: photomaster88

photomaster88 — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 22:47:00 +0000

You should try your own style, what’s the point of emulating other photographers. You are opening up yourself to lawsuits if you try to pass this off as your own even if a client asks you to copy the look.