How I Shot This With Hard Lighting

Lighting can be a major pain in the ass and that is especially the case if you're not a technical person, like me. After picking up the camera 7 years ago I am still constantly learning about the many different aspects of lighting.

One thing I have definitely learned is that when it works well, it can work really well. What else have I learned in that time? That on the other hand it can be so much trouble! 

I hope my "How I Shot This" series will be of help to you as I would have loved to have access to a more detailed set of information when I started in photography. So with that said, I'll do my best to share as much information as I can! What is the point of experience if you can't share it? Lets do this!   

This was a test shoot done a while back with a model from one of Singapore's top modeling agencies. I really wanted to shoot it with just hard lighting. Hard lighting comes with its own set of difficulties, the main one being that it is not very forgiving. As we all know, unforgiving light can bring out all the blemishes and flaws of the model. Pro Tip: Find gorgeous and perfect models that have no flaws! These humans exist, right? Right?! (Sometimes. I've seen them. They're hard for the ego.)
On the other hand, apart from it's unforgiving nature, hard lighting also can give a very interesting dramatic quality to an image. 

Another reason I wanted to do this shoot was because I wanted to make my cat a star and let me tell you... he IS a star! 

Reference Images

It's important to always walk into a shoot with at least an idea of what you want. Sometimes you get it, and sometimes you go with the flow and get something even better. Still, always be prepared! Your team can't read your mind and need a visual reference for what you're going for.

For me, I always go to a shoot prepared with a set of reference images and this one was no different. These are the set I collected for this shoot ranging between lighting, mood and poses. I feel like we captured what I was after and as always I'm grateful to the crew I was working with to bring it all together. 

Equipment List

• Canon 5D Mark II
• Canon 85mm f1.8
• Canon 50mm f1.8
• Canon 35mm f2
• Profoto 7A & Pro Heads

The above gear is what I basically always have in my camera bag. Other than that, the lighting equipment was from the studio. Honestly, I would have just stuck with the 85mm the whole way through if I could but I had to adjust due to the limited studio size we were working with that day. The studio length just wasn't long enough for me to capture a full body shot with a 85mm. Even with the 35mm, my back was against the wall. 

Lighting Setup

For this shoot, I knew that I wanted her to be lit with a little drama while having the image clean against a white background. Check out the below lighting diagram to see how I envisioned this whole thing working. 

I used a total of 3 lights for this setup. For the main light, this was done with one beauty dish from the front, top down. One light was placed on each side of the model to light the background. One black flag was placed in between the background light and model on both sides so the background light wouldn't hit th model and they also help create more shadows on the sides of the model for added drama.

Check out the below image with strategically drawn red circles for visual aid! 

As I mentioned above, I'm not a very technical person, so I unfortunately don't have the power settings for you. After base-lining my lighting settings at the start, I  just turn knobs until I get what I want. Turn a little this way, turn a little that way... until it looks right to your eye.

What I learnt on this shoot was that this lighting can be quite difficult when the model has a very small area to work with. The amount of space she can move within, while still having the beauty dish hit her face in optimal lighting is not very large, so this is something to pay attention to. I had to remind myself to keep checking my tethered images to make sure that even while she was moving, she was still lit up well.

Camera settings : ISO 100, f/8, 1/160s

Post Processing

When I first started photography and scoured the internet for lighting diagrams and behind the scenes, I used to wonder why there was such a huge difference between what I shot from my camera and what I see from my references. I was never able to get anywhere near the feel and mood of the reference images, even though I followed the lighting diagram as closely as I could. Of course there were times where it was just figuring out how to finesse the light, but sometimes it's also learning what Photoshop and the many other image editing tools out there have to offer (I use Capture One and Photoshop.) It took me years to learn the magic of color grading and proper skin retouching techniques. I'm not going to touch on that right now as there are experts with better explanations out there. Here's the before and after of my Photoshop work so you can see how it looks straight out of camera, compared to my finished version!

Note that this model already came with fairly good skin. If her skin was not great, under this sort of lighting all her flaws and blemishes would appear which would mean a lot of post production time. Mainly for her skin, I used the clone tool and then dodge and burn to retain texture. I also brightened up the background to give the image as clean a look as possible!

(For this shot, I had to pull up shadows in Capture One for the lower part of her body as the light from the beauty dish didn't reach that far)

Closing

I really hope this has been helpful to you! If you have any other questions, please let me know in the comments and I'll try to be as transparent as possible. In the future I will take more BTS images and to write down settings even though if you ask me, "turn a little this way, turn a little that way" should still be your guiding principle!
Do experiments with this and make your own changes, I would love to see what you come up with!

Photographer: Shavonne Wong (@zhiffyphotography)
Stylist: Angela (@angela_wk)
Model: Lin Li/ Ave Management (@lilithyll)
Makeup: Michelle (@official_michmakeover)
Hair: Yuhui Aw (@yuhui_aw)