Thought we could give this a go see what we can all come up with , I know all lighting situations are different but I thought it might help new people to studio/strobist lighting as well as more experienced people gain more ideas. Get the ball rolling, this is my fairly standard headshot portrait lighting set up. Bowens BD up high with the fashion Diffuser attached & a small 60x60 Gridded sofbox below to fill in the shadows. Gives you this Agnes-3 by Kiteninja (Morgan Lee), on Flickr Post a description if you can, a shot of the setup & the end result.
From my perspective, as someone who knows zilch about lighting shots, this is a great idea and deserves rep for the initiative. However, I'm struggling to interpret your diagram - it looks like there's two items blocking the camera. From your text I guess the camera is actually shooting through the gap between the sofbox on the floor and the Bowens BD up above? - sorry, I know jack about this stuff but am really interested to learn. What would be even more helpful for someone like me was if you could post supporting pics that show the effect of removing one of the items used (this is an ideal, not a request, I'm grateful for the effort made so far, honest
Basically yes, you have the Beauty Dish up high, its easier if you have a boom arm so you can say set it 6ft high but with the boom arm you can have the stand off to the side soe it doesn't obstruct the camera. Then your gridded softbox would be on a low stand, I use a background stand because its basicly a weighted base with wheels on with a very short lightstand only a foot at max gives a lot of stability due to the weighted base. I have another shoot this afternoon I'll try and get some shots with different setups with & without aspects to show the differences.
FYI, this is called "clamshell" lighting. Works best for women of a certain age. And works better with 2 light sources of the same type at different power levels, to keep the catch lights in the eyes from being distracting.
I rarely use off camera flash - in my line of work it's much more practical to have the flash on the camera and bounce it (it's fast and, done properly, can be extremely versatile). This portrait shoot was done with on camera flash (580EX II) bounced up and over my right shoulder, giving a very nice soft white light to the right of the subjects: I have two speedlites and two radio triggers which I use if needed, but usually get by with one speedlite and a 60x60 softbox - as in this photo, in which the owner wanted a picture of her dog in her living room. Softbox high camera right, window to the left. Nothing spectacular, but it does the job.
Doesn't require 2 lights but it works better with 2, you can use a reflector as the 2nd source, white disc will work fine or a silver to reflect more light or a gold to add a bit of extra warmth too the shot.
I rarely use artificial light (not because I don't want to, just rarely have the opportunity or money for it) but this thread is already very interesting. I watch.
I normally list my lighting on the flickr page if I used any along with position and power, what are you using to produce the diagrams?
no doubt you can. The problem with a reflector, if it's a problem, is that you are locking in the difference in stops of the light sources. This particular lighting set up is used a lot in 2 kinds of shoots. one being older ladies, where the second light source is used to lift the shadows in the wrinkles. You can only do this when close the ratio of the 2 light sources, which the reflector will never let you do. Clamshell lighting really shines because it lets you bring the 2nd light source equal or close to the key light, giving you everything from a massive ring light look to a really soft, wrinkle removing light. try using 2 strip lights parallel to each other above and below the face with only a 1/3rd - 2/3rds stop difference to see the fashion mag power of this set up.
Seems that M_D_K is using http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/Creator And if you don't want to do diagrams online, here's the answer: http://diyphotography.net/lighting-diagrams And a straight link to PSD-file download: Here ^ That is what I'm using and on a bonus you can "brand it" with your own logo for example...
