The one light high key portrait lighting technique is perfect for fashion catalog photography. The lighting diagram below explains this simple lighting setup. A 400w/s monolight will work, but 600w/s or more is recommended for this lighting setup.
A lookbook is a portfolio or catalog of images that represents one line of a designers products, such as a spring fashion line. Lookbook and catalog photography is something that one can shoot in every city, small or large. Prom dress and wedding boutiques have new designs every year.
Speaking of lookbooks, here is the simple one light setup we used last year for designer Lizzie Parker. A lookbook is a portfolio or catalog of images that represents one line of a designers products, such as a spring fashion line.
Wardrobe Styling is by Rebecca Luke, makeup/hair is by Brandee Slosar, model is Hayley@ TCM Models.
Hayley - One Light High Key Catalog Lighting Diagram
Why one light and not two? Well, the idea was to keep the attention on the wardrobe and model…not the lighting. Secondly, Lizzie insisted that the images show the detail in the fabric. Here previous “guy in LA” blew out the highlights and lost the detail for her 2009 shoot. And finally, she wanted a simple and understated quality to the images.
Is it possible to light a 16′ x 20′ cyc wall with just one light? Absolutely, just move that panel/strobe unit at least 10-12 feet from the model and let it light the whole set. Then, bring in two large reflectors for fill….a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio.
Can one do this in a two car studio garage…YEP! I would suggest using at a minimum an Alien Bee 1600 (or 2 AB/800′s side-by-side). I used the Photogenic PLR2500DR which has a 6 f-stop flash output range from 32 to 1000Ws. My guess is that I was at about 600ws.
If your a portrait photographer, you now have a high key lighting setup, that doesn’t blow out the highlight detail. If you want a low-key portrait, simply dress the subject in darker clothing and use a darker shade of seamless paper. The possibilities are endless.
Have a larger group, use two panels and two lights side by side. Looks great for team photos and has that nice soft and warm light quality. How many softboxes do you know of that are 10′ x 16′ and cost under $100 to make.
RAW processing was done in Adobe Camera RAW, with basic exposure, contrast, and color adjustments. No PS corrections for lighting.
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40 Comments
Thorsten could you elaborate on the panels .. are they custom … where did you get the material for them.
James,
They are DIY. The PVC tubing is available from HomeDepot. We use the 1.5 inch variety, $2 for 10 feet. The fabric is ripstop nylon, has a very distinctive criss-cross pattern like a checker board. Any of the larger fabric stores will carry it. Cost is about $7 per square yard. We also use the 2 inch wide elastic band in the corners of the fabric. Slips right over the PVC frame and holds tight perfectly. Larson sells panels for $330 each, or you can make one yourself for about $60.
Do not purchase “sports nylon”, looks like a shower curtain. Yes, it is only $3 per sq/yard, but looks like @#$%^ and will give you “tiffen starburst filter effects” in the all your highlights.
1.9 oz Uncoated Downproof Ripstop
1.9 oz. sq yd 70 Denier. This downproof ripstop nylon is water repellent and breathable with a reinforcing thread woven in each direction that gives it distinguishing squares. The ripstop weave strengthens the fabric and prevents tears. Since it is uncoated it is breathable.
We got it here
Tim and I will write a detailed post regarding the panel setup. Many folks believe that the softbox is the same thing. I promise everyone it is not….very different light quality.
Thanks, Thorsten
This is great stuff! You said that you could light a large group with two 5×8 nylon panels and two monolights placed side by side. How would your lighting diagram differ from the one light and panel shown above?
Hi Steve,
OK, it is 1am, and just got back from the Madina Vidache lookbook and editorial shoot….kinda wiped, LOL.
But yes, this is why we light the way we do. Nothing new really, we just light the way we did before PS was invented. Actually, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, and so many of the other greats use lighting borrowed from cinema. The panels we use, Dean Collins made them famous again in 1985. Tim and I improved on them considerably with what we saw when assisting the best fashion photographers in LA and NYC.
Back to your question. Go to your local fabric store and buy the 60″ wide ripstop nylon in a 12 or 24 foot length, $6.99 per square yard. Now stretch that between 3-4 light stands and cheap $2 HomeDepot clamps. Put 2-3 Alien Bee’s or 10 speedlights behind it (we hate speedlights, too much money for such low output…waste of $%#@ money” and you are good to go. Well, yes you could use speedlights…sighhhh.
Important note. Place the monoheads and fabric at eye level. Why….because lighting always look more natural when it is just above us. If we light from below the nose…it is called monster lighting….flashlight below the chin, LOL.
Watch the video here….same principle on a smaller scale:
http://www.zeroplusplus.com/octabox-ring-light/
Thank you for the comment Steve, comments and questions like your are exactly what keeps this blog interesting. I will post so much new content next week, the Mac Pro is going to be humming and running on all 8 cores for a while.
Best regards…..Thorsten
Excellent tips, a big thank you for the effort you put in to this tutorials.
Thank you Sorin, we definitely appreciate that!
Great site with good videos. One quick question…How far away from the background is the model and/or the furniture in these photos? That is something I am still trying to figure out when seeking a similar look. Thanks for the help and the useful site.
She is probably 8-10 feet from the background. F/5.6 is plenty for depth of field, F/4 would have been fine too. If your using seamless paper, try not to get the paper (behind the model) in focus, the rolls/wrinkles look ugly and now one has to fix that in post. We have a cyc wall which eliminates the paper wrinkles, but one can still do this just fine with seamless.
Thanks for the question….T
Thanks Thorsten. One more question. Is there anything to specifically look for in material when making the satin panels? In the diagram above, could you use 3 panels made out of the ripstop or are you looking for a more reflective material for the reflection panels? I’d like to know what to look for when I make a trip to the fabric store. Thanks again.
One could use ripstop or satin panels as reflectors, either works fine. Satin just gives us an extra option, we can light thru satin for slightly more diffused lighting, or one can double up the nylon for more diffusion.
Just tried the ripstop nylon panel yesterday. I was shooting a friend’s young kids. The nylon panel worked great. I was able to focus on trying to get the kids to cooperate instead of messing around adjusting lights. I also made two satin panels but have yet to use them. All in, I have less than $100 invested in a nylon panel and two satin panels. Hard to beat that price. For anyone interested, the nylon panel really does work great. Thanks for the idea and the information on making the panels.
Would there be a big difference if foamcores were used in place of the satin panels?
Foamcore does the same thing…T
Ya know, sometimes we are just too concerned with the details of something to look for a simpler route to follow. I’ve spent 3 or 4 hours sketching out various ideas for constructing a stand for my light panel, as I’ve seen used so effectively here, when I get to this part about using lightstands. And then it hits me…
I already have a perfectly good, portable, background stand with a cross bar in 3 foot sections. I already have the clamps from Home Depot, I have the light, an AB800, and a wireless trigger, and a Sekonic light meter. I already have everything I need to put together a portable light panel, just like Thorsten describes here. I don’t have a Vagabond, yet, but I do have a very long extension cord.
Sometimes I suppose it just takes a bit longer to click.
I can’t wait to try this out.
Steve
Thorsten, I absolutely LOVE the lighting here! It seems to caress the model and her clothing, revealing so much detail. Boss!
Your photos and blog are just fantastic. As a wedding and portrait photographer in San Jose, I know that it’s challenging photographing outstanding pictures. I’ll be keeping an eye on your blog to get some inspiration.
Thank you Virgen,
Wish I had more time to post articles!
I recently got elinchrom dlite 2 kit. Is 200ws enough for this kind of work? If one light is not enough and I use both lights closer together will it create any problems in the light pattern?
200ws is probably enough if you shoot at f/4 or f/5.6, or put 2 lights right next to each other for 400ws. Best is to test and try it out. Material is inexpensive enough for a test.
Thorsten,
You are calling for a lot of power in these shots. I have 2 600 profoto compacts is this adequate enough? Working in a 19×19 space. Thanks
Terrence, 600 w/s is plenty, and you have 2x that……1200 w/s. In the lighting diagram I only used one head at 600 w/s or so. Also I am shooting at F/5.6, which is more than enough depth-or-field for a full length model shot.
Very interesting read! Is this basically the same thing that you guys use?
http://www.backdropoutlet.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SCW1000
They have this on sale for $149 from time to time. Sound like a good idea?
Thanks Charles……that is perfect! The “wall of light” should work very well indeed. I made my own version for about $75, but for their sale price of $150 it is a steal. Here is the link again for folks that would like to purchase the “wall of light”. http://www.backdropoutlet.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SCW1000
So none of this is possible with two Vivitar 285hvs? Only with the big strobes?
I do not use speedlights because they are much more expensive to operate efficiently and have very limited modifier attachments….ie rechargeable battery and speedlight. You can certainly try using two speedlights and experiment.
Thorsten … very generous of you to post all this great information for everyone! I might need to pay you some “rent” as I have probably read every page and watched all the videos on this blog! lol I was wondering how do you support the 5′x8′ nylon panels to “stand up” in the studio/location. Also do you have these panels on wheels? Thanks again for everything!
Great, glad the articles are useful to you. Tim and I use PVC piping from the Homedepot plumbing section. Or if we are feeling lazy, we just set up two lightstands and clamp the fabric between the stands.
Hi Torsten,
Looking at my original post, and your reply, guess I needed to be more specific in my request…
With the ripstop attached inside the PVC frame, how does one keep the PVC frame vertical, from falling over? Are you making some type of “feet” for the frames, or what?
Thanks in advance!
John
We clamp the frame to a lightstand using a $2 clamp from HomeDepot.
Thorsten,
Thanks for the quick reply! I thought it might be that, so much easier than crafting feet.
Really appreciate your time in responding to all of us!
John
Hi there – this is so useful thank you.
I was wondering if you could use anything other than ripstop nylon to shoot through for the lighting?
Ripstop is inexpensive and lasts for ever. It is what all the guys I assisted in LA used, but your welcome to experiment with other materials.
Hi Thorsten!
Maybe I’m getting a little too creative here, but have you ever thought about tilting the panels (or had a job where you used them tilted)?
In your tutorials, you always seem to use them standing straight vertical.
Thank you guys for this blog, pumped with useful information in the articles and comments as well!
Cheers from Germany,
Dieter
For people photography I don’t see any benefit of tilting a panel. But for tabletop product photography I tilt the panels quite frequently…it is called “above and behind” product lighting. The panel is behind the product, or sometimes to the side, and the light falls at a 45 degree angle on the tabletop product. Then we use white or silver fill cards to bounce a little light from the camera position.
“Above and behind” panel product lighting is super simple and looks fantastic for food photography or still-life setups. I always chuckle at the Youtube “still-life lighting tutorials” that show a massive softbox lighting a product from the camera angle….looks awful and flat and boring…unless that is what you want
Try it sometime and I think you will agree.
To make this set-up more portable, could you use some lighting modifier on the light, perhaps a beauty dish with sock or a softbox, or does that not really produce the same effect? I think you mention in one of your comments that a softbox may not be an option?
You may use a beauty dish but it will be a bit more specular since it is a smaller light source. This is perfectly good light as well and will look great. More contrast but still very nice light.
Another good option as you mentioned would be a large or extra large softbox. I would feather the softbox a bit more towards the white satin panels for even and soft lighting. 40% towards model and 60% towards white panels.
The common mistake is to just point the softbox towards the model and shoot away. But feathering the light between model and reflector will give a more even light quality….if that is your goal.
Thanks for posting this up – I did not know ripstop nylon was the fabric of choice.
What do you think about using 8×4 ft V flats instead? And does firing the strobe into a v flat draped with nylon give any more diffuse light? Of course, I’m aware of the transport issue here.
Concerning the fill: how does putting it closer to the camera axis compare with this setup? Now, you wouldn’t be able to use a reflection panel but if a good window or strobe+nylon were available, how would the image change?
Thanks for writing Paul,
V-flats (foamcore) and V-banks (rip-stop nylon) are interchangeable and will reproduce the same light quality when setup as a V. However, there is a distinct benefit to using the fabric.
The fabric is portable and I fly all over the country with my setup. I shoot a ton of catalog work on location so portability is a big plus for me. Secondly, I can use the fabric to further diffuse window light, softboxes, octaboxes and beauty dishes. And I can use it as reflectors.
I also use the fabric as a sail on my sea kayak but that is another story……
Putting the panel closer to camera axis gives a flatter light quality I suppose. Flat lighting is not really my look, but I suppose it may work for someone else. In school we tested the sh%$# out of everything. Then we took a polariod of the lighting setup for future repeatability. Mind you that was before digital, 1989.
The panels are super forgiving. If you go to NYC or LA, you see them in every large fashion studio and catalog house. Softboxes are so 1980, LOL.
I don’t get to post as often as I would like to and catalog season is in full swing again for me. Hope I was helpful.
Warmly,
Thorsten
Thank you for you for your reply. I am in the process of fitting out a small studio and I’ll be constructing my first panel soon.
What do you think of china silk as a diffusion fabric? I hear it is widely used in the movie industry and I have read that it is better than ripstop? Another consideration is the various forms of diffusion sold by Lee and Rosco. Being in Australia, I think that ripstop is more expensive but I can get cheap silks (and the rosco/lee diffusion) at similar prices to those in the US. Is paying more worth it?
I completely agree with what you have said regarding softboxes… Expensive and lacking in versatility compared to DIY studio modifiers. My (purely armchair) opinion is that studio photographers would be better served by investing the saved money in beauty dishes instead.
…excuse the horrendous typo errors:)