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When it comes to photographing your pets, a flash unit will not be your best friend. The jarring burst of light a strobe produces will cut your portrait session short, and may bring out the beast in your pets.
Instead, using a continuous light source is your best option. The OctoDome nxt is a three-foot soft box designed to be the best portrait light on the market. When you couple the OctoDome nxt with the Starlite, you get a kit that produces soft, wrapping light that is continuous, and will bring out the beauty in your beast.
(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.) |
Topics Covered:
- Using the OctoDome nxt Kit
- Over-lighting a White Background
Equipment Used:
 Figure 1 |
To bring out the detail when photographing a black dog, a high-contrast lighting setup works best.
Here, we set up an OctoDome nxt Kit at about 30˚ camera right, about two and a half feet high, and pointed it straight at our subject. This will be the main light for photographing Cosmo. [figure 1] |
 Figure 2 |
Here is the result of this one-light setup. [figure 2] You can see we have nice, soft light coming in on Cosmo's left side, but the right side of the image is falling into deep shadow and losing detail in those areas. Our background is also a darker shade of gray with an unusual pattern on it. We will need to get more light in this image to make it a successful one. |
 Figure 3 |
We added another OctoDome nxt Kit to the left of Cosmo as our fill light. We positioned this light at about 45˚ camera left, raised to around three feet, and again pointed it straight at our subject. [figure 3] |
 Figure 4 |
In this image we have turned off our main light to show exactly how the fill light is falling on our subject. You can see that it is filling light in the areas that were in deep shadow previously. [figure 4] |
 Figure 5 |
We decided we wanted to add in a rim light from above Cosmo. So we used a medium SilverDome and Starlite on a Boom and Boom Stand as an overhead light to create a rim light and to slightly brighten the background. [figure 5] |
 Figure 6 |
Notice how the rim light from above is hitting our subject. [figure 6] You can see it wraps around Cosmo's head and ears nicely, creating some separation between the subject and the background. The light is also hitting the background creating a nice smooth gradient. |
 Figure 7 |
This result shot show our three-light setup so far. You can see we have nice, fairly even lighting on Cosmo. The only problem here is we still haven't been able to get rid of the pattern on the background and get it to pure white. To do this we will need to bring in another light on the background. [figure 7] |
 Figure 8 |
From previous lighting experience we knew that the easiest way to achieve an all white background is to setup two lights on the background. One on the left feathered towards the center of the background and one on the right also pointing in towards the middle. Here you can see we have setup a Starlite with a medium HalfDome attached to it. We positioned it at about 90˚ camera right and at about three feet high. [figure 8] |
 Figure 9 |
Here you can see we have setup our second Starlite with a medium HalfDome attached to it. We positioned it at about 90˚ camera left and at about three feet high. [figure 9] |
 Figure 10 |
With all of our lights turned on we arrived at this final image. [figure 10] We have nice even lighting on Cosmo without any dark, detail absorbing shadows and a bright pure white background that allows Cosmo to nearly jump off the page at the viewer! |
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Click here to view a more detailed version of this lesson, complete with camera set-up information, on Web Photo School. |
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Equipment Used:
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