Creating a Custom Living Room Portrait

As you can see, the result is not very flattering. The lighting is very flat and unnatural-looking and the background appears drab and much darker than it does in person. It's a familiar look to most people, but not a very exciting one.

ONE SOFT BOX LIGHTING SET-UP

To improve the lighting, we disabled the flash and then set up a Starlite Small Digital Kit and brought it in to the left side of the model. We positioned it as close to the model as possible, without it entering the frame of the camera, so that it would project a soft, wrap-around light across the model's face. Remember that the closer a light source is to its subject, the softer the light will be (figure 3).

Then we set the aperture as wide as possible for the most limited depth of field, set the shutter speed to accommodate a good exposure, and took a shot in the vertical position (figure 4).

Notice how just this one light has made a substantial improvement over the first shot. This lighting set-up is much more natural and flattering than before, and we are able to get a better sense of the model's face. Many photographers refer to this type of set-up as "window lighting", since the light from the soft box simulates the same soft light that comes through, you guessed it, a window.

After looking at the image in the LCD of the camera, we realized we wanted to bounce some warm light into the shadow side of the model to create some definition to the right side of her face. So, we attached up a Photoflex 32" MultiDisc to a Photoflex LiteDisc Holder and Photoflex LiteStand 2218 and positioned it (Soft Gold side facing the subject) to bounce some of the light from the Starlite Kit into the shadow side of the model's face.

Once the MultiDisc was positioned where we wanted it, we took another shot (figures 5, 6 & 7).

As you can see, the Soft Gold side of the MultiDisc helps to bounce warm light into the shadow side of the face.

Let's look at the difference between the results so far:

TWO SOFT BOX LIGHTING SET-UP

After reviewing our result, we wanted to create more separation between the model and the background, since the hair was indistinguishable from the background. This meant we needed to set up another soft box.

We decided to replace the Starlite Small Digital Kit with a Starlite Large Digital Kit so that we would get a broader diffused light falling across the model's face, and placed the Starlite Small Digital Kit behind the model directed at the back of her head to create a hair light. As you will see, this hair light helped to create separation between our model's dark hair and the equally dark background (figures 9 & 10).

Once the lights were in position, we took another shot at the same exposure (figure 11).

While the hair light helped to define the hair, we now realized that the background seemed a little too dark against our illuminated model. Lighting the background will make the shot more dynamic, as well as create more separation from the background.

So, we positioned the Starlite Small Digital Kit away from the back of the model's head and onto the living room wall and took another shot (figure 12). This effectively changed the hair light to a background light.

The result showed that brightening the room definitely improved the feel of the shot, but that we were still lacking sufficient contrast between the hair and the background, particularly on the right side (figure 13).

Instead of setting up a third light, we decided to use the MultiDisc as a hair light. With the help of the LiteDisc Holder and LiteStand, we positioned the MultiDisc in close to the back of the model's head so that the light from the Large Starlite reflected back into her hair. Once this was secured, we took another shot (figures 14, 15 & 16).

Now our lighting was where we wanted it. We had nice separation from both sides of the hair and the light on the model and on the background looked natural and tied together nicely.

RIM LIGHTING

Now that we had our close-up head shot, we decided to have the model step back a little into the living room to help tie her in more with the scene. Starting off with a lighting set-up similar to the previous one, we brought the Starlite Large Digital Kit in as close as we could without it entering the camera frame and positioned the Starlite Small Digital Kit on the other side to illuminate the room.

This turned out to be a very nice result shot. The Starlite Large Digital Kit created a beautifully soft main light and the Starlite Small Digital Kit lit the room for a seamless result. We then decided to take a different lighting approach altogether. Instead of placing the main light so that it would illuminate the front of the model, we decided to use it as a "rim" light, or rear/side light. Similar to the hair light, the rim light rakes across the outline of your subject to create separation from the background. We placed the Large SilverDome off to the back right of the room facing the model. The Starlite Small Digital Kit was again used to light the room. Keeping the same exposure settings, we took another shot (figures 20 & 21).

The result shows that the rim light works well to outline our model, but that, as you might expect, the front of the model is too dark. We decided to use the MultiDisc to bounce light into the shadows instead of using another Starlite Kit because we wanted to maintain the dramatic effect of the rim light.
Once the MultiDisc was in position, we took a final shot (figures 22, 23 & 24).

As you can see from the result, the rim lighting creates a very dynamic result that is both directional and diffused, resulting in a very inviting living room portrait.

Here's the lineup of the different result shots:

Before we began to pack up the gear, we decided to take one more shot of the model and her boyfriend with this same lighting set-up. A minute later, they had a charming living room portrait that they would later print, frame and give to their respective parents. Notice how the rim light creates great separation from the background, but that it doesn't interfere with the overall soft lighting (figure 25).

Try to experiment with your lighting and camera techniques as much as you can. Once you are comfortable with a few different approaches to lighting and shooting, you and your subjects can really have fun creating beautiful portraits.