StarFlash Mercury 1000 5' OctoDome Kit and StarFlash 300ws Head

Introduction:

In the following lesson, we will feature the light control you can gain with the application of grids to your light modifiers.

To give you the best comparison of control we set our model close to the background. This will allow us to easily illustrate how the spread of light is controlled by the grids as well as emulating many situations you may find yourself shooting assignments in. We will first set up a one light portrait with out the grids installed then go through the same sequence with the grids.


The Key Light:

To get started we set up our StarFlash 1000 Mercury 5' OctoDome Kit. We then adjusted the power to 1/2 power (approx. 500ws).

The light was placed to camera right at about 75 degrees from the camera. The height of the light was set so that we gained a classic 'Rembrandt' light pattern on the model's face (figures 1 and 2).

Before shooting, we set up the camera's programs and exposure settings.

Since we are using strobes in this lesson, our white balance was set to Daylight or 5500 degrees Kelvin. The resolution set to TIFF for maximum image quality, and the ISO was set to 100.

We then set the exposure controls to the manual setting. Since we are using strobes, the shutter speed will be determined by the sync setting on the camera you use, ours was 1/60 of a second. We set our aperture to f/8.0 to give the depth of field control we wanted for this image, keeping our subject in focus and letting the background fall out.

With our camera programmed and the key light set up, we attached the camera to the power pack with our sync cord and fired off our first result image (figure 3).

In the result image, we see the soft buttery light of the OctoDome wrapping around the subject, and clean soft light on the background, giving the subject separation and added depth to the shot.

Our next action was to add some fill to the shot. We set up a Photoflex LitePanel Kit with the soft gold cover installed. Once we had this reflector set up and attached to the stand included in the kit, we set it to camera left and about 90 degrees from the camera (figure 4).

With the fill in place, we moved the LitePanel into the final position, controlling the contrast on the model to a 2:1 ratio (the key side twice as bright as the fill side). The model sat back into her pose and we shot our second result image (figure 6).

In figures, 5 and 6 we show you the comparison of the first result and the second with the LitePanel kit added as our fill. In figure 5, we see the strong ratio with very little detail in the shadows of the model's face. In figure 6 with the added fill, we have control over the contrast in our shot while keeping the shape and form around the face.

The Hair Light:

To help gain more separation of the subject from the background, we added a hair light to our set.

Our hair light, sometimes called a separation light, was a Photoflex StarFlash 300 (again power adjusted to 1/2 power, appro. 150ws) attached to a medium HalfDome placed onto a Photoflex Boom and Boom Stand (figures 8 and 9). Once we had the HalfDome set up and on the boom, we placed it over the subject and centered on the set. We swung it back so that the light fell onto the model's head and shoulders.

Be careful not to position the hair light too far forward. You should not have any light fall onto the subject's face. To ensure we have the proper placement, we shot an image with just the hair light to check our placement (figure 7).

With the hair light in place we set the model into the pose and shot the next set of images (figure 11). Figure 10 shows the effects of the key light and fill reflector. Figure 11 shows the effects of using all three light; the key, the fill, and the hair light.

Notice how her hair is now better lit. This light will become even more apparent when we use grids to darken the background.

Using Grids for Directional Control of Light

As we mentioned in our introduction, adding the grids to the OctoDome provides more control over where the light from the box falls. The Octo Grids narrow the light to about a 40 degree spread from about a 130 degree spread without the grids. What this means is that you can control the light and place it just where you want it.

For this example, we want to keep some of the light from falling on the background, so we installed the grids onto the key light and set it back into position (figures 12 and 13).

With the grids in place, we checked our light levels with our flash meter and found we lost about a 1/3 of a stop. We adjusted the camera by opening the aperture 1/3 of a stop and shot the next set of shots (figure 15).

In these results figures we compare the first shot we made with the OctoDome only (figure 14) and the OctoDome with grids only (figure 15). We can clearly see how the addition of the grids have added the control we were looking for; we have all but eliminated the light falling on the background in Figure 15.

To get our contrast control back in shape we set the fill light and LitePanel assembly back into place, then made the fine-tuning adjustments to the position to properly fill the subject (figure 16).

With the fill and grid assembly back in place we posed our subject again and shot the next set of results images (figure 18).

Figure 17 shows an example from the shots taken with the key light with grids only. Notice how even after adding a fill in figure 18, the contrasts have been remedied, and by using grids, the background still remained unlit.

Our last action for this lesson was to add a set of grids to the hair light and set it back into position (figures 19 and 20).

With the hair light and grids back in position, we shot the final images for our lesson (figure 22).

The hair light with grids can still brighten her hair without brightening the background. This results in very good separation between the background and the model's hair. The effect is a photo with better definition and contrast.

Figures 23 and 24 show a comparison between our full lighting solution without grids (figure 23) and the same lighting with grids attached (figure 24).

Notice how the darker background results in better definition and contrast for our image.

Grids can offer great control over light output direction. As this lesson shows, this can be very important when photographing in confined spaces where the subject is close to the background.

Consider using grids when you need to light only what you want to light.