Overhead: hard or soft? - CanPhoto Forums - Professional Canadian Photography Discussions

Stephen_Caissie · Aug 14/11, 07:12 AM

I'm doing a shoot for a flautist this coming Thursday for an album cover. His concept is to create a night scene in blue tones in front of a brick wall. He wants to have a light high up on the wall to mimic a security light. I'm planning to use one strobe in a 5-foot octobox as on-axis fill, have a second strobe boomed high up on the wall and slightly out of frame to make his security light, and probably a third light coming in from 90º camera left or right for rim lighting (flagged off so that it doesn't show on the wall or flare into the camera). My question is this: for the boomed light, would it be better to keep it small and hard, or should I put it in a softbox?

Peter Wm. Richardson · Aug 14/11, 05:06 PM

Stephen:
It would depend upon the look you are trying to achieve. Real security lights are often tight and hard, but they can often be more like a street light as well, depending on the intent of the light. For example, is it to light an area to serve as a safe haven area, or is it to spotlight something that is to be watched over. The former would tend to be broad and diffused, the latter harder.
Cheers,
Peter
Peter Wm. Richardson
Photojournalist
peterw@journalist.com

andrewr · Aug 15/11, 08:29 AM

Hi Stephen,

Your description makes me think of this Sonny Rollins cover (later copied by Joe Jackson). It's very low key with no background details, but has that cool night time, stage or street light effect. My inclination would be to go with a hard overhead source for the key light and then use the octobox to control the shadows and perhaps throw some light on the background.

Stephen_Caissie · Aug 23/11, 07:16 AM

I really love that stage-lit jazz image. I might keep that in mind for a future project. In this case, the client definitely wanted something that looked more like an urban setting, with the wall pretty visible behind him. I ended up using a small softbox boomed about 7 feet up, so while it's not super-hard, it's also not soft and dreamy, either. I'll try to post something to the flickr pool once the client has made his final select, and you guys can tell me what I did wrong.

Aug 14/11, 07:12 AM	#1
Stephen_Caissie Member Stephen Caissie Toronto Last Online: Apr 25/13 Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 69	Overhead: hard or soft? I'm doing a shoot for a flautist this coming Thursday for an album cover. His concept is to create a night scene in blue tones in front of a brick wall. He wants to have a light high up on the wall to mimic a security light. I'm planning to use one strobe in a 5-foot octobox as on-axis fill, have a second strobe boomed high up on the wall and slightly out of frame to make his security light, and probably a third light coming in from 90º camera left or right for rim lighting (flagged off so that it doesn't show on the wall or flare into the camera). My question is this: for the boomed light, would it be better to keep it small and hard, or should I put it in a softbox?

Aug 23/11, 07:16 AM	#4
Stephen_Caissie Member Stephen Caissie Toronto Last Online: Apr 25/13 Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 69	Jazzy look I really love that stage-lit jazz image. I might keep that in mind for a future project. In this case, the client definitely wanted something that looked more like an urban setting, with the wall pretty visible behind him. I ended up using a small softbox boomed about 7 feet up, so while it's not super-hard, it's also not soft and dreamy, either. I'll try to post something to the flickr pool once the client has made his final select, and you guys can tell me what I did wrong.