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Technique Camera Technique Urs Recher: Light Lessons
Technique Camera Technique Urs Recher: Light Lessons
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Light Lessons
A master of technique walks us through a series of situations and explains how to craft illumination
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Place the big area light (1) as low as possible. Your light gets very soft and nicely graduated with a heavy falloff toward the legs. The scene can be filled in differently, but only a Para FB (defocused) shapes the body this perfectly. The camera was rather low, about as high as the model’s knees. The result was an elegant, tall body. Using a large aperture (ƒ/8) avoided visible structure (like footprints and crinkles) on the background, as it was far out of focus.
A remote-controlled Grafit A4 was used to feed the Cumulite. The second one was for the Para FB.
 2 | Camera Format: Medium-format with digital back Resolution/ISO: 22 MP/ISO 50 Focal Length: 120mm Shutter Speed: 1⁄125 sec. ƒ-stop: ƒ/8 |  | 1) Cumulite 2 (if not available, use a Pulsoflex C 150x150cm) as the main light 2) Para 220 FB, defocused as a fill-in 3) P65 normal reflector with honeycomb grids on a Pulso G lamp base for the bright spot on the background 4) Dark gray background paper 5) Low table (30cm), covered with the same background paper 6) Camera M) Model |
Image 3
For this completely diffused portrait, the solution wasn’t an indirect illumination, but a huge softbox and a reflector placed very close to the model.
In addition, I chose to place the light shaper below the model and the reflector above her to ensure that I got enough light in the eyes and under the chin and nose. (This technique should only be used with very soft and diffused lights, however.)
As I have only one reflector but no active light shaper above the model, an additional Pulsoflex EM 30x110cm was used as a hair light.
The lights were very close to the model—a powerpack with a large power range had to be used. A Grafit A2 was the best choice in this situation.
 3 | Camera Format: Medium-format with digital back Resolution/ISO: 16 MP/ISO 50 Focal Length: 120mm Shutter Speed: 1⁄125 sec. ƒ-stop: ƒ/11 |  | 1) Pulsoflex C on a Pulso G lamp base 2) Pulsoflex EM on a Unilite lamp base 3) P65 reflector on a Pulso G lamp base 4) White background paper 5) Polystyrene wall 6) Camera M) Model |
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