A soft, warm light source with strong falloff

[Markler999]

 

Hello everyone,

Im looking to create something similar to the reference image.

I’d like the lighting to feel soft and warm on the skin, with some falloff and contrast.

The plan is to shoot this in slow motion, probably around 80–120 fps.

I came across a YouTube video featuring a relatively inexpensive LED fixture called the GVM Ziptile Z200B.

It doesn’t quite achieve this look, but it seemed like it could still work.

Would you have any suggestions on how to light this nicely?

Many thanks

 

 

Topic

[csmartinez]

Something that could be done is doing a book light, meaning your source goes into a bounce, and then goes through silk or cloth, so your source is in the middle of these. I’ve used a 6×6 for this on a subject and it has worked nicely. Remember that what determines a lights softness is its size relative to the subject.

[csmartinez]

I remembered something else I should of said. Using some sort of negative fill would help with the shadows, like a 4×4 flag, or any black fabric I think.

[Markler999]

I was actually looking into exactly that, what light source would you recommend for the book light?

I was thinking maybe an ARRI tungsten bounced into Ultra Bounce or Griffolyn, with a Full Silk in front.

OR an LED or HMI source with some yellow/orange Lee filters for warmth.

However, the main thing for this look to work though, is the strong contrast with the right half falling off into shadow. How would I need my book light to be to get such a nice contrast? That’s also why I also considered something like a Kino Flo 4 Bank with a grid attached as I would assume the falloff could be nice. But I never really loved Kinoflo’s and I would assume in the reference its for sure something different.

[csmartinez]

Easiest would probably be LED, set warmer than what your cameras set at.

For that strong contrast, a 4×4 flag would help, to bring in more shadow and control spill that could show up from the book light (negative fill). Set it on the shadow side of the subject.

[dmullenasc]

Break it down…

Fall-off rate: get the light as close to the subject as possible because the fall-off rate becomes less steep the further away a light it (inverse square law).

Warmth: use a light that has a color temperature lower than what the camera is set for.

Softness: the larger the source relative to the subject, the softer the shadows. A bounce surface or a diffusion frame is the source in this case, not the light hitting it.

Besides those three things, you have angle of the light (in this case, from the side and slightly low) and the contrast (in this case, no fill and maybe negative fill as well, combined with the fast fall-off, combined with your camera’s gamma settings and black level for display/conversion from log/raw.)

[dmullenasc]

I would add that you can tell it is a very large soft light close to her because the shadows are almost horizontal so it is eye level and yet she is looking down and you can still see the light reflected in her eyes — which suggests a soft light that is almost her height.

[Markler999]

Thanks for the replies! That sounds good. I’ll try using a large soft light close to the model, along with some negative fill on the right side, perhaps using a floppy. I may also add some black drape on the floor.

[Author]

Replies