Spilling Light

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Fred Funk - 12 Aug 2005 20:55 GMT

All,
I am new to studio photography and was experimenting with my new strobe
lights. I am trying to take a portrait of a person against a black
background and from my main light set at 45 degrees I get a lot of
light spill onto the background. If I move the light closer (1ft) it
helps but I still have spillage. If I move it futher away (8ft) the
spillage is worse. I have a strope with a 5in shield. I tryed an
umbrella but that made the light softer and larger. I have run out of
ideas. I know this is something simple but I just can't get the light
to only go on the subject. Do most people use grids? Can I shot with
a black background and have minimal spillage using just a 5in shield
and an umbrella?

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Randall Ainsworth - 13 Aug 2005 02:56 GMT

> All,
> I am new to studio photography and was experimenting with my new strobe
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> a black background and have minimal spillage using just a 5in shield
> and an umbrella?

Barn doors go a long way if you're using parabolics. Otherwise, the
best you can do is use some feathering. You don't want the lights just
blaring straight at the subject...the best light is when you use the
cone regardless of the type of light. You turn the light slightly
toward the camera, away from the subject so you're just using the edge
of the light.

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zeitgeist - 13 Aug 2005 09:13 GMT

> I am new to studio photography and was experimenting with my new strobe
> lights. I am trying to take a portrait of a person against a black
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> a black background and have minimal spillage using just a 5in shield
> and an umbrella?

move the subject away from the background. 6 feet is ideal.

barndoor, or just hang a black flag, pin a sheet of cardboard to the ceiling
to scrim off the light from hitting the background.

but, are you shooting with the camera set on auto? sometimes it 'sees' all
that black and freaks, trys to give you a medium gray, the only thing it
understands.

if you are shooting film, then the printer will average the entire image and
give you a washed out background along with an overly bright face.

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Keith Tapscott - 13 Aug 2005 13:05 GMT

I would have thought that if strobe/flash lighting was used, then a
flashmeter to take an incident reading would be used and transfered to the
camera, using it in manual exposure mode.

>> I am new to studio photography and was experimenting with my new strobe
>> lights. I am trying to take a portrait of a person against a black
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
> and
> give you a washed out background along with an overly bright face.

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Fred Funk - 17 Aug 2005 05:36 GMT

> I would have thought that if strobe/flash lighting was used, then a
> flashmeter to take an incident reading would be used and transfered
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> > image and give you a washed out background along with an overly
> > bright face.

Guys,
I place some black paper around the strobe to tighten the cone of light
and that worked great. It allowed me to feather the light of the cone
on the subject and not on the background. This was done by turning the
light towards the camera. This was a two light set up. However, in
doing this I did not get a cat eye in the subject's eyes which does
give the pictures an errie effect. Any suggestions to get this cat eye
into the shot?

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Tom Hudson - 19 Aug 2005 16:30 GMT

> Guys,
> I place some black paper around the strobe to tighten the cone of light
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> give the pictures an errie effect. Any suggestions to get this cat eye
> into the shot?

I'm assuming you mean catch-light rather than cat-eye?
In that case it's just a matter of placing something bright and
large/close enough somewhere that it will reflect off the eyes into the
camera. In the case above, the main problem you're going to have is
catching the eyes without lighting the background.
The simplest method I can think of would be just placing an A4 sheet of
paper somewhere around (preferably also above) the camera so it's lit by
the studio lights.
From the description you give it should be small enough to not cause
significant reflected lighting but large and bright enough to reflect in
the eyes. If there's too much reflected light try making it smaller.
Let me know how it goes, I'm interested to hear.

Tom

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