I love using back-alley stairs to create images for High School Seniors. The only drawback is that most of the time the light in these edgy areas is not very good. To help create beautiful light and control the darkness of the background, I use off camera flash (OCF). My lights of choice are a MoLight 360 and AD200.
The reason I love using MoLights is that I can shoot HSS (high-speed sync) and they put out a ton of light in a small, lightweight design. High-Speed Sync allows me to shoot wide open, in most cases f1.4 so I get soft, creamy bokeh that looks like natural light in areas where I can't use natural light.
I have the AD200 behind the senior to create an edge light on her hair set to manual at 1/16th power. Make sure that your edge light doesn't "spill" light across her face and only lights her hair.
The Fill light is a MoLight 360 set to TTL with -1 Flash exposure compensation. I always turn down the Flash exposure compensation so that my images don't have such a harsh flash look to them. The light is placed about 45 degrees to camera right and 45 degrees up from the subject. The car in the way didn't allow us to get the light in the perfect location as you can see by the catchlights her eyes but it is close enough. Many times I see photographers have the light too low. A good rule of thumb is to have the catchlights at 10 or 2 o'clock position in the eyes for good portrait light. Of course, rules can be broken but if you are just learning light, that is a safe way to start. I tend to 'feather" the light as well. I do this by raising the light and not pointing or angling it at my subject.
12 Comments
Nov 8, 2024, 8:21:27 AM
Milton Velez - I own both these lights and have used this exact set up numerous times. Lately I have considered buying a 600 Watt light for situations where the 360 just isn't enough power in bright midday sunlight. Nice image BTW...
Jun 8, 2020, 10:17:07 AM
Nancy - thanks for the pullback...soo valuable...One question if your doing several locations - walking around and have like 6 other places to shoot...how do you handle moving the stands around...I don't have an assistant...do you ?? I even drive to other locations and the stands, wind etc...just really drive me nuts to deal with -what is your process on this ??
Mar 27, 2019, 9:51:10 AM
Dan Frievalt - The light you see from the BTS shot is from the sun bouncing off the wall. The catch light is created with the 360 that is placed to the right of her.
Mar 27, 2019, 9:46:22 AM
Michael Stahl - I'm a little confused about the catch light in the upper right of her eye. It looks like the main light is from the left.
Mar 27, 2019, 8:55:49 AM
Dan Frievalt - I use a speedlight adapter to mount the gig to the light stand. Here is the link: https://gomolight.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=27. Personally, I would go with the 2-AD200s or the 400 over the 600. I feel the 600 is super top heavy and I don't need that much power. https://gomolight.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1_32
Mar 13, 2019, 11:58:04 AM
Lana Akin - Hi, thanx so much for all the details! What did you use to mount this set up on the stand? Do you suggest getting the Flashpoint 600PRO instead? Bigger and costs a little more, is it worth it? Also, what is the life of the battery per shoot? TIA
Nov 6, 2018, 10:10:29 AM
Joanne Luciani - Wow, Dan! Thank you so much for this information! For all of us beginners, it's priceless! So many times, photographers will show you their final results, but beginners have no clue how they got there. This is fantastic! Please keep blogging these! My cart is ready to go at Gomolights!
Oct 15, 2018, 10:21:50 AM
Nathan Tsukroff - Love this piece of knowledge! We've been using OCF for more than 35 years, and your guidance is right on the money!
Apr 17, 2018, 11:58:07 AM
Heidi - Thank you for the fabulous info!! I just bought two of the ad200’s and an AB600. Now I need to learn how to use them lol.
Apr 17, 2018, 11:58:07 AM
Heidi - Thank you for the fabulous info!! I just bought two of the ad200’s and an AB600. Now I need to learn how to use them lol.
Apr 9, 2018, 5:29:30 PM
Mike - Love the AD200 or Adrama eVOLV 200 light have two of them now and look at getting more!
Apr 9, 2018, 11:42:53 AM
Melissa Kelly - I loved that you shared this. Thank you for always be a great source of knowledge to our community.