This was shot of one of Vivien Westwoods wedding gowns was taken in the dinning room at the Grosvenor House Hotel Park Lane London.
There was lovely daylight comming in through the windows that were not so clean and partly diffussed with frosted areas on them.
Just using the daylight would have meant burned out high lights and heavy shadows. I had 2 options for shooting here, 1 could use reflectors to bounce light onto my model but this would have been limiting for the other shots I was taking that day showing the whole room, so I decided the best method was to use some bounced fill-in flash.
I took my exposure reading from the high light of the shot, set my aperture and shutter speed to this setting, i seam to remember it was 15th sec at F5.6. (S....t tripod time, hate them) To achieve good fill-in flash I had to bounce a 500watt flash head of the walls to the right of my model and up high onto the ceiling/wall, which were white. (if walls you bounce of are coloured this will put a cast on your shot).
The power of this flash was set to give me a reading of f2.8 to f2.8 and a half, so my fill-in to daylight ratio was set to give me flash exposure 1.5 to 2 stops less than the high light reading given by the daylight.
That's a nice homework assignment, Bruce. Inspiring model and result. Vivien Westwood, as I remember (from when I lived in London for 10 years in the 70s and 80s,) was a punk doyen. That's a nicely mellow classic gown.
Just using the daylight would have meant burned out high lights and heavy shadows. I had 2 options for shooting here, 1 could use reflectors to bounce light onto my model but this would have been limiting for the other shots I was taking that day showing the whole room, so I decided the best method was to use some bounced fill-in flash.
I agree with this method...I utilize it all the time. Even very subtly used can be all the difference.
Bruce - I think that you would be a great person to prepare tutorials on lighting (it seems to be your baby!). Dragging the shutter is something that I need to understand better to balance fore- and back-grounds.
For a subject as important as lighting, it is amazing that there are only a couple of tutorials on DPC.
PS - when are you going to start submitting some challenge entries? - no excuses!!
Bruce - I think that you would be a great person to prepare tutorials on lighting (it seems to be your baby!). Dragging the shutter is something that I need to understand better to balance fore- and back-grounds.
For a subject as important as lighting, it is amazing that there are only a couple of tutorials on DPC.
PS - when are you going to start submitting some challenge entries? - no excuses!!
Lighting splits the men from the boys OHH and the woman from the girls.
The more you learn the more you find you need to learn.
Keep an eye on DPCHALLENGE. I will put tips up from time to time.
pick out shots that you want to know how I lit them post the image on her and Ill tell you how they were done.
Bruce
Hey Bruce,
Old thread but really like the stuff on your site.
I love this one ...
Could you speak to what was involved with that one, pretty standard studio setup?
Also would like to hear more about using the natural "window" light in conjuction with some fill or reflectors.
My favorite light is the "gobo-ized" light through the windows/blinds/fence etc. but because of the extreme ev range it is a tough one to pull off sometimes.
Sunlight coming in from subject rear right, strobe with standard reflector from subject left front. Used a CP, metered my light so it was about 1.5 stops above ambient. Final exposure f/4.5 1/250 ISO100.
