How-to Fashion Lighting in Studio

[jlau]

Hey all,


I have a few questions about studio lighting. I generally work with natural light and whatever I have at home but I have an intent to rent a studio for a few hours to do a shoot. So I need your help.


I am trying to achieve this type of lighting:


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_m_3PqTnwV8k/S0egx5G1o6I/AAAAAAAAOFs/DuVxTLU18Q8/s1600-h/Tao+Okamoto+-+V63+Spring+2010.jpg


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_m_3PqTnwV8k/Sx1bmV-3PEI/AAAAAAAAN-s/tOCdLgT2a5M/s1600-h/Liu+Wen+-+Alexander+Wang+Pre-Fall+2010+-+1.JPG


Completely white background with little to no shadow from the model. The studio will have both flash and continuous lighting though I would MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer continous. Any suggestions in terms of how to shoot would be a nice bonus. I use 7d+17-55.


Thanks in advance <3

[crosbyharbison]

If you don't want shadows make your light source as large as possible.

[Fred Doane]

I can't view your particular samples here at wrok but in general high key lighting is done with two lights on the background that are metered two stops brighter then the subject (ie if your subject meters at f8 your background should meter at f16). You won't have any shadows if you do that. Of course you will still need morestrobes or continous lightsto light your subject.

Fred~

[Madison]

What Fred says.





Small tip: look at shadows in photographs. You can see where the lights were positioned, how hard of soft they were (aka if they use modifiers like soft boxes or not) and you can tell how high they were positioned.


If you get access to high-res pictures you can even tell what the lighting setup for the main subjects was from looking at the catch lights in the eyes (provided they were not retouched, something some photographers do in postprocessing).

[Madison]

Ps: The look you are trying to achieve cannot be achieved with continuous light. At all. You need much more light on that background. Plus: continuous light for fashion photography is not recommended. Your models will melt, so to speak.