From The Shoots Issue 3

Welcome to issue No.3.

In this post I’ll be going through the lighting and set up from a recent shoot with actor Danny Cunningham.

Danny’s a great actor and good friend of mine, he’s done loads of TV and film including Coronation Street, Alan Partridge and played Shaun Ryder in the movie twenty Four Hour Party People to name just a few.

I’ve shot quite a few head shots for him over the years and he’s always happy to go with my suggestions, the attached image and lighting diagram shows a set up that creates split lighting, this is a very popular lighting pattern in film and television and can create as little or as much drama as you require.

This shot of Danny is very dramatic and allowing the unlit side of the face to fall into deep shadow creating a strong portrait. A single 3 foot RFI Profoto octa box was used on camera right with a Profoto B1X flash head and for those who are interested the camera settings were, ISO 50, F11 and 1/1000th sec, shot into Capture One Pro and a simple black and white conversion and it’s done.

In the coming issues I’ll be showing some new and old work that incorporates the lighting set ups that I use the most, these include loop lighting and Rembrandt light patterns for fashion advertising and editorial shoots. whereas on beauty and cosmetics I’d use a couple of different lighting patterns including paramount which in my studio has many variations, from a single gridded beauty dish or small soft box to huge parabolic umbrellas shooting though 2 and 3 metre scrims to create the ultimate in soft light, it really is amazing what you can do with different modifiers in the studio and on location.

Photo gear used, Phase One XF with IQ3 100 megapixel digital back and 80mm f2.8 Schneider blue ring leaf shutter lens.

Thanks for reading and as always any questions get in touch?

All the best,

Stevieroy