articles/Lighting/bigdog-page4

Rolling with the BIG Dog - part 4 of 1 2 3 4 5

by Damian McGillicuddy Published 01/10/2013

The contrast in this image is controlled by adding a second Hedler to camera-left. This unit is fitted with a white shoot-through umbrella, creating a soft, low contrast wrapping fill. The mission of this light is not to effect the direction of light in the image but to raise the density of the shadow detail in the frame so my densest black is tonally where I place it in the image.

The thing that I LOVE about the Hedler, being continuous lights, is the fact that creatively they 'speed me up' - being on all the time the visual feedback is instant and that gives me more freedom in building a multi-light set-up once the base exposure is calculated because you can see the effect the fill light has for example ... perhaps it's making me a little lazy, who knows or cares as long as my client is happy with the finished result ;0)

A little pro tip here is the fact that I'm slightly over exposing my image by opening my aperture up by about 2/3 of a stop. We have already determined that this is a harsher, sharper, edgier image by styling, model selection, background, propping and pose so the over-exposure just serves to increase contrast and make the skin smoother, a little bleached and slightly shiny in the placement of specular highlights. By doing this I also destroy the pore structure and texture in the skin and reduce the time spent on my skin retouching routine - bonus!

• Rolling with the BIG Dog page 1
  
• Rolling with the BIG Dog page 2
  
• Rolling with the BIG Dog page 3
  
• Rolling with the BIG Dog page 4
  
• Rolling with the BIG Dog page 5
  

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