Joel Barhamand

Minimalightist

Having worked as a lighting assistant for over six dozen photographers, I have seen enough lighting set-ups it makes my mind melt.  I have worked with some of the best photographers and assistants, the biggest crews and by myself, worked out of one shoulder bag and out of cube trucks packed to the ceiling, in a studio and on location. However, I am a minimalist at heart.  A great picture can be made using the sun, your 35mm flash, or a simple two light kit.  I hope that I can share with you some knowledge I have gained and some tips and tricks to help make your next shoot a more freeing experience. One where you're not worrying about intricate lighting set-ups and are instead able to concentrate on getting your next great shot.

Photo School (you can ignore this if you went to one):
Before we can dive into lighting examples we have to talk about a few basic concepts behind lighting. 

Ratios:
The secret to successful and repeatable lighting is in the ratios.  When you understand lighting ratios you can recreate nearly anything you see in a magazine, or repeat your own successful set-ups.

Lighting ratios are always expressed in regards to the key light (main light source) as it relates to the fill or shadow areas.  When you double a ratio you are adding a one-stop change between the highlights and shadows.  So a 1:1 ratio means the shadows are completely filled with light and are the same exposure as the key light side.  A 2:1 ratio means the shadow side is one stop darker than your key light (half as bright to your eye balls, which if you don't have a light meter can be trained to guesstimate).  A 4:1 ratio would mean there is a two stop difference (four times darker to your eyeballs), 8:1 would be a three stop difference (eight times darker) etc. etc. etc. 

For those that have never used a light meter whether that be built in to your camera or hand held, I would encourage you to invest in one or at the very least start paying attention to your cameras. 

"Silo" (aka "knock out," "cut out", "white seamless") is an industry term for images shot against a seamless white background. Unlike a traditional silhouette, the subject is lit, and the benefit of the silo is that the subject can be easily extracted from the background for a myriad of uses.


Photo by Greg Lawler / #PSC000208519

Setting up a White Seamless
Shooting a subject on a white seamless background is a great way to produce stock photography because a designer can easily drop type around the subject, or extract the subject and composite a new photo.  Unfortunately, setting up a white seamless shot usually requires a minimum of three lights (two on the background and one for the subject - aka the key light), so an initial investment in strobes is necessary to produce this type of shot. Here's a quick and dirty primer.

Equipment list:

• Minimum of 2 strobes for the background
• 1 strobe as the key light
  
• Light meter
  
• White background

For the strobes, you can use anything from a hotshoe flash to high end strobe equipment. The Strobist has tons of examples of shooting very cool, commercial quality images using flashes that cost a few hundred bucks. You can also invest in high end equipment like the Profoto Acute, but it's certainly not necessary. The main difference in equipment is 1) amount of light (usually represented as guide number on hotshoe flashes, or the inaccurate watt/sec on strobe systems), 2) flash duration (only relevant if you're shooting something fast moving and want to freeze the action (like an athlete in motion), 3) recharge rate, and 4) consistency of color temperature. If you're shooting portraits or still life, then a flash will suffice in most cases.

I use a Sekonic L-358 light meter, but any light meter with a flash mode will work. A light meter that only has an incident/ambient mode will not work for this type of photography.

What is white seamless?
You can buy large rolls of paper in a variety of colors for use as a background. The size of the rolls ranges from 10" wide to 140" wide. Some photographers custom order fabric backgrounds or even build cycloramas.

Photographers in the field will use tape to affix pieces of paper to a wall when they need a neutral background, or they will various rigging devices.