More Behind-The-Scenes Looks At Photoshoots

More Behind-The-Scenes Looks At Photoshoots

by William Lulow

In the last article, I described a commercial shoot I did a few years ago and I wanted to expound a bit further on doing these types of assignments and the process of learning how to do them. When you know some of the basic principles of lighting and specifically, studio lighting, you can learn a lot by watching another pro go about it. When you have studied enough to be able to tell what the photographer is doing and why, you will gain great insights into how to do it yourself. Here’s an example of what I mean:

Many years ago, when I was examining new techniques for doing location assignments, (I already knew a fair amount about studio lighting and how to control it), I was interested in how I could apply my knowledge to make the process a bit simpler and easier to execute. I saw an article about a photographer who was shooting a cover for one of the big, commercial magazines. He had three assistants and each was holding a portable, or battery-powered speedlight. Actually, these lights were what we call “monolights” because they have the flash generator built-in to the heads themselves and can be battery-powered or plugged into a power source. Here’s an example of one:

There are some disadvantages to these for the everyday, working pro, but by and large they are handy to use. One of the major disadvantages is that if they need to be repaired for any reason, the whole unit will be down including the generator. With a separate generator, if the head goes down, just the head would need to be repaired.

So, without a lot of trouble, the photographer could position his assistants, again, each holding a light, wherever he thought the lights should be to create the effects he wanted. This is a technique I have used since then, usually with my other battery-powered speedlights. Here’s an example:

This image was made in San Jose, California with two portable lights. One was on the camera providing the main light and the other (providing the highlight on the left), was a small, battery-powered speedlight being held by one of the couple’s sons.

Using assistants or other humans to hold your lights is certainly a lot simpler than having to set your lights on stands and running extension cords like I did for the assignment in the airplane hangar (previous blog article). But, with assistants getting $400 per day these days, it can be a lot more expensive. So, if three assistants will cost you $1200 per day, you need to make sure your fees for the shoot cover the expenses.

I also saw a video of an Annie Liebovitz shoot on location at a beach. (It is available on YouTube). She literally had a cast of about 15 – 20 people, several of whom were holding portable lights with umbrellas, etc. Having done many setups like this in the studio, I could tell exactly what she was doing and how she was making her images. She knew all the working distances for the lights to keep exposures consistent. Otherwise, if lights are moving all the time, you constantly have to take readings to make sure they are correct. One of her assistants was constantly taking readings with a flash meter. So, whenever you switch from studio shoots to location shoots, you have to be mindful of the same rules of lighting that apply in both instances. Again, if you know your basic lighting and how it works, you can learn a lot just by observing how another pro goes about it.

Well, as a working photographer, I often have clients who don’t have big, advertising budgets, so I have to be able to adjust my techniques a bit. Here was a shoot I have spoken about before, but it allowed me to use my portable lighting on location for a fashion show:

Here you can see the position of my lights. Each one was on a stand, out of the way of any of the action. (No expensive assistants here!) They would be cropped out of the scene either during the shoot or in post. There was also a light on my camera which was bounced into a large reflector to provide overall mainlight. Here is one of the images I obtained using this setup:

Notice how the lights added the accents to the model as well as brought up the light level of the background itself. The lights in this case, were serving two purposes. They were mounted on their stands and used without any modifiers, so they spread much of the light over a wider area. These are things you can do if you are aware of how light from speedlights works. The other thing to notice here, if you study how light works, is that since the lights on the sides were used “raw,” without any diffusion and the light on the camera was bounced into a reflector, this assured that the accents would be about one f/stop brighter than the main and thus would reproduce as white highlights in the image. (Note the effect on the hair and the sleeves of the model).

And here is yet another look:

This was a magazine cover shoot on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. My wife was actually holding the off-camera light. Here is the actual image used for the cover (not the exact same location, but with the same lighting setup, nonetheless:

So, the take-away from this article is that once you are aware of the techniques of lighting and how to apply it, there are many things you can learn from behind-the-scenes views and/or videos. They are really only helpful once you know your basic techniques. Then you can see how other photographers use them and are able to come up with your own solutions to lighting situations.