High key lighting

James and Kate Taylor had me do some shots of them last month on New Years day. With this shoot I wanted to do some high-key lighting, meaning soft/no shadows and a low lighting ratio. To achieve this, I had to use at least 3 lights to light the entire scene.

For this setting I used 4 lights. A Key light, a fill light, and two back lights. For my key light, I used a large octodome to light the subject's face. With the large octodome it gave me a large lighting source and a nice soft light (creating soft shadows). The fill light, I used a small softbox (just to soften in the shadows on the other side of the face. The two back light I just used a two strobes with shoot-through umbrellas and pointed them to the white back drop. The two strobes overexposed my white back drop by two stops which I wanted to do to create for the high key light.

Lens I used for this shoot:
Nikon 105mm f/2
Nikon 85mm f/1.8 (my favorite lens)
Nikon 24-85mm f/3.5-5.6

Camera: Nikon D200

Here's the lighting diagram for the shoot:


Here's the actual studio set-up:


Results!!!


Specs:
Lens: 85mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/80 sec @ f/11


Specs:
Lens: 24-85mm @ 24mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec @ f/11


Specs:
Lens: 85mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec @ f/10

I also did a couple of shots with one light (the octodome) and a medium grey back drop. Creating well define shadows and more dramatic lighting. You can see the grey back drop next to the white back drop.

Results!!!


Specs:
Lens: 105mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec @ f/10



Specs:
Lens: 85mm
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec @ f/11

Make sure to check out my Flickr page to see more of the photos from this shoot.

Video pick:
Punching In a Dream by The Naked and Famous. I've been digging this song for the last couple of days.