Hello everyone!

Very exciting times here at The Mindful Eye – New day, new site , new feature section, and a new contributor. I am most grateful for the opportunity to work with Craig on this exciting endeavor and look forward to the journey with each and every one of you.
 

So, the first big question for me is where do I start? The “Art of Lighting”, after all, is fairly comprehensive. Should I start at the beginning and cover a basic topic and logically progress over time? Or, should I jump right in and cover a complex lighting setup certain to “wow and amaze”? Well I’ve decided to start right smack dab in the middle. The Three Little Bears comes to mind and hopefully you’ll find this first article “just right”!
 

Of course, over time, we’ll fill in all the gaps and cover the full gamut but my intentions with this first article are really two fold. First, I want to give you an idea of the type of content and general format I intend to provide and to seek feedback from you in that regard. I will typically show an image and a diagram depicting the lighting setup used for the shot. I’ll speak to both the image(s) and lighting diagram in the article body. When possible, I will include behind the scenes video as well.
 

My second intention, and this will be an ongoing one, is to simply inspire, motivate, and encourage you to go out there and put some lighting to work to improve your imagery. When it comes to artificial lighting, my goal will often be to simply arm you with inspiration and enough information that you are able to go creatively experiment on you own and not be intimidated by the seeming complexity of it all.
 

I’ll definitely cover some technical terms and concepts that, if you are new to lighting, will be foreign to you at this point. Again, I promise we’ll fill in those gaps for you over time. If you don’t understand something, please use the forums, Fundamental feature of the new site, and of course feel free to email me at any time.
 

So, enough of the setup . . . let’s get on with looking at our first images and exploring the lighting I used to achieve them.

My first several articles will likely deal with the same model shot at the same location on the same day but in a variety of setups. This first setup is called “Knockout”. The subject, Abby, is an aspiring model from Atlanta and this was her first shoot ever. The goal was to create a number of “looks” in one day such that she could start to put together a comp card and model portfolio/book.
 

The first item I want to discuss is the “studio”. In this case, the “studio” is simply the home of Abby’s aunt and uncle. No fancy, high-rent professional digs required . . . just a typical home that nearly all of us have routine access to. I have a studio but much prefer to create a studio on the go and shoot on locations where my subject is comfortable, particularly in the case of a new model or and everyday person. The whole studio setup can be very intimidating to the average person and just creates another obstacle to overcome to get authentic images. Not to belabor the point, I just want you to get past thinking that you must have a studio to “shoot like a pro” or put lighting to use. That’s a senseless roadblock that we need to immediately eliminate.
 

OK, so let’s talk about this setup conceptually. Abby brought a diverse selection of apparel. I always try to go through the apparel with models as it makes for a great opportunity to connect with them, gain their trust and confidence, build rapport, and to start thinking about color design. In this case, Abby had a yellow bikini that had a little emblem on it that reminded me of the Everlast boxing logo. One of my assistants came up with the idea to add gloves to the mix and quickly he was off to the local sporting goods store.
 

A quick meet with the makeup artist about the concept and Abby was off with her. I was now free to set about designing the lighting strategy. When it comes to lighting, you have to slow down, have a plan, and shoot with some intention. This can often be a major first hurdle in learning to work with lighting. These amazing digital cameras have given us the freedom to fire off shots on a whim and at whatever pace we can muster. “Spary and pray” mentality sets in. As I say all the time to myself when I’m shooting and to my students when I’m teaching, “SLOW DOWN”!
 

OK, so back to the lighting design . . .
 

I quickly decided that I wanted the appearance of those classic boxing photographs you see with the dark smoky room (no smoke allowed but that’s another story), the ring lights backlighting the fighters, and harsh front light typically from an on-camera flash. My only real concern was keeping the light softer on the face than that classic image I had in my mind.
 With this concept in mind, I simply looked around the house until I found a place where I had soft, diffuse ambient light coming in through windows. We also found a bedspread with a black under-surface to provide the “dark room”. Next, I needed a backlight source. In order to achieve this, I introduced the first, (and hopefully only) artificial light to the setup. I introduced a single light with a grid-spot directly behind Abby. The grid spot simply focuses the light and confines the spread to her hair and back.  Her body blocked the light from camera’s view. I metered and adjusted the backlight a stop or two above the ambient light coming in from the windows and fired a few test shots.

 

 

No good! My ambient light just wasn’t intense enough to get enough light in the room for me to shoot at a working aperture and ISO that was desirable. It was also a little flat and muddy. I wanted Abby to move so I needed strobe to stop motion too. All of these factors called for another light.
 

Remember, we’re working with a model, not a boxer here, so I wanted soft, flattering light. This situation begged for a medium size (2’x3’) soft box, which I placed just to camera left and slightly above her eye level in order to get a little dimensionality to it. I still wanted a relatively shallow depth of field so I dialed my ISO down to eliminate noise and then picked a working aperture of f/4. I metered the soft box key light at f/4 and brought the grid spotted backlight up a stop or two to around f/8. This gave me the look I was going for.
 

Now it was time to get Abby into the role. All of that conceptual work and lighting design goes to waste if you can’t connect and communicate with the model. Role-playing is a great way to get things moving in the right direction. So, we laced up the gloves and introduced her father to the mix as a punching bag. What teenage girl doesn’t want an opportunity to punch old Dad for a bit?! This did the trick. She had a blast. We got great, natural, effortless expressions that were full of energy and enthusiasm. I still wanted a “beauty shot” out of the setup, so toward the end of the setup, I asked Abby to break out of the role-playing and just focus on the camera. Her eyes were still on fire with the adrenaline from playing the boxing role and laughing and punching her father. I simply directed her to keep the same intensity, purse her lips, and brush her hair back with the glove. She nailed the look . . . Click . . . I nailed the shot . . . “that’s a wrap”. We were on to the next concept and setup. 

Check out the video below of the shoot.