One light, no backdrop

[Sebastian]

This is how I set up the lighting for my "Guitarist" shot over in critique. (view it here)

One Alien Bee 800 with my 54 cent snoot (black poster board) pointed at the subject sitting in the chair. Kept moving the light until I had the profile I wanted, slightly rotated the guitar to get the light on the features I wanted, and fired off a few frames.

No background was used, the flash was so much brighter than the ambient light that none of it showed in the exposure. The shot was taken at ISO 100, 1/250, f/22.

The snoot wasn't to guide the light, it was to keep it from spilling all through the room and filling in shadows. I also had a black reflector ready behind the subject's head to catch any potential spill, but it ended up not being necessary.

This required very little space and no more than one strobe, a stand and a piece of poster board.

Guitarist

[Asylum Steve]

Perfect example of using low tech to achieve high results...

The snoot wasn't to guide the light, it was to keep it from spilling all through the room and filling in shadows.

I have to admit, this made me laugh. What you describe is in fact the same as guiding the light. That's what snoots and grids do. They guide the light to a single area and keep it from spilling to other spots...

BTW, if you don't mind, I'd like to put a link to the shot in your post...

[Sebastian]

Steve,

It made sense when I wrote it...

I added the link, thanks for pointing that out. One thing I think I shouldmention is that a studio strobe might not be mecessary, I think similar results could easily be chieved with an on-camera flash on a remote cord or fired wirelessly.

[Asylum Steve]

Seb,

Cool. I wasn't sure if you could still edit your post, and I didn't want to just add the link in case there was some strange reason you didn't want it here.

[gahspidy]

Great job, Seb. And thanks for sharing this with us. When you say "on camera flash with remote cord", I have the 420 speedlite for my Canon EOS. I was considering purchasing a cord that allows me to sit the flash unit off to the side a bit or hand hold it off to the side. Is this what you are referring to?

[Sebastian]

Great job, Seb. And thanks for sharing this with us. When you say "on camera flash with remote cord", I have the 420 speedlite for my Canon EOS. I was considering purchasing a cord that allows me to sit the flash unit off to the side a bit or hand hold it off to the side. Is this what you are referring to?

Gary,

That's exactly what I'm reffering to.