One Light Portraits - Montizambert

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Frame Five

For a “Quick Change Background” variation, a piece of cardboard was carefully placed to block only the light from the background. A reflective meter reading (f2.8) off the background read two stops darker than the camera setting creating a dark grey (minus 2) background.

Montizambert Light Setup

Frame Six

For yet another “Quick Change Background variation, the cardboard “gobo” was replaced with a tree branch full of leaves. The resulting leaf shadows create a background that looks like a sky-scape.

The beauty of this simple background system lies in the fact that the photographer’s concentration and the rhythm of the shoot are not interrupted. In a matter of seconds you can provide your subject with a variety of simple backgrounds. Setting up ahead of time (placing and metering the shadows before the first subject arrives), is the trick to making this successful.

Montizambert Light Setup

Okay cod-liver oil time, here is some of the lighting theory that makes this image work. Looking back at Frame One and Frame Two or Three, the source that lights your subject, called the Source of Illumination, is critical. Its relative size and its relative distance to the subject have a profound effect on the light quality we see on the subject – how hard or soft it appears. The Main Source of Illumination to Sylvianne in Frame One is the light head. The light head is also the Origin of the Source. It is where the energy originates. In Frame Two or Three notice how the light quality has changed by adding the panel. The light head is no longer lighting Sylvianne because the fabric blocks it. However, a lot of the light is still transmitting through the fabric (and is altered by it) onto Sylvianne. In this image the fabric is the main-source of illumination. It is the source that lights Sylvianne to her correct exposure value. The light head is the origin of that source. It is important to differentiate between source and origin because it is the actual source that affects how the light looks on your subject. Using a panel instead of a soft-box or umbrella makes it possible to separate the source from the origin. By separating origin from source allows you to create the effect of many lights with just one light and still control the brightness individually. For example, if you find that the background is not going to pure white, simply add another layer of fabric over the panel. In fact add as many layers as you need to drop the brightness on the subject relative to the brightness of the background, then increase your exposure with either aperture or shutter-speed (if you are not using strobe) to once again correctly expose the subject, which will result in an over-exposed background.

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