As you may know, I spend at least one day a month, in a healthcare facility of one sort or another, lighting, documenting, cajoling, and all kinds of other things to make interesting images that tell a story.
Last month, while walking into the clinic I had never seen, I already had a pretty good, if general, idea of what I needed to do to make this work.
Much of eye exams usually take place in dark places, so the question was, how to shoot it while preserving the sense of darkness while still inserting enough light to see the important parts. On top of that, the patient they had arranged for me was a 90-something gentleman who would not be able to sit for too long. Our eye technician also had patients waiting.
I needed to use my simplest lighting, aimed as accurately with their power settings nailed down quickly as possible. Once the subject sat down, I might have one chance and probably just a few minutes to shoot with my configuration.
No pressure.
Setting two camera strobes on stands with radio slaves on the opposite side of the room, one near each corner, I aimed their beams across each other to light up just enough detail in the subjects' faces while leaving a significant amount of shadowing, and without lighting up the room in general, to preserve the feel of darkness. All of this while finding that sweet spot where neither strobe would cause lens flare or throw a shadow in just the wrong spot.
As the light traveled to the opposite subject's face, it also caught enough of the back of the near subject and reflected just enough off of the walls to soften the shadows without lighting up the room. A little bit of spill also provided a subtle glow on the wall behind the computer model.
Although I would have liked the time to explore subtle lighting changes by moving the lights, we were already out of time.
I don't recommend it, but I was truly pleased with the resulting image of the 30 minute shoot.
Last month, while walking into the clinic I had never seen, I already had a pretty good, if general, idea of what I needed to do to make this work.
Much of eye exams usually take place in dark places, so the question was, how to shoot it while preserving the sense of darkness while still inserting enough light to see the important parts. On top of that, the patient they had arranged for me was a 90-something gentleman who would not be able to sit for too long. Our eye technician also had patients waiting.
I needed to use my simplest lighting, aimed as accurately with their power settings nailed down quickly as possible. Once the subject sat down, I might have one chance and probably just a few minutes to shoot with my configuration.
No pressure.
Setting two camera strobes on stands with radio slaves on the opposite side of the room, one near each corner, I aimed their beams across each other to light up just enough detail in the subjects' faces while leaving a significant amount of shadowing, and without lighting up the room in general, to preserve the feel of darkness. All of this while finding that sweet spot where neither strobe would cause lens flare or throw a shadow in just the wrong spot.
As the light traveled to the opposite subject's face, it also caught enough of the back of the near subject and reflected just enough off of the walls to soften the shadows without lighting up the room. A little bit of spill also provided a subtle glow on the wall behind the computer model.
Although I would have liked the time to explore subtle lighting changes by moving the lights, we were already out of time.
I don't recommend it, but I was truly pleased with the resulting image of the 30 minute shoot.
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