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More articles by Dave Montizambert
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| Lighting From The
Dark-side:
In the shot of actor Matt Denney, see Image 01, I wanted to create a moody
low-key tough guy image. To help portray that feel, dark clothing and a dark
background were selected. Maintaining subtle detail in the jacket as well as
creating separation between Matt and the background really requires that you
have a handle on lighting, metering, and file processing. As seen in Image
02, a 3x4 foot soft-box acts as a main-light for Matt. It is placed down low
to create dramatic up-cast shadows and is adjusted to expose correctly at
the level of his face. To fill in the shadows ever so slightly, a strobe
head, covered with a piece of frosted acetate diffusion material, is placed
in front and to the left of Matt. The power on this relatively small
light-source was adjusted until an incident meter reading, taken at the
subject plane with dome pointed at the fill-light, gave a reading that was
31/3 stops lower than what the camera aperture was set to., I call this a
'minus 3 1/3 incident value'. Since Matt’s flesh-tone is about one stop
brighter than middle-grey, his flesh in shadow areas should record about
21/3 stops darker than middle-grey – a dark tone with detail reading around
50 levels/19% in Adobe RGB with my default RAW processing settings. To
create tonal separation between Matt and the black background, two 3x4 foot
soft-boxes were placed behind and to either side of him. An incident meter
reading with the back of the meter placed against Matt and the dome, pointed
at each soft-box in turn, read roughly one stop below the camera setting – a
minus 1 incident value. Knowing how my processing settings would interpret
these lighting values while adjusting and tweaking the lighting made it
possible to proceed with confidence and to do this image in just under one
hour, in front of 45 workshop students.
Settings in Adobe Camera RAW
& Lightroom:
Since Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) and Lightroom (LR) use the same processing
engine, the following processing tips on selecting the settings applies to
both ACR and LR, except where specified. Assuming that we are starting out
with a correct exposure of our Shirley image open in ACR or LR, I generally
start by setting the Tone Curve from Linear to Medium Contrast and then
tackle the sliders under the Basic panel. Since we are starting with a
correct exposure and correct lighting, I skip the Exposure, Recovery, and
Fill Light sliders and jump right down to the Brightness slider temporarily
by-passing the Blacks slider. After sliding the Brightness slider until the
Macbeth Neutral 5.0 mid-grey swatch (the one alongside the yellow) gives the
correct densitometer reading, I adjust the Contrast slider until the Macbeth
White swatch is correct, and then go on to do the same with the Blacks
slider for the Macbeth Black swatch and then bounce back and forth between
these sliders to fine tune; as you adjust one Macbeth swatch, the adjustment
may affect the others a little and so some fine tuning of the other sliders
may be necessary.
If you are a real power user, you can do the whole thing in ACR using just
the Tone Curve set to Point and set from Linear to Custom. I generally start
by moving the endpoints of the curve in a little and then Cmd/Ctrl click on
the Neutral 5.0 swatch with the White Balance Tool selected so that this
tone is represented as a point on the curve. Using the up/down arrow keys
from my keyboard I nudge this point up until the swatch reads the target
value. Once set, I then in turn do the same for all of the other grey
swatches on the Macbeth card.
There is a lot of debate whether to use LR or ACR for processing RAW
captures. As mentioned earlier both use the same engine and so there is no
quality advantage either way, the difference lies in the features. Without
getting into all of the differences I would like to point out a few features
that ACR has that LR doesn’t which make the process of finding the best
exposure from your Shirley test then using that file to create your optimum
default process settings easier. Unlike LR, ACR allows you to set up to nine
densitometer sample points that display continuously, until cleared. Setting
sample points means that you do not have to keep running the cursor over the
Macbeth swatch in question to display its value, freeing up your mouse for
other tasks. I like to open all files from the test into ACR, click on
'Select All', and then with the Color Sampler tool selected, click on each
of the grey Macbeth swatches in turn. Each click sets down a sample point on
not just the file displayed in the ACR preview window, but also all of the
other files open in ACR. For this to be effective, I always shoot my Shirley
tests with my camera on a tripod so that the Macbeth Checker card is in
perfect register from one frame to the next. Once you have determined which
file is the optimum exposure, you can use these sample point readouts to set
the swatches in the image to the values you want. I like to modify the
settings of the sliders under the Basic panel in both ACR and LR using just
keyboard commands – tap the tab key to jump, in descending order, from one
slider control to the next or hold down the Shift key to change to ascending
order. Once you are on the slider of choice, use the up/down arrow keys to
tap the slider to the perfect setting. Adding the Shift key while tapping
makes for larger increments in the slider setting (often 10-fold but
check!). Using this up/down arrow key trick is the best way to work in LR
since you don’t have sample points and need to use the mouse to hold the
cursor over the swatch in question. For really fine-tuning your settings I
like to use the 'Curve: Custom' option under the Point tab in the Tone Curve
panel in ACR, which provides unhindered tone curving control just like using
Curves on the composite channel in Photoshop. LR too has a Tone Curve but
does not allow you to take off the 'training wheels'; it does not have ACR’s
Point/Custom option. And finally, Photoshop can access ACR’s processing
allowing you to automate RAW processing with an Action and a Droplet,
Photoshop cannot do this with LR.
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Dave Montizambert
Dave Montizambert lectures internationally on lighting, digital photography
and Adobe Photoshop. He is also a published author having written two books
on lighting and digital photography (publisher Amherst Media) plus numerous
magazine articles on these topics in North America and in Europe. Dave also
creates Photoshop tutorial CDs & DVDs for
www.software-cinema.com . Dave is available for lectures and workshops
in your area and can be reached at
montizambert@telus.net or
www.montizambert.com
If you would like to learn more about creating simulated sunlight for those
overcast days, check out Dave's book on lighting called, Creative Lighting
Techniques, available through Amherst Media and the SWPP bookstore.
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