The Art of Lowkey Ligting

Light can be used to separate your subject from the background. A bare flash at 1/64 power was used. I placed it to the back left, off the camera angle of view, pointed to his lower shoulder. The intention was to separate his left side on the picture below from the background.

The main light source was a flash at 1/2 power in a 120 cm octa soft box with a grid. It was used to light the subject. I place it to the front right side. I raised it above his head as i have a small studio to avoid blocking the camera angle of view. I also angled the octa soft box at around 30 degrees off the perpendicular or Y axis to enable me get a more natural lighting, emulating the sun.

The backdrop used was a thick black blanket that does absorb light well.

Camera 70D canon, 28-70mm f2.8 lens, Flash Youngnuo iii & iv

Shutter 200 or less, iso 400 or less f-stop 7.1

WB flash, Shot in RAW

Big ups to Kafashia Productions & Chris (model) for the great help on this shoot.

The lens flare was as a result of some of the light hitting my lens, i tried a hood and it did reduce it. The best would have been to use a strip soft box with a grid, That way little no light would have hit the lens or have created the hotspot on the backdrop to the left. That is a great challenge for small studios but then again it may be a desired goal to your shoot.

Here are more photos from the shoot.

If you have something that you would love to learnt, Just holla and I will do my best to make a blog on it. Cheers