Sillouhette on white

[jnoelle]

I'm planning to shoot maternity shots for a friend and would like to set-up a sillhouette shot.

What suggestions do you have for setting up a DIY studio (ghetto lighting) to create a sillouhette of model on white background?

Many thanks in advance!

[ttosifa]

I hope others chime in here because this problem has me intrigued!

Based on what I know, I think you are going to have a tough time with this one for two reasons: (1) you are saying it is a studio environment and (2) you want ghetto lighting, which I interpret as continuous, rather than flash, lighting.

So, taking the problem as given, you are going to need to put light on the background that is, if I calculate correctly, about 6 stops brighter (or more) than the light on the subject to get a black silhouette on a white background -- in what I interpret as a rather small studio. I really do not know how you would do this without a LOT of space between the background and the subject and virtually nothing that would reflect light back onto your subject.

Here's my best shot: You'll need two rooms separated by a doorway. Ideally the first room (which will be the room with the lights) will have a white wall. If not, you'll need something white, maybe something like a plastic shower curtain. Put all the light you can find on that shower curtain (but keep the types of lights consistent, such as all tungsten). Put the subject and the camera in the second room. Keep all the lights off in the second room. Have the subject stand a few feet inside the room framed by the doorway. Use as long as a lens as you can, and frame the subject within the doorway. Shoot, and hope for the best.

See, by putting the light in the other room and shooting in a dark room, you might be able to avoid light contamination. Even if it is not perfect, I would think that you would get enough differentiation between the background and the subject to use a Levels adjustment in PS to get black on white. Using one room for the lighting and the other for the shooting will make the walls of the lighting room act as flags to keep the light off of the subject.

If you can get access to a flash, it might be easier. The following picture I took in close quarters with ALL of the house lights on (for focusing). It is SOOC, except for some sharpening. And the wall behind my daughter is indeed white. But at f/14 and 1/200, none of the ambient light shows. This picture also shows perhaps a second method of getting what you want: If you can isolate the subject on a background that is not pure white, you can maybe get close enough to pick a color channel (the red channel in my picture) that you could easily convert to black on white.

Good luck! And if you succeed (or don't), PLEASE post your picture and tell us your method. I for one think I would learn something new! (Too many disappear after asking a question and leave us hanging.)

[oldwolf]

You can try this as well.

Put up a white sheet or something white as long as it's translucent enough to allow light to shine through. Place as many lights as possible behind this white sheet. Make sure they're all the same like all tungsten or all flourescent and the same color temperature.

Now put your camera on a tripod in front of this sheet. Put your camera in manual mode. Set your f/stop to 11 (number I pulled out of a hat). Figure out what shutter speed your camera wants you to use to get a nicely exposed picture of the sheet. Take the picture. You're sheet will probably be a bit yellow or grey.

Now decrease the shutter speed or rather make the shutter stay open longer. So if the shutter speed was originally 1/250 then you want it to be 1/200. Keep doing this until you get a nice blown out sheet.

This will tell you the exposure you need to get a nice white background.

Put your model in front of the sheet. I'd have them stand about 6 ft in front if possible. Take a picture. If you see the light bleeding onto the model then increase your f/stop. So we started with f/11 then we'd want to take it up to f/16? We do this because the shutter speed controls how well your background is exposed and the f/stop controls how well your model is exposed. Since we want less light on the model then we make the aperture smaller by increasing the f/stop.

Take another picture to see if you're getting the effect you're looking for. You need to make sure the model holds very still if you have a slow shutter speed.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.