How would you light this?

David Dominguez · October 9, 2017

hey guys. I know there are many ways to light something similar to this but how would you personally do it?

http://larrysultan.com/archives/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PFH27_SULTAN_Golfswing_1986-1000x800.jpg

What's the most practical way? What's the easiest way with a small budget?

Thanks in advance!

Stuart Brereton · October 10, 2017

I'm not sure it's lit at all. The sheers are softening the indirect sunlight, and spreading it around the room. It being a Larry Sultan pic, I would imagine that it was shot with either medium or large format film, so he would have been free to expose for the interior, knowing that the film would carry detail in the hot window.

To recreate it digitally, I'd start by shooting on a camera with good dynamic range, and in Log. To create the edge light on him, I'd use a shiny board through some diffusion if the sun was in the right place, or a small HMI if not. It would need to be soft in order to avoid a hot spot on the sheers.

David Mullen ASC · October 10, 2017

It may just be an example of digital dodging and burning or HDR compositing, but if I were going to light this, I'd have soft light outside cross lighting the actor or just coming from the left frame to edge light his face, and then a dim top ceiling bounce to reduce contrast and light the top of the TV set.

Stuart Brereton · October 10, 2017

Larry Sultan's 'Pictures From Home' were taken in the early eighties to nineties, a while before photoshop and HDR existed. Larger format film was probably a big help here in being able to balance exposures between interior and exterior.