Coaxial fill light

[texxter]

Yesterday I had a studio photo session and decided to set up my main and key lights coaxially - to make sure that the direction of light for both was pretty much the same.

My key light was a 22" beauty dish with a 40 degree grid, directly above the subjects, probably between 30 and 40 degrees, pointed at the subject's faces, to get a butterfly nose shadow pattern.

The fill light was a 5 ft. octabox located right behind the beauty dish, with the beauty disk centered in front of it, about as close as I could position it without the back of the front strobe pressing against the diffusor surface of the octabox.

For additional fill I used a large reflective panel in front of my subjects, bouncing some light up from the octabox.

Finally, I used a seamless white background lit separately.

The ratio between main and fill was about 4:1, with the fill giving me about f/5.6 and the key f/11, which is a bit dramatic, but I think worked well, as it added some nice contrast without been dramatic.

I will be adding a picture of the setup, as well as a couple of sample images, when I get home. Just sharing now in case you have experimented with this approach, or want to give it a try. If you have, please post some results!

I was pleased with the combination of well defined shadows, and the softening effect of the fill light. The images look crisp and contrasty without the negative effects of harsh light.

Here is an image from the session:

[The Philos]

I've used a similar setup with a smaller dish (16"+grid) and a 4' octobox without the front diffuser to do a clamshell effect but still be somewhat hard.

[texxter]

Here is a behind-the-scenes photo of the simple set up.

[texkam]

Nice shot! Love the simplicity. Of course the model is what really makes this image work.

[texxter]

Thank you, Mark!

[mkothare]

Thanks Paco for sharing this. Its a great solution to get crisp yet light shadows.

Typically, I have used a beauty dish very close to the subject's face (say within a distance that is twice the diameter of the dish) to achieve the soft wraparound light and muted shadows.

Would it be correct to add that to get these crisp (versus muted) but light shadows one would need to have the beauty dish further away? Or is the crispness achieved through gridding the beauty dish?

This is good learning for me. Appreciated.

[texxter]

Milind, you're welcome.

I believe that the contrasty, "crisp' feel is produced by the combination of a hard directional light with an extremely diffused coaxial fill, at a relatively high ratio. The closer the dish is to the subject the more diffused the shadow edge transfer will be and the less "crisp" the shadows. It would be a good idea to experiment with different distances and ratios to see how the feel of the image varies - I didn't do that this time - if you do, please post some results!

[Bentley]

So the diffusion panel is the table top? What material is it? Love the shot.
Also, is the beauty dish white of silver? That would have some effect on the out come of the picture.

[texxter]

Originally Posted by Bentley

So the diffusion panel is the table top? What material is it? Love the shot.
Also, is the beauty dish white of silver? That would have some effect on the out come of the picture.

Hi Murtaza and thanks for your kind comment, glad you like the image.

I meant to say reflective, not diffusion panel, and I used it standalone with previous shots. On this one I used this reflective panel to pretend to be a work desk - it's a piece of tile board from Home Depot that I use for different purposes in the studio - in this make a makeshift desk surface.

The beauty dish is white, 22" with a 40 degree grid on it.

Thanks