Lighting The Cyc

For those of you who don't know, cyc is short for cyclorama. They are in most professional studios and have replaced the seamless paper almost entirely. Why? Because with a cyc, you have complete control over your background. A cyc is where the corners and seams are not visible. Cycs normally cover two sides of the studio. Assuming that your model is far enough away from the cyc, lighting can be controlled so that the background effect can be light or dark. Colored lights, cukaloris and other patterned screens can be used on the cyc to create interesting background effects. When lit evenly, the smooth surface, even as it goes around the corner of a studio, can provide an "infinity effect" - an endless space behind the models.

You can either light the cyc or not light the cyc. I will show you the difference. To achieve an "infinity effect", I light the background with 4 light heads. 2 on each side. They are angled at a 45 degree angle to hit the background evenly. I use V flaps behind my lights to control flare and spillage onto the set.

This shot is using the 4 lights on the background effect:

As you can see, there is no shadow on the background. It is a smooth, endless appearing background.

If you want to create a black background, obviously just don't light the background at all. With your main key lights that will be lighting the model, make sure you flag the light off the background so there is no spillage behind the subjects. In this shot, I photographed a different model on a different day but on the same exact cyc. There is just no lighting on the cyc, whatsoever.

Again, the model is far enough from the background but this time it is not as important than if I had lighting on the background because I don't have to worry about spillage from either my key on to the background or my background light spilling onto the set, thus interfering with my lighting on the model.

For mood, you can create a gradient on the background, giving the effect that the background is indeed there but not competing with the model or the overall impact of the image. You can try throwing one light on the background to create a splash of light across the back or you can use lights from different angles, I've even placed a light head on the floor and pointed it up toward the background to create an interesting effect. This is a shot where I used one head on the background in order to create a silhouette effect behind my models:

The key point of interest is around the faces of the young men I photographed. In order to bring the viewers eye to that point of interest, I lit the cyc at that particular angle so it backlit the models and created more detail.

With lighting a background or cyc, you need to experiment. Try 4 lights, then 2 lights. Meter your background and try different exposures. I get about a 1 to 1 1/2 stop ratio between my background and my key light when I intend to blow out the background and create the infinite seamless white background. When I go totally black, I just make sure I flag everything off from my key lights so there is no spillage.

One thing I would stress is that there is no "right" way. It's entirely up to the photographer's eye and taste on what he/she is trying to achieve. There are all kinds of formulas, all kinds of mathematics and theories out there. I'm a photographer, not a mathematician. You can go to DPreview for that kind of technical stuff. I just know what looks good and I learned that by trial and error. I will leave you with one last example. The two shots below are from a shoot I did for Universal Records in NYC back in April 2008. I shot the band Heavy Mojo. We were going for a white background effect with the band. I got it. Then I wanted to shoot the lead singer for my own personal work and he agreed. I turned off my background lights, put a beauty dish on my one key light and placed him pretty much directly under it. Here are the two lighting effects, same model, same cyc, different background lighting. And of course, a different key light.

All Images 2008 Melissa Rodwell Photography LLC.

Dancing in the Dark

Subtracting light

2008 Melissa Rodwell Photography LLC.

One of my lighting "secrets" is subtracting light from a set. Of course, you have to know how to light if you're going to figure out how to not light. There are a number of ways to achieve this. When I was still learning lighting, I would set up my lights in an organized fashion; key light, back light, hair light, etc. if you have a basic lighting set up, you can start there. Then it's time to play! Start by removing the key light. How does it look? Too dark? Either turn it back on but turn it down to a lower setting. Or if you placed your key in front of your model, put it to her side. Put a soft box on a light head, then take a V flat and cover half of the box. Subtracting light, see? It's all about taking away the light, but leaving enough there to get a good exposure. You can also leave your key in place but remove the back light or hair light. Or eye light or background light. One of the things I love to do is to over-expose my back lighting and letting that light "fill" my model. I let it wrap around her so it is actually used as a broad key light source. It's tricky, especially in digital where you can't blow out your whites. But it can be done.

Duvetyne? Know it. Love it. Get it. The film industry uses it by the crates, it's used on sets to black out windows. If they have a schedule to shoot a night shot during the day, they cover the windows with duvetyne and it creates a total blacked out set. Duvetyne , when used on a small still shoot, actually absorbs light. So if you're model is being lit on one side, you can put duvetyne on the other side of her and you will have truly split lighting. Try it with black paper or a large black flag. Put it up to someone's face, you'll see it gets darker where it's reflecting. And it's the same theory as reflectors just the polar opposite.

Or, as I mentioned before, you can also try black V flats and flags. They work wonders in subtracting light. I use flags everywhere. I use more flags than lights, actually. I flag my camera for back light flare. I flag the model. I flag the lights to subtract light. The flag is your friend.

I hate to admit this, but in my opinion most photographers over light their shoots. They use too much light and the shots become flat and boring. I know there is a tendency to do this when you're first starting out and learning the craft. You want everything to show. It doesn't make for an interesting picture most of the time, though. Mood and edge are created by using less light and more interesting angles.

Another thing you can try is moving your models around and away from the light. Another one of my tricks is that I will place the model about a foot in front of the key light. I then duvetyne one side of where she is standing and over expose between a stop and a stop in a half. Throw a wind machine on her, and voila! It's a pretty interesting shot. This is how I lit Heather, the model in the picture above. I actually had her hold herself up on top of a box covered with duvetyne so we could get a lot of shadow in there. Then I moved the light about a foot behind her and over exposed about 1 stop.

Practice makes perfect and it's hard to get it perfect until you can actually "see" the shadows lighting the models. Again, though, when you're just starting out, light a set and then start taking away lights and test each phase. You can look at your results and start to train your eye on what works and what doesn't work. Try it and let me know how it works for you!

Cute Emo Girls

Wow so big collection of hot emo girls i thinks its 50 around.These images collected from internet.These are all girls are so cute and hot and perfect figure for modeling.These snapshot also consider as photo-shot.These girls eyes and eyes lining is so attractive and lips are also so soft.Mostly i like 1st image whats your mind?

Beautiful Girls With Camera

This collection of Hot girls with camera some of images are really beautiful and girls are also but but some girls are too hot and she try to capture a picture with sexy pose these pose are funny also and girls are awesome.most of the girls .did not like photography as a profession but some girls do the as a fun.Lets see our collection.