This light allowed for beautiful medium shots as well as full length.

I know that many of you do not have the kind of ceiling height that I take for granted. If you have white walls in your studio you can accomplish much the same thing by bouncing a small softbox onto a wall at the side of your subject. A smaller softbox will give you a stronger and less diffused light. Aim it so it hits the wall and then angles up to the ceiling. Doing this turns your wall and ceiling into a huge softbox, and you’ll get beautiful side light on your subject (be sure to Custom White Balance to counter any off-color problems). If I had a wall configuration like this in my place I would have shot a sample. Unfortunately, you’ll have to make do with this lousy diagram:

For the next setup, I wanted even deeper shadows. The model wanted to wear a hat, which presents a problem because of the brim. I could have kept the light in the same position, but I would have been forced to keep her head raised if I had any hope at all of seeing her eyes.

Instead, I brought the light and large softbox down to a more traditional height, about 24” over her eye level. To deepen the shadows, I moved a black foamcore bookend in to camera right, just out of frame. Called “subtractive” light, a black gobo will actually absorb light on the shadow side, causing deeper shadows than you’d expect, in a way reflecting black onto the model.

I also moved the light and the model closer to the camera. Because the single source was further from the background, the medium gray paper receives weaker light and looks darker. Notice the difference in background tone and shadow density after those two simple changes.

For my last shots of the session, I wanted to concentrate more on the model and increase the drama of the light. I kept the model at the same distance, about 9’, from the background as she was in the previous set. I moved the black bookend in closer, about one foot from the right edge of the frame, to make the shadows a bit more dense.

To ramp up the drama of this beautiful light even more, I moved the light and the black gobo even closer to the model, then raised it another foot or so to maintain the angle of the nose shadow (there is no set formula for this). Being so close means the strength of the light will fall off faster while the nearness of the gobo assures that very little of it will be bounced back. If you look closely, you can see the edge of the gobo on the right (I can easily fix it in Photoshop, but I wanted you to see it). I’d been shooting with a hand-held camera, zooming in and out and moving as I pleased. I was so taken with this expression and composition that, even though I saw the edge of the bookend as I swung into the shot, I didn’t much care if the card intruded or not. My eye, brain, and finger were at one with the Universe.

Our resident Lighting Wizard, Chris Grey, is inviting all of you Canon shooters to submit your best image to him for possible inclusion in the Gallery section of his upcoming book, Canon: The Ultimate Photographer’s Guide. He’s looking for images that are both stunning and showcase the technology that made them possible. Deadline for submissions is April 15th! Visit the Special UserForum For Guidelines and Image submissions Here, or Email Chris directly for more details, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

© Chris Grey