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Your thoughts on how this is lit...

S

Shelby Lewis

Guest
It looks simple, and probably is... I'm thinking a soft main light almost 90 degrees camera left with a subtle on-axis fill (thus the catchlight) to ease the shadows... but it still looks more nuanced than that... maybe a big reflector camera right:



Norman Jean Roy from this great shoot for vogue... from what I understand it's all film, BTW.

Cheers!
Shelby
 

gandolfi

Subscriber Member
Hi Shelby,

My guess is the simplistic route with just one single light not far to the left of the photographer using a dish or brolly, and a large reflector fairly close in on the RHS. Maybe a separate light on the background and what we used to call a gobo to create the shadow on the LHS of the b/g.

We used to say that the secret is all in the eyes! If the highlight in his eye had been rectangular the photographer would have been using a large bank light.

Of course maybe these days one could get rid of the eye highlights at the click of a mouse to make it appear as if it had been shot with no lights at all!!!


Cheers,

Gandolfi.
 

fotografz

Well-known member
Hi Shelby,

Yes this is a somewhat simple set-up compared to much of Roy's more complex set-ups for his documentary style fashion work. Looks to be a 4X6 softbox higher-up camera left (maybe on a boom arm) and perhaps an egg-crate grid, plus possibly a white flat or larger box positioned camera right for fill (zoom in on the image and you'll see a larger but more subdued camera right source in the male subject's eye). Don't know if the light fall-off camera left is due to a flag or was done later.

Here is a behind the scenes Vanity Fair video of him shooting Elizabeth Banks as Marilyn Monroe which has to be fairly recent. I believe Roy is under contract to conde' Nast fashion publications (Vogue, W, Glamor, Allure, etc. but shoots mostly for Vogue I think).

Video: Elizabeth Banks as a Thoroughly Modern Marilyn | Vanity Fair

On this shoot it appears he's using the Mammy 67 with prism, and film as you suggested, (there is even a quick frame of him shooting a polaroid). He may have used film for this shoot to mimic the Monroe era. There are some tasty Matthews crank controlled boom set-ups in the background, and definately some major Profoto Packs, probably for the nano-second recycle.

However, this video shows him apparently shooting with digital: (see time code @ 1:22 into this video at the end of the article:

Behind the scenes with Jane Iredale in September Vogue

Evidently, he can use anything he wants ... he seems to have purchased a condo in West Chelsea NYC for 3.38 Million :shocked:

Norman Jean Roy | 245 Tenth Avenue | High Line

On a related note: I'm friends with another major NY fashion/commercial shooter that even appeared in a segment of 60 minutes on America's obsession with beauty and fashion ... and he also shot mostly film. However, unlike us mere mortals, he had all kinds of support people and they even developed the color film right there in his Gramercy Park studio while the shoot was still under way. However, I know my friend also shoots digital, and even did a major international Nokia campaign using a P&S camera which was terrific. :)

-Marc

BTW, for other interesting behind the scenes videos on lighting go to the Profoto website.

Videos
 
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Valentin

New member
To me it looks like a 3 lights setup (possible 3 actual or two + reflector for fill; yes, I consider the reflector a light source). One light to the left of the camera (catchlight) and a second one to the right (look at the back of the jacket on the girl.
 
S

Shelby Lewis

Guest
Thanks all... nice to get similar opinions about the lighting.

Marc, in another video I've seen, Roy uses a tethered DSLR to meter the scene and get the lighting correct before shooting the keepers on film. I wonder if that is what's happening on the 2nd vid you posted. Who knows...

I love to see vids with lighting set-ups!
Shelby
 
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