[JamesD]

Being a bit of a photography and lighting geek myself, I love analyzing and dissecting how the lighting for any given photo was carried out or executed, so who is up for posting up photo's and then attempting to reverse engineer the lighting.
Its something I love doing in my free time, or when i'm bored in the evenings.
So you have to be able to state the following:
How many lights
Point out: Key light/s, Fill, Rim light, on axis fill, top light/kicker and the approximate location of the lights in the shots

I'll go first:

[JamesD]

and another one:

[JamesD]

and some clues, the first lighting scheme is more elaborate than it looks, and the second one is simpler than it looks  ???

[Paul B]

I've just been reading the strobist site and the lighting 101 & 102 posts, so I'll give these a go later. I can't justify spending any more money at the mo on techno shizzle but this stuff looks intriguing. (Think I went for the wrong Camera when I first bought though, 1000d, doesn't seem to be loved unlike Nikons).

[Paul B]

Please forgive me if these are terribly off the mark:

Snooted flash camera left, or grid spot or something... Whats causing the weird trail of light in the middle at the top?

Softbox or beauty dish over head, on camera flash (shown by catch light in the boxers' eye?)...

Probably a poor effort but my 1st guesses.

[dave]

I defy anyone to be able to reverse engineer Sharple's lighting setup here:

[Tris]

Being a bit of a photography and lighting geek myself, I love analyzing and dissecting how the lighting for any given photo was carried out or executed

This one will keep you busy for a while 

[SA Chris]

... Whats causing the weird trail of light in the middle at the top?

smoke?

[Paul B]

makes sense.

Dave - 

[JamesD]

Please forgive me if these are terribly off the mark:

Snooted flash camera left, or grid spot or something... Whats causing the weird trail of light in the middle at the top?

Softbox or beauty dish over head, on camera flash (shown by catch light in the boxers' eye?)...

Probably a poor effort but my 1st guesses.

Ok i'll give you the second one, beauty dish toplight (key), and a ringflash on the camera as on axis fill, you were very close!

The first one, you are way off, next clue(s)

There are 4 lights being used in this shot and....

Look at the catch lights.

[JamesD]

... Whats causing the weird trail of light in the middle at the top?

smoke?

Nope......ok another clue: look how the illumination of the smoke varies across the scene.

[Yossarian]

1x red-gelled cunt low camera centre - badly wired (as evidence by smoke emissions)
1x ringpiece camera right (as evidenced by the horrid white highlights and ketamine glaze)
1x marky mark softcunt camera left

am i right?

[JamesD]

1x red-gelled cunt low camera centre - badly wired (as evidence by smoke emissions)
1x ringpiece camera right (as evidenced by the horrid white highlights and ketamine glaze)
1x marky mark softcunt camera left

am i right?

Much closer, but still off...there were no gels or anything used to change overall colour temperature in this scene, it was all shot at 5600k with lights at the same colour temp.

Ok, here's how it was done:

Key light Large Silver (ok slight change in colour temp!) reflective umbrella top camera left

Top light Softbox overhead firing straight down

On axis fill, on camera Ringflash

Background fill, softbox far camera right.

[Yossarian]

I knew I was close...

I would post something I've shot with my fancy flashes recently but (a) I can't actually remember what was pointing at what and (b) they've been photoshopped to deal with the limitations of my studio which makes the whole reverse engineering exercise a bit futile.

The problem I have is that my subjects (groups of furniture) are nearly as big as the paper background, which means that they have to sit pretty close to the paper, leaving no room to fit in another flash head behind to blow the background out. 

[dave]

I would post something I've shot with my fancy flashes recently but (a) I can't actually remember what was pointing at what

ditto.

[cofe]

Is a flash a kind of strobe?

[Jim]

no flies on this guy

[JamesD]

Now.....for a complete mindfuck of a lighting scheme!



It an oldy but a goody, and no cheating by looking at the blog for the answer!

This had me guessing for a while but I got it 80% right by the time he put the solution/scheme up, one of my all-time favourite snappers is Joe Mcnally

[JamesD]

4 flashes and some ambient being used here......

[Yossarian]

there's something big and red-gelled behind the back wall with the angled picture, pointing vaguely towards the bloke with the gun.

the blue light on the RHS - that could be ambient daylight if everything else is continuous and he's using tungsten film.

another big ish source camera right, but i dunno what it is...

???

[JamesD]

there's something big and red-gelled behind the back wall with the angled picture, pointing vaguely towards the bloke with the gun.

the blue light on the RHS - that could be ambient daylight if everything else is continuous and he's using tungsten film.

another big ish source camera right, but i dunno what it is...

???

Pretty close, but missing quite a bit, in the mean time, here are some cracking indoor bouldering shots using off camera flash, from one of my favourite blogs, Strobist.com:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidhobby/sets/72157623081692715/