Glance at the summary firstThe summary from the end of the lesson, as a road map before you start reading.
In the studio, a dramatic fashion frame is built by pulling back the fill of the beauty lighting in front of the face and hardening it, by dual rim lighting behind the model drawing the silhouette's two edges, and by a background left far away and unlit. In the skin–fabric balance the exposure is set from the skin, and the light the garment receives is fitted to it with the light's direction and height.
Learning goal
In a fashion studio, against a darkened background, you will be able to draw a face and a garment with sharp, dramatic light. You will set up the light that stands in front of the face, right above the lens, and brings out the makeup, the skin's texture and the cheekbones, and by reducing the fill take it from a soft beauty to a hard drama. With two lights standing on either side behind the model, you will separate both edges of the body and the garment from the dark background. You will protect the exposure of skin standing beside a light fabric or a dark fabric without losing the garment's detail.
The question
For the cover frame the designer wants, your friend rents a small studio. The dark-skinned model is wearing her off-white sweater, a gray background behind her. Your friend sets up a big softbox in front; the frame is bright, even and flat. The background has lightened from gray, the sweater is brighter than the face, there isn't a single shadow on the face. The designer points to the frame on the board: a black void, and inside it only a sharp-edged face and a collar. How is hard, dramatic light built?
Context
In the light modifiers lesson you met the beauty dish, which has a small disc in the middle and a shiny inner surface and gives medium-hard light (Lesson 19.7). In the hair and rim light lesson you set up the lights that come from behind the subject and make the line of the hair and shoulders shine (Lesson 20.7). You also studied the difference between the subject's brightness and the background's brightness, background separation, together with the inverse square law (Lesson 18.2).
A fashion studio puts these tools to a new job. In a portrait, light is there to introduce a person; in a fashion frame, though, the same light must also carry a makeup look, a fabric's texture and a silhouette's line. That is why in a fashion studio, light is thought about separately for the face and for the garment.
Simple explanation
How is a face made to glow?
Beauty lighting is lighting set up with a main light right in front of the model, just above the lens, aimed at the middle of the face, that brings out the makeup, the skin's texture and the face's bone structure. The main light is usually a beauty dish; a reflector facing up beneath it, or an additional light, can open the shadows. Because the light comes from the middle of the face, the shadows are symmetrical: they fall under the nose, under the cheekbones and under the chin.
The same setup can be both soft and hard. When a thin fabric is put over the beauty dish and the fill below is opened, the shadows shorten and the skin looks smooth. When the fabric is removed, the light hardens and the shadow edges sharpen; when the fill below is taken away and the light raised a little, the shadows under the cheekbones and the chin deepen. A dramatic frame usually comes not from a new light but from pulling back the fill. Which one to choose is the board's decision.
Hard light also reads on the skin. On dark skin, the small bright points on the cheekbones and forehead draw the face's shape; on light skin, the same light can bring forward pores and redness. Which shine stays is decided together by the makeup artist and the photographer, under the light, by looking at a test frame.
How is a silhouette drawn?
Dual rim lighting is a setup where two lights, standing on either side behind the model and looking back toward them, separate both edges of the body and the garment from the dark background with a bright line each. In a fashion studio, strip lights are often used for this job; a long, narrow source leaves an unbroken line from the top of the head to the waist or the feet. As the lights move behind the model, the line thins; as they open to the sides, it thickens and spills onto the face and the front of the garment.
Light coming from behind has one danger: if the source is directly visible to the lens, a flare spreads over the frame and the blacks turn gray. Grids fitted in front of the strips, or black flags placed on either side of the lens, prevent this. For the background to darken, nothing extra is needed: if the background is far enough from the model and no light looks at it, the inverse square law turns it into a dark void.
How are garment and skin protected together?
Skin–fabric balance is distributing the light and exposure so as to protect the detail of both the skin and the fabric beside it in the same frame. An off-white sweater reflects far more light than dark skin; when the face is correctly exposed, the sweater's knit can turn into a flat white. Conversely, a black wool coat beside light skin can become a pitch-black spot when the face is correctly exposed.
The balance is built by giving the light to the face and the garment in different proportions. When a beauty light standing above is raised a little higher and turned to the upper part of the face, the white sweater below moves away from the center of the light and receives less light. For a black fabric the opposite is done, or a small reflector is held to the fabric. The check is made with the highlight warning on the screen and by zooming in on the dark fabric's detail. Exposure is always set from the skin; the garment is fitted to it with light, the skin isn't fitted to the garment.
Visual evidence
Your friend moves the gray background a few meters away from the model and leaves no light looking at it. In front, right above the lens, they put a beauty dish without fabric, and take away the reflector below. In the first test frame the background is almost black; there are sharp shadows under the cheekbones, and a bright, clean light in the middle of the face.
Then they place two strip lights with grids behind the model, on either side. In the frame, thin bright lines appear on the model's two shoulders and on both edges of the sweater; the silhouette looks as if cut out of the dark void. When the lines spill onto the front of the collar, they slide the lights back a little.
The sweater is still too bright: the highlight warning is blinking on the knit. Your friend raises the beauty dish a little and turns it to the upper half of the face. The exposure on the face stays the same, and the sweater, moving away from the center of the light, wins back its knit. The model's dark skin is warm and deep, small bright points on the cheekbones, every stitch of the sweater can be picked out.
Common mistakes
Common mistakeAdding new lights for a dramatic frame.
The frame gets crowded and the shadows scatter. The fix: first pull back the fill, harden the light.
Common mistakeLeaving dual rim lighting visible to the lens.
Flare spreads over the frame, the blacks turn gray. The fix: fit grids to the strips or put black flags on either side of the lens.
Common mistakeLowering the whole exposure to protect a white garment.
The shadows of dark skin block up. The fix: set the exposure from the skin, reduce the light the garment receives with the light's direction and height.
Summary
In the studio, a dramatic fashion frame is built by pulling back the fill of the beauty lighting in front of the face and hardening it, by dual rim lighting behind the model drawing the silhouette's two edges, and by a background left far away and unlit. In the skin–fabric balance the exposure is set from the skin, and the light the garment receives is fitted to it with the light's direction and height.
Mini assignment
In this assignment you will build a dramatic fashion portrait in front of a dark background; a flash, a reflector and two small extra lights are enough, and if you have no extra lights, two desk lamps will do.
- Move the background away from the person, put a main light right above the lens without lighting the background; shoot once with a reflector below and once without, and compare the shadows.
- Put two small lights behind the person, on either side; adjust the edge lines by sliding the lights back and to the sides, and make sure they aren't visible to the lens.
- In a frame where the person, with their agreement, is shot wearing very light or very dark clothing, build the skin–fabric balance with the height of the main light; check the highlight warning and the fabric's detail.
Check yourself
- When you removed the fill, did the shadows on the face deepen as much as you wanted?
- Are the edge lines clean on both sides of the silhouette, and is there any flare in the frame?
- While the person's skin is correctly exposed, does the texture of the garment show too?
Glossary
| Term | Short definition |
|---|---|
| Beauty lighting | Lighting set up with a main light in front of the model, above the lens, aimed at the middle of the face, that brings out the makeup, the skin's texture and the bone structure. |
| Dual rim lighting | A setup where two lights standing on either side behind the model separate both edges of the body and the garment from the dark background. |
| Skin–fabric balance | Distributing the light and exposure so as to protect the detail of both the skin and the fabric beside it in the same frame. |
Mini quiz
1. How is beauty lighting turned into a dramatic frame?
- A) By adding two more lights beside it
- B) By turning a light onto the background
- C) By pulling back the fill and hardening the main light
- D) By bringing the model closer to the background
2. How is flare spreading over the frame prevented in dual rim lighting?
- A) By keeping the source from being visible to the lens with a grid or a black flag
- B) By raising the ISO
- C) By moving the lights in front of the model
- D) By choosing a white background
3. Why is nothing extra needed for a dark background?
- A) Because studios are always dark
- B) Because black backgrounds don't reflect light
- C) Because the camera darkens the background automatically
- D) A background left far away and unlit darkens by the inverse square law
4. If a dark-skinned model's white sweater is shining, what is done?
- A) The whole exposure is lowered
- B) The exposure is set from the skin, and the light the sweater receives is reduced with the light's height
- C) The sweater is painted gray in retouching
- D) The model is switched to a black sweater
Answers
- C — Light without fill and without fabric leaves deep, sharp shadows.
- A — When the source isn't visible to the lens, the blacks stay clean.
- D — Because light falls off quickly with distance, a distant background stays in the dark.
- B — As the sweater moves away from the center of the light it wins back its detail, while the skin stays right.
Summary card
- Beauty lighting: in front, above the lens, aimed at the middle of the face.
- Drama usually comes from pulling back the fill.
- Dual rim lighting: two strips behind, grids, black flags.
- Dark background: far away and unlit; the inverse square law does the rest.
- Skin–fabric balance: exposure from the skin, the garment fitted to it with light.
Bridge to the next lesson
When the cover frame is done, the designer wants to leave the studio for the collection's last section: in the city's old bazaar, among stone walls, narrow streets and shopkeepers. The first thing that comes to your friend's mind is to shoot the jackets in the most crowded and colorful corner; but the bazaar's colors may compete with the jackets' colors. How is a fashion shoot done on the street? The next lesson takes up how a place and a garment carry or smother each other.