Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/12/05

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] explain Avedon light
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Tue Dec 5 18:21:56 2006

Very simply with a medium white umbrella kept the same distance, about 5
feet I think in front and up from the subject by an assistant holding it up
over his head on a boom like a mike boom person in a movie. That's his main
look from his main light.

He used backdrop lights to keep the backdrop white most the time but would
let it go gray sometimes. Never switched to soft boxes like most did when
they became lightweight and affordable. Expect maybe he'd use those strip
lights for the backdrop. The important thing is he kept his main light close
to the subject so they could dance around freely on the backdrop and the
assistant would keep up with it. A big mistake photographers make is having
their lights too far away. Takes huge amounts of watt seconds and you loose
contrast and get flair and looks mediocre and uncontrolled.

The far west shots are a backdrop on the side of a barn. I'm not even sure
about the reflectors whatever the day was that's what the light was. Cloudy
bright would seem to be what would be desired. f11 and be there.
I'm interested in doing that some time. Having an outdoor seamless. And
shooting there under all kinds of light conditions. I'm sure the variety
would be far more than if I had a huge lighting set up indoors and tried to
move them around. Which is kind of what I did when I shot retail fashion for
a department store 9 to 5. I just kept moving things around to keep busy and
not be board and keep things interesting.

Mark Rabiner
New York, NY
40?47'59.79"N   
73?57'32.37"W

http://rabinergroup.com/




Replies: Reply from faneuil at gmail.com (Eric Korenman) ([Leica] explain Avedon light)
In reply to: Message from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson) ([Leica] explain Avedon light)