# Doing a high key photo



## k5MOW (Sep 24, 2016)

Good morning everyone

I would like to try to do high key portraits in my small living room. I would like all of you opinions on my idea of equipment. 
I was thinking of buying two continuous light stands with four 45 W bulbs in each and two 16 x 24 soft boxes for Front soft lighting. I also would have a on camera flash with a soft box. 
To blow out the white background I was thinking of using a off camera flash on a light stand behind   The subject. 

What are all of your suggestions do you think this will work OK or do you think I should do it in a different manner. 

Thank you Roger


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## smoke665 (Sep 24, 2016)

Can't help you, but I am interested in reading the response from those who know. In particular the response to your comment about blowing out the white background.


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## jcdeboever (Sep 24, 2016)

I am not an expert on the subject but I have messed around with it. My initial thought would be a white backdrop and a speedlight behind the subject. The EC button on your camera can be very helpful. The issue I ran into was too much light behind the subject so I had to manually adjust the flash down. Getting the white background was the easy part. Exposing the subjects face correctly against the overexposed background is the challenge, adding stops of EC helps sort it out. 

I have had only limited success with continuous lighting, still life flowers... They just are not powerful enough and I would hate to see you waste money that could be used towards a strobe or speedlight. I may be wrong but I would think speedlights at a minimum.


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## KmH (Sep 24, 2016)

A hand held light meter that can meter flash, reflected, and incident light greatly simplifies setting the exposure of the multiple flash units and the exposure of the subject.
To keep light from the background from interfering with the subject the subject needs to be we'll in front of the background, like 8 feet, or more.

Unfortunately, continuous lighting is ambient light.
Flash lets us control the flash exposure (with the lens aperture) separate from the ambient exposure (controlled with shutter speed).

In your set up you will have one flash unit, so I recommend you use the flash unit to expose your subject.
However, you want the flash unit to be behind your largest available light modifier so the softest, most flattering light illuminates your subject.


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## AKUK (Sep 24, 2016)

Continuous light certainly makes positioning of it much easier to create the style you want, or seeing where the shadows and highlights are going to fall. The downside is lack of action-stopping ability and control over exposure is definitely much more limited than it is with a flash. Mixing flash and constant light can also be a bit tricky if you're not 100% sure on what you're doing. Ideally you want to shoot in manual mode, so that you can control the ISO, aperture and shutter independently, then adjust the power of your flash accordingly. 

One way you could do this is by taking a shot without the flash, in aperture priority mode and seeing what the resulting EXIF data is. Provided the resulting shutter speed isn't above your sync speed (usually 1/200 sec), you'll be able to simply enter those settings into the camera and then adjust the flash power in the subsequent shots. If the shutter speed does go above your sync speed, simply use the exposure triangle variables to bring this down, usually by stopping the lens down more, as you'd most likely be at native ISO anyway for best image quality.

For example, if your camera gave you 1/400 sec, f/4, ISO 100 as the EXIF data in Aperture Priority, you couldn't sync your flash using those variables, since the max sync is 1/200 sec. We'd need to slow the shutter down 1 stop by increasing the aperture from f/4 to f/5.6. The camera would then compensate by giving 1/200 sec. So we know we could use the new exposure triangle of 1/200, f/5.6, ISO 100. The exposure on the subject's face would be exactly the same. All you'd need to do then is increase the power of the flash on the background, until it clipped in the histogram/flashed on the LCD screen. As already mentioned, a light meter would help you in this and speed up the process. 

Having said all that, I'd personally look at getting some monolights, like the Paul C Buff Alien Bees. These have continuous modelling lights on them, and a flash that gives you better action stopping ability. This will result in crisper images than continuous light, due to negating any motion blur that might be introduced from hand holding, or even being tripod mounted if the shutter speed is slow enough.


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## kundalini (Sep 24, 2016)

Unfortunately, I don't believe you will ever get the lighting you desire for high-key portraits with continuous lights.  The pop of light from a flash, whether from a shoe mounted external flash, remote controlled flashes or monolights, is much better suited for the task.


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## k5MOW (Sep 24, 2016)

I want to thank everyone for their comments. After reading every single comment and doing some more research I have decided to go with three off camera speed lights with Two umbrellas for front soft lighting and one off-camera flash highlighting the white background. I would have went with strobe lighting but I am trying to cut my cost down. 

Does this sound like a better choice. Please let me know what you think. 

Thanks Roger


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## Scatterbrained (Sep 24, 2016)

The cost difference between speedlights and strobes isn't what you think it is.  You can get some basic, entry level strobes like the Flashpoint 320M from Adorama for $90 each.   Personally I'd go with the monolights.


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## KmH (Sep 25, 2016)

Yep. +1 on the recommendation to get monolights as the best way to keep cost down.
and be sure you get sufficiently large light modifiers.


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