Hey hey my friends! For a very long time I wanted to make photos associated with the wonderful holiday of Christmas, but it was always postponed for some reasons and I haven’t managed to realize it. This year I decided to do it after all and faced a whole number of issues and problems which needed solving. And the main question worrying and making me restless was how to make background light so that it would create holiday atmosphere and be something unique and unlike other photos relating to this holiday. I would like to tell you about two variants of background light and how they work together.

Reflecting light

Many like to use vignetting on their photos. But very often we can see this effect artificially made by means of some software like Lightroom. Such effects look very symmetrical and unnatural, also very often they cause darkening of the parts of photos which we wouldn’t like to do. I want to share one as I consider perfect method with you that will allow you to avoid all these problems and to obtain excellent result.

First of all we need zinc steel plate. It will be the basic tool we will use for lightening our background. Now let’s turn one light source at the zinc steel plate and a reflection from it – to the background. As the zinc steel plate has uneven texture, we will get very interesting spots and light beams which we can control by bending and unbending the zinc steel plate, and changing its slope angle with the light source. We can also narrow the light beam and achieve the effect of vignetting by changing the distance between the zinc steel plate and the background.

Studio Lighting Setup

This effect will have beautiful, uneven, natural gradients and highlight passages in the shade (Image 1, 2). It is also very convenient if you don’t want to darken corners of and image (Image 2), as you can see the snow is not affected with vignetting and remains white, at the same time this effect is present on the background. The most important thing is to hold your breath and spend some time playing with the zinc steel plate to find the light you will like and that will comply with assigned task.

Studio Lighting Result #01

Studio Lighting Result #02

Long exposure

After you archive the effect you need, how can we supplement it? I was inspired for this light by wonderful works of iStock illustrators that use smooth waves and swirls on background in their works. Complete darkness is the first thing that is necessary to make in the room, where we are going to take photos with long exposure. We will still use the same basic light set-up from the previous images though.

Studio Lighting Setup

There is one key difference in our approach with these images (Images 3, 4). I used an LED flashlight to create such light.

For a start we should turn off all the modeling lights to create a complete darkness in the room. Even weak light on the long exposure can interfere with the image and spoil the result. So set a 3 sec. exposure ( Image 4 ).

After the main light sources flashes, we will have 3 sec. to create an image on the background by means of our LED flashlight. Fix a camera on the support and after the main flashes are activated, turn on the LED flashlight and begin drawing swirls or waves or something more sexy on your background.

Studio Lighting Result #03

Studio Lighting Result #04

Have some patience and experiment: make several different attempts and see how the resulting light depends on the motions you make. When you understand it, you will feel like you hold a real light brush, with which you can paint everything you want. Lines from LED flashlight will lie over the light spots from zinc steel plate and will create incredibly interesting light, as it seems to me, with soft blended borders.

Tips & Tricks

To make it easier here are some tips & tricks:

• Any reflecting surface can became a new discovery for you. It can be foil, wrapping paper or maybe even a basin with wavering water.
• Increasing exposure and motion speed, you can make lines softer (Image 3, 10 sec. exposure ).
• While moving your LED flashlight try to imagine how the camera sees it to understand what image you will get changing the slope angle of the flashlight beam.
• Don’t forget to switch off the LED flashlight after motion stops, not to spoil complete lines while you are taking it off the shot area.
• If subjects have fuzzy edges, it means excess light is falling on them on them: change the angle of your flashlight.
• Remember, that if the light from LED flashlight is cold and if you use it against the backgrounds of warm colours, you should use conversion filters depending on the background colour.

I hope you have derived pleasure from reading and will derive more pleasure from using of this light in practice. I wish you good luck and beautiful pictures! Cheers!