RF Cookbook – Allison Earnest: Sculpting Faces with Light

Allison Earnest, Colorado-based professional commercial, corporate and advertising photographer for more than 25 years, is a master at sculpting faces with light. “Combining light sculpting techniques, subject placement, lighting placement, and the creative use of light modifiers adds depth and dimension to portraits,” says Allison.

She created these portraits of Los Angeles-based model and actor Gabriel Grier for his online portfolio in June. In the “before” photo, she set her Nikon D300 in Manual mode, with Auto White Balance. For the main light source, she placed a medium softbox with a Hensel Integra 500 Monolight at a 45-degree angle to camera right. A second monolight and softbox was placed slightly behind and to the right of Gabriel to separate him from the background. Both softboxes were placed close to the subject, for a diffused edge transfer.

“Though technically a good photograph, the ‘before’ shot is somewhat ordinary. By making a few changes, I transformed it into a more dramatic portrait,” says Allison. “Shooting with my Nikon D300 in Manual mode, at ISO 200, I decreased the shutter speed to 1/160 second, and changed the f-stop to f/8. The big difference in this ‘after’ shot came when I changed my camera’s white balance to 3000K and modified the main light with tungsten-balanced gel to match the camera’s white balance of tungsten. Moving the separation light and softbox farther from the subject produced a harder source of illumination to Gabriel’s right. A second Hensel Monolight with a 7-inch reflector and 20-degree grid was placed behind and to his left, also creating a hard source of illumination. The two accent lights were not modified with a tungsten gel so their color temperature remained bluish or daylight balanced to 5500K. The lighting coupled with a more interesting pose produced a warm, moody image that worked well for his online portfolios.”

To produce distinctive portraits and to avoid staying in her “safe zone,” Allison tears down her lighting setup after every shoot. “This way, I create a customized lighting setup for every client,” she says.

For more of her lighting tips, read Sculpting With Light: Techniques for Portrait Photographers (Amherst Media, October 2008) and her upcoming book, Advanced Sculpting with Light: Creating Your Style Using Light Modifiers (Amherst Media, Oct. 2010). Visit Allison’s website: www.allisonearnestphotography.com.

Ingredients:
– Camera: Nikon D300
– Lens: AF-S NIKKOR 24–70mm f/2.8G ED
– Exposure, before: 1/200 at f/7.1, ISO 200, RAW, Auto w/b
– Exposure, after: 1/160 at f/8, ISO 200, RAW, w/b: 3000K
– Lighting: Hensel Integra 500 monolight; Rosco gel
– Light Modifiers: Hensel softbox, reflector and grid
– Meter: Sekonic L-758DR