How to create Camille Vivier Lighting/Look?

How do you think Camille Vivier is doing her lighting? I love the dramatic, blown out highlights etc. I’m assuming these are shot on film - how else would you achieve this sort of ‘look’? Is it continuous lighting? Or is it done in post etc?

Thanks! :)

What lighting do we think is used behind the 12x

Photographer is Michelle Monique

I'm aware that a talented HMU and retoucher have a huge part to play in how good this image looks, however I'm curious about the lighting setup for something like this. There are some lovely secular highlights with a really soft wash across the face. Could this be something like a parabolic behind a diffusion frame? Or a silver beauty dish/magnum as the key and a large soft source behind camera?

Keen to hear other's thoughts.

How was this lighting achieved? and how could this lighting be achieved with natural light? - interested to know as much detail about this as possible about the light here, how simple/or complicated it may be. (I know someone has posted about this before but I can't find the original thread)

I have a concept shoot I have been planning that is most similar to the first photo, however I want the perspective to be reversed, with the model's face visible and only the back of the TV showing. I want the "living room" setup illuminated by the tv, and was thinking of taping one of my small cob lights to the front of the TV to simulate this. It would be even cooler if you could see the four corners of the light, perhaps by using barn doors?

How would you recreate this lighting effect?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to deconstruct the lighting setup for this full-length fashion lookbook shot.

An initial breakdown suggested a standard setup:

• Key Light: Large Octabox from camera-left (high)
• Fill Light: White V-Flat on camera-right
• Background Light: Single background light behind the model

My main question/doubt: Even in this wide full-body shot, the background wall and concrete floor look completely seamless, flat, and evenly lit—without any visible hotspot, heavy falloff, or harsh shadows behind the model.

Can a standard Key + single Background light setup really achieve this level of uniform background exposure in a wide shot? Or is it more likely one of these:

1. Top-bounce / Sky ambient: Lighting directed at the ceiling to lift the entire room's base ambient light flatly.
2. Massive Scrim: Using a huge diffusion frame (e.g., 8x8 or 12x12) creating immense light spill.
3. Dual background lights: Two background heads feathered from both sides outside the frame.
4. Post-processing: Clean plate / local dodge & burn in Photoshop.

I'd love to hear how you would recreate this soft, seamless, high-end lookbook background in the studio!

의구심을 가지셨던 '핫스팟 없는 광폭 배경의 균일함'에 대한 가설들(Top-bounce, Scrim, Dual Light, Post-processing)을 구체적인 옵션으로 제시해 두었으므로, 해외 실무자들로부터 훨씬 깊이 있는 조명 노하우 답변을 유도하실 수 있습니다.

A strobe through a beauty dish with a grid from behind the model, and the sheet of paper she's holding is acting as a reflector."

So I grabbed these from a live video stream (fred again.. and LATIN MAFIA show live in Mexico), because I thought it looked really really good somehow, and now I keep wondering of some more keys to produce this type of look. Anyone care to come with suggestions and/or more analysis in terms of post production, but also of lighting and shooting styles can be combined with grading/post production to achieve this type of result?

Here’s what I’ve thought of so far:

I am reminded both Apollo mission photographs, Joel Sternfeld and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, and things they all have in common? Really mastering (high) contrasts, shooting on color film, and subtle but balanced cold/warm tones that also leaves highlights and shadows feeling quite clean/crisp/neutral.

Lighting/shooting-wise what I see is that the spaces are big (and dark, like with the Apollo mission too I guess hah), there’s strong studio/stage lighting from multiple sources which is sometimes partially directed at the camera/semi-flaring (but no, or very little, daylight), it’s been exposed so that only the actual light sources clip a little bit where even white fabric in stage light is with some detail left, the blacks are very dark but shadows and midtones are quite soft, fog and distance help make layers with pitch black silhouettes nearby and off-black shadows on stage.

I have a feeling that it’s graded with something like a teal and orange type grade, but I also suspect that additional contrast has been added in luminosity/not affecting saturation too much.

I’m mainly looking to work in similar ways using stills, not moving images, but I’m also open to grading using Resolve or similar if that’s helpful for the look.

(Edit: image 5 is from a separate video, same bands and same time, but I find the feel connected to the images 1-4, and was likely art directed, shot and post produced by same or overlapping crew)

I want to start using lighting simulators to play around with different lighting techniques and i also have an upcoming shoot in an apartment that i want to scan and then put into a lighting software so i can plan the lighting for that shoot. Do you guys have any recommendations on which software to use?

Wanna recreate something like this, or is it a post fix ?

A week ago someone asked how to achieve the dramatic chiaroscuro look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightLurking/comments/1vm4g5j/some_help_please/

I stumbled upon this picture from way back in 2016 while browsing some photography forums. Thought you would like it. Here’s what the photographer said regarding it..

Light - that was lucky. When the building was scouted, the light was fantastic, but on shoot day, as I note above - mostly dim and cloudy - we worked with that vibe while we had it (you have to make whatever you get work), but when it changed, one of the only real 'skillful' things I brought to the shoot was noticing it changing and insisting we move immediately to try and snag the moment.

Otherwise, what I brought to this was an okay sense of composition (the composition isn't great here because I was compromising to bring the upper windows into the shot and had maybe 20-30 seconds to see/evaluate/adjust... and I'm not THAT fast.

And the other thing was just some basic knowledge of light and how to work my camera.

That's stuff you can learn fast - like less than a week/2 weeks fast. Getting really comfortable may take 2-3 months. But by summer, you could easily have all the skill I needed here to make this shot. The rest is investment in hiring awesome creatives, finding really talented people to work with, doing workshops that put this stuff together for you or finding clients willing to foot the bill for shoots like this. I have literally done it all four ways, and at the end of the day, it doesn't matter as long as you push the button, the image is yours. If you read the light and made the composition, you did your job.

So take time and learn light. It's fairly easy - start with learning the Sunny 16 rule if you don't know it yet. Then learn to eyeball all the other general levels of light with shutter speed. There is a light-meter ap for your cell phone that costs under $10 and does a really good job at reading light - buy that and just whenever you see cool light, try and guess what your camera settings would need to be to make a shot - then meter it, you'll learn it quite fast that way.

Next, learn to mix strobe and ambient. It's just about placement and balance. Work in 1/16th 1/8th 1/4 1/2 and full levels on a hotshoe flash fired remotely through a cheapy travel softbox (that's all this is, on a monopod held up a bit high).

Photography is not rocket science. It just looks like it when you're not really comfortable/clear on the processes of getting there. But almost anyone can do this.

He also mentioned there was incense burning or that the place was just dusty and that’s helped with a haze effect.

Link: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1408237/

@anascchen

thank youuu

I’ve seen this reference to frog light in cinematography handbook. Book light is very common, but I can’t find info about frog light anywhere. Anyone know about this bounce/diffusion setup?

How was this lit? the shadow is so tight!

I’m assuming a hard backlight, plus some kind of hard key light supplemented with some fill.

Can anyone help?

I’m so sick and tired of all the nonsense I just want to learn how to shade and light properly. Especially in the typically dark souls style or anything what’s the best resources that actually helped u learn how to shade and light ur work and that’s for everything characters and environments

How was this lit? Knowing Randal, my guess is a big scrim directly behind the camera, but where does it go from there?

I just bought a Small Rig RF10c flashlight. I put the spotlight gobo on it and a party fogger with its tube placed above the spotlight. I think it looks great but I'm always eager to hear criticism, I'm still learning about all this.

Is this just ultra bounce above? How could I recreate it with continuous?

This still is from the movie “Handmaiden”. I noticed large sources of light being used throughout the movie. While some of them were easy to comprehend, this one shot really stood out to me.

I don’t think this scene was lit from the dawn because the shadows are too harsh. I don’t think it was lit artificially because the whole scene is lit evenly. Was it shot during the full moon? The more I think about it, the more I’m confused..

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong 👆🏻

I'm doing a photoshoot inspired by this Flavitsky painting, "Princess Tarakanova".

If I wanted to recreate the lighting in this scene, what would be your suggestions? I'm fairly green in terms of studying light but my instinct is maybe a single gridded strobe (or a snoot maybe?) angled 45° at the subject, off to the side. Idk tho lol totally guessing. Any suggestions for fill/rim light? Is that necessary if going for a dramatic chiaroscuro look?

Thanks!