Tungsten studio lighting - positioning?

[luca brazzi]

Dug out my old Interfit lighting, and decided to add another couple of lights to make 4 x 500watt tungsten lights.

Equipment:
4 heads (as above)
Fitting options:-
Item 1 - 1 'beauty' reflector (see below)
Item 2 - 1m silver brolley
Item 3 - 70cm silver/white brolley
Item 4 - 1m translucent brolley
Item 5 - 70cm translucent brolley.




Question:

What is the best way of positioning the lamps and brolleys to achieve a pleasant effect for portraits (women and men - ie. different lighting)? Obviously there are loads and loads of things to try, but a headstart from the experts on PH would be hugely appreciated.

I've got various backgrounds, but using black at the moment so that the subject is the sole lighting focus.

Any ideas in terms of position around subject, height, and intensity?

Thanks,
LB (sick of looking at 100 pictures of himself)

[luca brazzi]

Anybody?

[gravymaster]

Hi Luca,

I would suggest for simple bu t effective portrait lighting:

light needs to be bounced off the brollies or diffused through a softbox.

Try using one light either side of the camera with light pointing onto the subject forming a triangle if you see what i mean, for the most simple set up.

Usually have the lights above the eyeline of the subject unless you are going for a dramatic effect.

To make the subject look less flat place one of the lights to the side of the subject.

I hope this helps. Best just to play around with different set ups and see what you like! Post results please!

Dont forget to adjust white balance for the tungsten lights if shooting digital.

[luca brazzi]

Thanks matey. Will have another photo session this evening and continue moving stuff around.

Will put up some samples (but don't really want to make people ill)

LB