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Illuminations: One-Light to Cover them All

Recently, we showed how to get the most from a single on-camera light [August 2005], so now we'll move the illumination onto a light stand and see what you can accomplish if you bring along just one illumination source. Why work with only a single instrument, when a classic single-subject setup needs key, fill, and back lights -- not to mention something for the background?

Poverty, portability, and power. You may not have the budget for a full light kit, or the need to do much interior lighting. You may be working out of your trusty Prius, with no room to store a bunch of lights and stands and cables, and no assistant to schlep all that stuff around. Or you may have to light a room with a single household circuit that may also have outlets in other rooms (Oh, how many times I've found this in older buildings). Plug in a second light and... BLOOEY!

You can do one-head lighting with a spotlight, a flood, a soft light, or a fluorescent bank -- but with varying degrees of success. I would forget about fluorescents, if only because they tend to be heavy and cumbersome, not to mention expensive to rent or buy. Softlights will do the same job, with much less weight and bulk. I like the kind from Photoflex with internal baffles and removable diffusion, for greater flexibility.

Floodlights, usually meaning broads, are a compromise. They're directional enough to be barn-doored (sorta) or provide the light source for an umbrella.

Spotlights, as always, are my darlings, especially the small units with true Fresnel lenses, barn doors, filter rings, and focusable lamps. First, they will deliver more light where you want it than any other instrument of comparable wattage. That's important when you have to hit a reflector as well as a subject, as we'll see in a moment.

Secondly, they are flexible. Used naked, they deliver 3,200K color temperature. Slip in a blue filter and they match daylight, with relatively little output loss. Clothespin spun glass to the barn doors for some diffusion; or to smooth them even more, cocoon them in a soft box frame or clamp them into an umbrella. In fact, if I had only one light to work with, I'd team a spotlight with two umbrellas: one silver and one translucent white. That way, I'd have every degree of light from hard-edged to wraparound soft.

When the ambient light at a location is feeble -- or just when you want to control the lighting perfectly -- you can work with your single light exclusively. How you do it depends on your instrument of choice.

If you use a spotlight, you'll need something to bounce its light back from the other side of the subject. For head and shoulder shots, a standard reflector may work fine. Place the spotlight at about eight o'clock (on our standard clock face ground plan) and the reflector at about four (of course, the opposite setup is just as good). Keep the spot relatively high and the reflector at or slightly below eye level. Now check two things. First, look at the effect on the subject, moving the spot around to find the most flattering position. Then position the fill to take care of shadows on the eyes, nose, and throat.

Next, eyeball the contrast between the key and fill sides of your shot. You can't do much with the reflector, but you can flood out the spot or move it away from the subject, in order to reduce its brightness. This doesn't always work because the light on the reflector will dim in proportion to the light on the subject. To fix that, rotate the key light forward so that the subject is lit by its edge, rather than its center; then relocate the reflector in the center of the spot beam. That will increase the fill side as it decreases the key side.

For wider shots, I like a reflector panel: a big, soft reflector that works as a very large light source. You can make a four by six-foot frame out of plastic pipe, hem an old sheet to fit it, and assemble the unit at the location. (See Videomaker's February 2005 issue for steps to make this unit. We used screening material because we were making diffusion, but in this case you would use an old sheet for reflecting.) Also, we have found a wide selection of reflectors online. Be extra careful with your key-to-fill ratio because the larger panel reflects less light per square foot than a silver reflector.

It's often easier to work with a softlight -- whether box or umbrella -- because its light seems to wrap around the subject to create key and fill at once. The trick is to start the light at six o'clock and move it slowly around toward one side, watching the contrast between the near and far sides of the face. Stop before that face turns into a half moon.