You’ve seen the shots. You know they were all shot with one light. The question is - have you figured out exactly how they were shot?

Yes, I’ve actually learned some things from Strobist - and I’m sharing some of those things with you…

In case you haven’t seen the shots, here they are again:

Ryu on Black
As you can see, we have the main light on camera left. That silver and black thing you see on the flash is a reflector, making the flash a much bigger light source than it actually is. It also acts as a gobo - keeping light away from the lens and preventing flare.

What’s that fancy reflector I’ve got on the right? It’s a (used) piece of bond paper that gives me just a little fill. This keeps Ryu’s arm and leg from getting lost in the shadows.

Ryu on White
This setup is a bit more complicated than our low key shot. If you haven’t guessed already, the camera position for the shot is just off the bottom of the frame. Yes, this is a top view shot.

Anyway, we have three reflectors working for us here, and that doesn’t even include the background. Off at the top-left corner is a reflector for the background. If this wasn’t there, the background would be dark gray instead of light.

The reflector doesn’t completely block the light from the flash though - this gives our subject a little bit of rim light. This still keeps most of the figure in shadow though - and that’s where the two reflector at the bottom come in. These two bounce light back at our subject - giving us fairly even lighting up front.

Right Hook
Yes, the image is a bit dark. Yes, it’s another bird’s eye view shot. Yes, that’s the flash off to the right.

To control the spill from the flash, I snooted it with a bit of foil and black duct tape. That’s part of the reason the background stayed practically black.

Near the top-left corner is a small mirror held up by some adhesive clay. This gives us a cross-lighting setup - defining the edges on the left side of the frame.

Tags: Strobist, Canon Speedlite 430EX, Ryu, Street Fighter