Creating hard sunlight on location

In my last article I claimed that one can create harsh sunlight on location using artificial light and without expensive light modifiers.
To achieve this kind of look sometimes seen in fashion editorials, you only need one or two strobes with a narrowed beam.
In the following lighting diagram I re-created the setup used for a session with the model Neleta who kindly helped me explore this interesting look.

Lighting Diagram

I used only two strobes mounted high over our heads and firing down with a narrowed beam. I used grids and a snoot but you can apply the black paper as shown in the tip from Oleg Ti as well.

You can view the diagram here …

Results

I was very pleased with the results. The images looked really nice even strait out of camera only with some balancing of levels. There is a beautiful yet strong sculpting of the face without loosing the look of direct sunlight.

Take away

While harsh sunlight is fantastic, there are a few things to keep in mind while working with it:

– Keeping the light focused

Your model needs to keep the light in focus perfectly. If you step out of the narrow beam you will produce really ugly shadows ruining the entire image. Depends on your expectations and goal of course which kind of shadows you are willing to accept.

– Harsh light does not look good on everyone

Choose your model wisely if you would like to test this kind of setup. On some people harsh light does not look favorable and they might get upset if they see images other than they expect.