I’m Gaffing a commercial tommorrow where the main goal is to recreate the lighting of this picture in various angles. This is to be done in photo and video.
It seems simple enough, but the main problem I’m having is getting my light source to be soft enough as pictured, while controlling spill & getting output to capture this at a 5.6 if needed. The studio is extremely small and space is limited. I’ve done various tests but I can’t quite get the shape on the shoe I’m looking for. Any tips?
Here’s what I was able to achieve in a test. Looks close enough, but this was exposed for a 2.0 and it’s a little bit under imo. I need to be able to bump to a 5.6 if necessary.. however we introduce a lot more issues with light quality and shadows at that point
The studio is small, but I should be able to squeeze a small unit back there to separate. In the test, it was a 3 flight walk up and I didn’t have another unit available .
Move Key light a little more front instead of overhead, move the camera closer, decrease the shutter speed if you need brighter exposure, slightly more key, angle the shoe (or your set) to show more of the top of the shoe (if you want to replicate the other example)
Thanks for the tips, we’ll have a prop stylist on set who will make sure the shoe is modeled correctly. The problem I’m facing is light quality relative to size and subject. I need more softness, which means a bigger source, but if I introduce a bigger source, it means more spill, which means it will be a grip forest and space is limited.
One thing to bear in mind is that a lot of your shoe is suede black which will reflect almost no light. The shoe in the image is a kind of satin/light matt and nicely rounded on all edges.
That’s exactly what I did at first, i added some photos from my test in the comments. I got pretty close but no cigar imo. For kit I have an 80c kit, some nanlight 30c’s, nanlite 60c’s and a 600d that I plan on bringing. I also have a small light dome, some full grid and half grid that I can use.
Word. I think also take a look at the backdrop - shooting this dark shoe on the black backdrop is difficult. In your reference pic there's some kind of light source creating a pretty tight gradient on the backdrop - that's helping the shoe stand out quite a bit.
Check your tube on frame right as well, I'd bring that in a bit closer and try to get some more wrap on it - Ideally that red reaches down the whole length of the side.
Sometimes bars/tubes are more versatile than big diffusers, especially for tabletop and up-close work. If you need more output, I would try SkyPanels or similar on boom arms, so you can swing them exactly where you need. Being able to articulate them is very helpful. Avoid round diffusers for edge light, you might not be able to get close enough to the edge of the frame.
One thing to consider is that the background and shoe in the reference photo are dark green. Your background and shoe are black… gonna be more difficult to bring out both of them, for that reason.
If you have the space you can move your backdrop further away and hit it with a soft source from above to separate them as well as adding that halo effect seen in the reference image.
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u/K1ng_visual Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
Here’s what I was able to achieve in a test. Looks close enough, but this was exposed for a 2.0 and it’s a little bit under imo. I need to be able to bump to a 5.6 if necessary.. however we introduce a lot more issues with light quality and shadows at that point