I'm trying to do a specific shot and I'm having trouble getting the light right. I'm going to shoot a relatively wide frame, probably a 12 foot across (using whichever lens will fit in the room). Subject will be laying on white, and I want only the subject lit and not too hard ... with like a one foot (at most) halo around them with the rest falling completely to black. I can get to as black as I want at 1/200 second ISO 100. I plan to use two speedlights. Need advice on modifiers (most of all), settings (power and zoom), positioning (considering my wide frame). I tried doing this with two long snoots, but the light was too hard - it just wasnt doing it for me, and the light spills too much I think because the white sheet becomes a big reflector.
Power/zoom are relevant to your desired aperture, distance to subject and modifier... Unless someone has shot the same thing with the same flashes and modifiers, can't give you power settings. You say you want "strong fall-off" but you also want "soft light" that kind of contradicts itself because hard light has strong fall off where soft light has more wrap around. If soft but focused is what you want, you're going to have to get the strobes as close to the subject as you can get. A huge black flag may be needed to keep them out of the frame. What you are truly looking for is a Fresnel... That will give you the focused beams you want, with strong falloff outside their beam but still a soft quality where they are lighting. Sorry I couldn't give you better advice, some days equipment is the limiting factor...
Yes this is what I meant. When you say a huge black flag - do you mean to block the light or physically block the strobes themselves (so the strobes are in the frame very close to the subject but blocked from the camera lens). That might have been my problem - because like I said, I had a wide image so the strobes werent very close. Sounds like I need to get closer AND zoom. I'm thinking though, zoomed and close am I still going to be able to get that spotlight effect I'm going for? Even with long snoots on it was lighting up the room a bit - seems like there'd be enough light bouncing around the room to make it hard to get to black around the aimed spots of light.
Think of a flashlight... The closer it is to something the narrower the beam is, move it back and the beam widens. There are 2 ways to soften light... Move it closer and thereby making the light larger because it's closer (the sun is a pin point light source) or physically make it larger by using a large softbox, umbrella or bouncing off something like a big white wall. Also remember inverse square law when it comes to light... The closer you can get the light to the subject, the lower the power needed to light them to the desired F stop and it also has the effect of having much quicker falloff and less chances of lighting up the room.... If you could put the flashes pretty much on top of the subject and then flag them from the camera using pieces of black foam core, cardboard or anything else that wont let the light through you should be good... I regularly do this with bodyscapes... You'd never know I'm routinely using a 5' tall softbox, it's that close to them that many times I'm flagging it to not be seen int he frame... If you take a look at the picture I put up of Hannah on FB, she's sitting in a black office chair... That's 3 strobes on her and right behind her is a sliding glass door, I got a faint little reflection off her back on the glass but you can't see any outside ambient or my strobes reflecting in the glass... Inverse square law is your friend as is angle of incidence...
Grids, Barn doors and a snoot across the room hitting her in the back of the head... With the exception of the snoot the others were within 4-5' of her.
