New Lighting Technique

Well.....not new but new to me. I first saw this done on Scott Kelby's blog. Instead of using a white backdrop, I have started using a large softbox or octabox as the background. I've found this to be a very nice backlight effect as it wraps around the subject, highlighting the hair, sides of the face, and shoulders. The key is to shoot tight so you don't allow too much light back into the lens which will cause a washed out look and make sure the subject is all the way against the softbox/octabox.


I usually have my key light powered just a tad over the back light and use a reflector as a fill. Here are some images I have made using this lighting setup.