Lighting Setup for Soft, Colored Spotlight
Below you will find examples of two setups I used to create a soft, colored spotlight within my photos. While you may have seen this on Instagram, this post will provide a bit more insight into my setup and approach that wouldn’t fit into the IG Caption.
The Soft, Circular, Spotlight Effect
To create the spotlight you are seeing in the photo above, actually requires lighting the specific location of where you want it to show up, indirectly.
In fact, the effect is created by using a small circular modifier, and lighting a white wall. Then, letting the light on the white wall bounce onto the location you want the spotlight to hit.
It is a tricky setup, because you need to continue to play with the position of the source light (angle, height, distance to subject and wall, etc) to get the spotlight to show up exactly where you want. Unfortunately, the only way I know to do it is through trial and error.
If you don’t have a white wall, you can use any white surface, like I did. In this case, I used why diffusion paper.
Set the spotlight up last.
My recommendation would be to get the spotlight setup in a rough area you think it should go on the backdrop. Then leave it alone until all other lighting, subjects, and camera is in place.
Setting up the composition of your shot, and setting up the lights they way you want them can take a while. If you setup the spotlight first, then you will no doubt have to change the location of it before you are actually ready to take a shot.
By just getting it in an approximate location in the beginning, then you won’t have to make drastic adjustments later that would potentially force you to also update your subject or camera position.
This shot
The photo of the purple shots was a 3-light setup, using two large soft strip boxes on either side of the subject, one of which was double diffused to create the softer, gradient light on the glass.
The third light was the speed light modified with the grid, and a purple gel, to create the spotlight. I had it shining on a reflective, black surface.
I took a unique approach for this photo, as I wanted to make it more intriguing than my usual shots. To do this, I actually tilted the camera a significant angle before I took the photo.
To pour the liquid, I moved the diffusion paper on the right and practiced pouring at an angle that would compliment the angle of the camera. Because I was standing in front of the the light, the pour itself had to be composited into the photo without the pour, so that I could still get the highlights on the glass the way I wanted.
Shot in Canon EOS 80D
60mm Macro Lens
ISO 100
F/11
SS 1/250
Right strip soft box, double diffused: 1/1 speed. at 24mm zoom
Left strip soft box: 1/1 speed at 70mm zoom
Grid spotlight: 1/1 speed at 35mm zoom
Spotlight plus water effect
For the second shot of this Gin, I also created the same type of spotlight effect. In this case, I also added water to the surface. The ripples of the water forced the spotlight (this time with a blue gel) to bounce around, which is why the spotlight is stronger in the center, yet can still be seen on the edges.
Shooting the water
This is real water, that was poured onto the reflective surface. The key is to pour the water, and shoot the camera at the same time. This is multiple shots poured in different locations of the frame so that I could composite together the multiple ripples. I recommend having a remote control when triggering the flash, so that you can use the other hand for pouring.
The rest of the shot setup
The unique shape of this bottle made the subject interesting and quite difficult to shoot. Placing lights on either side wasn’t working. But the way I did end up lighting this was also difficult.
The main light is the snoot. It is lighting the clear bottle from the back.
I ran into multiple issues with too much glare in some areas, and not enough light in others. A lot of composite work was done on this, and I can say I will probably reshoot this at a later date to provide better light. Or, at least another shot like this.
However, it at least gives you an idea on how to create the spotlight and water effects.
Shot on Canon EOS 80D
60mm Macro Lens
ISO 100
SS 1/250
F/7.1
Speedlight modified with grid and gel: 1/2 speed at 105mm zoom
Speedlight modified with snoot: 1/8 speed at 105mm zoom