• Lighting Design

  Best way to light a subject with bright white hair

  Posted by Matt Crain on October 8, 2015 at 4:24 pm

  Hello all, I’m working on ways to improve lighting for my boss who has very bright white hair. He wants his hair to not be so bright on camera and thinks adding a dimmer will solve the issue. I think this will make his face too dark and won’t solve the problem. So any ideas or tips for balancing the contrast between his face, he is Caucasian, and his hair would be greatly appreciated.

  Bruce Watson replied 10 years, 8 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Mark Suszko

  October 8, 2015 at 9:55 pm

  The dimmer isn’t the answer. One trick they use in film shoots is to flag the lighting with solid and partly-transparent flags and “cutters’ or nets, or put a “dot” or “finger” in the filter slot of the Fresnel spotlight ( like the “dodge” tool in Photoshop or real photo developing), so the light on the hair is reduced but the light for the face is allowed to pass along. This relies a lot of the subject staying pretty still, or they get out of the line-up of these gadgets.

  You can google visual search the use of fingers and dots with stage lighting, to get an idea.

  Something else to consider is relative contrast to the background: bright white or gray hair looks even brighter against a dark backdrop, even when properly exposed.
• 

  Bruce Watson

  October 10, 2015 at 10:31 pm

  [Mark Suszko] “Something else to consider is relative contrast to the background: bright white or gray hair looks even brighter against a dark backdrop, even when properly exposed.”

  This. It’s not just about level, it’s also about contrast. Just don’t let his hair be the brightest thing in the picture, and you’ll generally be OK.

  For example, if you put him in front of a white background, pull his face down to an IRE around, oh, 50-60, his hair may go to 80s, and look light gray compared to a white background at IRE mid 90s.

  You could also try a mid level background that contains a practical light that’s up near IRE 100. Then, even though his hair is lighter than the background, his hair will be darker than the practical which will make it seem less bright.

  Play with it. There are many paths to the waterfall.

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