No Light Modifiers??

Ok, I have a question.  Can you use studio lights without some sort of modifiers?   I mean, I know you can but should you?
I have three lights.  One with a medium softbox for the main, one with a big white umbrella for the fill and one with a homemade tinfoil wrap around to direct the light, for the hairlight.

I had a boudoir session last night and I was doing a shot with my big full length mirror and I wanted to try something different, more dramatic with shadows.  So I took off the softbox and put the silver cone thingy the light came with it on and shot with the bare light.  I liked the results, although I realized quickly that softboxes are forgiving if you place them slightly wrong, it took me a little trying to get the light in the right spot.

Does everyone else shoot with unmodified light sometimes, and I am just late figuring it out?

Thanks.
I usually use real soft light, and honestly I usually prefer quite flat light.  I need to venture out and try different looks though.  Boudoir stuff is a lot about shadows usually and I hardly ever do that.  I glamour light the whole session... 

Hi Gang!

Raw light!  My favorite!  For many decades the basic tools of the advanced photographic portraitist were those classic Photogenic™ Studio masters with the 16 inch aluminum parabolic reflectors. A photographer can produce a vast range of results with theses kinds of units- soft, hard, low key, high hey and everything in between.  The problem with theses lights is that you really have to know what you are doing as they are very unforgiving.  With modified lighting you can, in fact, get away with lighting murder in many cases. I am mot talking about rocket science or anything that is beyond the reach of any photographer who is willing to learn about, experiment and practice parabolic lighting techniques.  You will find that the results are well worth the effort.

If you are familiar with traditional kinds of lighting patterns you are half way there- it’s just that you need to be very precise because comparatively small movements in the lighting positions or the subject will cause somewhat radical changes in the exact disposition of each lighting pattern in the final results.  Even the transition from a more demure expression to one with a broad smile may necessitate a fine adjustment of your main light to accommodate the change of the nose shadow in relation to the upper lip of the subject.

When starting out with unmodified lighting it begins to seem that all those technical rules about angle of incidence, lighting placement, specular highlights, and catch-lights are obnoxiously getting in you face and you want to run and fetch the nearest umbrella or soft box and return to the safer world of soft light. Don’t, however, give up the ship until you give it a chance and follow some of theses suggestions. 

You can actually achieve softer lighting with a sheet or two of diffusion material such as Roscolux #117 placed over the reflector- you will still get some of the benefits of parabolic lighting with slightly less of an edge. Also remember, that when you bring the light source closer to the subject the results appear softer.

So you ask- what are the benefits?  Good question!  With parabolic lighting you get a more chiseled or sculpted rendition of the face with more control over shaping the face for cosmetic or corrective effects.  You will get a far better rendition of skin texture in character of theatrical portraits and you will have yet another technique in your arsenal of methodologies- a wider scope of stylizations to offer your clients.

The most important technique in mastering raw or parabolic lighting is FEATHERING.  I will skip the technical names for the “lighting zones” within a beam of light coming from a parabolic reflector. Suffice it to say that there is a hot spot which exists in the center of the beam and this spot falls of toward and on the edge of the beam.  Feathering means that you firstly aim the center of the beam at the subject and then “feather” or turn the unit slowly toward the camera until the light intercity visually falls off almost completely and then gently pan the light gently back and forth until you see a most noticeable and awesome rendition of the skin texture and the appearance of specular highlight begin to form on the features of the face- separating the planes of the face leaving nice defuse highlights on the forehead, the cheeks, the bridge of the nose and the chin. This creates the dimensionality which makes you images pop right off the page.

When the light is placed in this way, using the edge of the beam instead of the hot spot we say that the light is in the aesthetic position and all the light readings, exposure determinations, and ration issues are calculated with this position factored in. 

If you are getting blown out highlights on the forehead you can also feather downward. Barn doors are often used with parabolic reflectors in order to shade specific areas and to prevent light from kickers from striking the lens.

I hope this helps.  Ed

     

hello Ed!! and thanks for the help!!