Not having a true daylight studio (living in Manchester, England it wouldn’t be much use anyway) I decided to do a quick test with my Interfit 9 heads. Usually these are pointed directly at the subject from about 1-2 metres away but I thought it would be great to get a much more natural looking spread of light similar to that of the old Victorian daylight studios.
I set the four nine bulb heads around one corner and bounced them off the high white arched ceilings of the studio.
A plate shot with the old Box Brownie, I really like this longer format, shame the lens is just f8. I usually allow a loss of two stops for bounced light when shooting digital in the studio so worked on the same math. Direct light with two heads at f4 is about 10 seconds. So f8 bounced with four head worked out at a 80 second exposure. So f4 would be 20 seconds…..hmmm, maybe a little too much to ask but do-able for sure.
I really like this. I have it in mind for some portraits soon, but obviously not with the f8 Brownie.
White corner of studio with dark wood chair…
Oh and that reminds me, I must wash the studio floor sometime soon!