Lastolite HiLite - 1 or 2 Flash Heads?

ghop99

ghop99

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Greg
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Hi All

Quick poll for those using a Lastolite HiLite to clear up conflicting professional advice.

Do you light it with one head or two? And how are your results?

Thanks for your input

:)
 
you can light it with one, but its much easier to get an even, blown white without wrap around on the subject using two
 
The plan is to get the light perfectly even over the whole surface. Ideally, somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0 stops over exposed compared to the front subject light, and no more. You just can't do that with one light.

You can get away with solo portriats by just getting it right behind the subject, and letting the rest go grey, because either that won't appear in shot, or if does, only around the edges where it is usually very easy to clean up in post processing to match the middle.
 
I use one light but have just bought a new flash for my main light so that I can put two inside the hilite to help cut down on pp.
 
Brilliant, thanks for your input guys. Sounds like I would have been disappointed with just the one light set up inside so have purchased enough Lencarta heads to do the job properly. I'll let you know how it all goes.

Cheers
 
redmonkee said:
I'm thinking of buying a hilite and have just come across this thread. Is it possible to light this thing using 2 speed lights or are studio lights needed?
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I've just bought a highlife. Should be her tomorrow, so will let you know. Lol... Will test with my studio lights and with some speed lights :) unless someone else knows already :)
 
redmonkee said:
I'm thinking of buying a hilite and have just come across this thread. Is it possible to light this thing using 2 speed lights or are studio lights needed?
Click to expand...

yes - its perfectly doable with speed lights. I know several people who do just that and get results that are just as good as using studio heads. It doesn't take that much power to blow out a hilite to about .5 to 1 stop overexposed (I'm normally around 1/16 on 300w heads so getting the power from a speed light won't be an issue
 
redmonkee said:
Cheers guys. The other question I have is how do you guys light the train?

I really want a hilite for doing full length shots and also of kids sat on the floor. I'm worried i'll end up with a perfectly white hilite and grey looking floor!
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There is a video on the lastolite site of Mark Cleghorn doing just this if you search. But, I'd take it with a pinch of salt - I've always ended up doing PP work on the floor to bring it up. I'm not sure there is a brilliant way to do it. Someone will tell me I'm wrong I'm sure.

I tend to use paper for full length - the hilite is brilliant for 3/4 length but I don't think that highly of the train
 
I don't think there is an easy way Hugh...I use the large version and the smaller one and have the floor problem everytime, I try and just do the 3/4 shots now.....The Lastolite video IIRC use 6 lights....WTF !! I thought the HILITE was supposed to be for convenience and portabillity.

Back to the original question, I have used one light in the smaller Hilite and it works quuite well but on the larger version, it has to have the two ligth in it...Hoppys comments about levels is spot on ...The advice given on the Lastolite site about two stops over for the background is far too high...especiallly if the subject is placed close to the Hilite as possible(Which is another selling point for the Hilite)
 
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There are some good threads on here about using a train - search. But the answer is, however you do it, it's not at all easy to do well.
 
redmonkee said:
Cheers guys. The other question I have is how do you guys light the train?
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With great difficulty lol.

boyfalldown said:
I've always ended up doing PP work on the floor to bring it up. I'm not sure there is a brilliant way to do it. Someone will tell me I'm wrong I'm sure.

I tend to use paper for full length - the hilite is brilliant for 3/4 length but I don't think that highly of the train
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No not wrong at all, i use my Hi-lite a lot and 80% of the PP work is on the floor, I've never really rated the train ethier well overpriced, although it just seems to be a necessary evil, i tried different ways of lighting the floor even pointing a light directly at it, while this was ok it just made more PP work as it lightened the legs/lower half of the subject, i tried various way i think the best i do now is in lightroom using the brush tool which lightens the floor great without lighting the subject (most of the time) :)
 
well its arrived, and i knew it was going to be 6x7 but its hUGE! :)

Cant wait to try it out! :)
 
TG. said:
(snip)


i tried various way i think the best i do now is in lightroom using the brush tool which lightens the floor great without lighting the subject (most of the time) :)
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Thats exactly how I do it ;) but I always thought I was missing something
 
boyfalldown said:
Thats exactly how I do it ;) but I always thought I was missing something
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Having read all the threads on this and had a go at various options myself, I think most folks would agree that you're not missing anything Hugh, and that's the best way. Least compromises on the lighting and easiest at the taking stage, provided you've got the time and the software to clean things up nicely.

But if you don't have the time/skill and need to get it right SOOC, that requires a different technique. This video is the best I've seen on how an event photographer does it, and cranks out loads of high quality images on the spot for immediate sale. This guy (sorry I couldn't catch his name at the start, from Manchester) knows how to turn a few quid and explains it all to Mark Cleghorn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw7ZcQ9bAVE
 
boyfalldown said:
Thats exactly how I do it ;) but I always thought I was missing something
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HoppyUK said:
Having read all the threads on this and had a go at various options myself, I think most folks would agree that you're not missing anything Hugh, and that's the best way.
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Agreed here too, i always thought i was missing something but as yet have not found a better way than in light-room, however i have learnt to tweak things a bit more in Photoshop, like for difficult situations were their may be a few people on the floor and it's a bit more difficult to get the shadows around their feet looking just right, but it does come with a lot of trial and error, and it's time consuming, i try and test myself now just to see how quick i can get it done and fortunately i seem to have it down to a minimum now, would still love to do it quicker though, it would be great if their was some way of batch processing it all :)

Oh and just for the record on the original question, I've never used less than 2 lights for lighting the Hi-lite, i personally don't see how it can be lit properly with just one.
 
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Editing the train is a very easy and quick job in Lightroom
This took 30 seconds (quicker if I didn't need to crop it a bit)!

From this
MG_7509a.jpg


To this
MG_7509.jpg


No editing other than the exposure brush and a tiny bit of exposure to the wee boy.
 
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Regards the original question.... 2 lights - You cannot get the hilite evenly lit with only one.
 
EOS_JD said:
Editing the train is a very easy and quick job in Lightroom
This took 30 seconds (quicker if I didn't need to crop it a bit)!

From this
MG_7509a.jpg


To this
MG_7509.jpg


No editing other than the exposure brush and a tiny bit of exposure to the wee boy.
Click to expand...

That looks fantastic :thumbs:

One thought though to cut down the amount of time spent on PP, would be to photograph from a lower angle and maybe have thew boy on a few cushions etc. This way you'll see less of the floor and the join where the train meets the Hilite :)
 
That was to show the floor :) I don't use cushions - Not sure I'd like that as you're adding in something that takes the simplicity away. But do shoot from lower positions and this can remove the floor altogether too...

I don't worry about the floor too much. Of the 40 or 50 images shown, many don't show the floor so the added work isn't too much.
 
Speedlights will be ok although you want to spread the light as much as possible.

THe probnlem is the recycle time. They are much slower than studio lights and as the battery dies the recharge time becomes longer.... meaning you could miss shots....

But fine for playing around with.
 
2 speedlights on quarter power work fine for me.

If I'm travelling light or working in a confined space that's what I'll use.
 
Re recycle time......it only really decays if you use planet killers. Use decent rechargeables and the recycle is pretty constant until suddenly they stop working.
 
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