Lighting Setup: Top Light for Low Ceiling Studios

Working in a big, fully-kitted studio is easy mode! If you can’t get a decent shot in a fully light-controlled space, surrounded by all the lighting gear you could possibly want at your fingertips, it’s time to take up black-and-white photography! Sadly, this perfect shooting setup happens far less often than any of us would like.

For most of us mere mortals, photography is more about problem solving than measuring lighting ratios and more about making do with the kit you have at hand over being concerned with fluctuations in colour consistency. I’m sure we all pray for the day when the biggest problem on set is when the Kelvin on one light is varying by +/- 50. But until that day comes, we’ll concern ourselves with trying to make three lights do five lights worth of work and deal with that dreaded low ceiling on location!!!

Now, before you all rush to comments to say how I, a professional photographer who probably has more lights than brain cells, can moan about these problems, let me just stop you right there and say that some problems, like low ceilings, never disappear! It doesn’t matter how long you do this job, but some issues never change, and the low ceiling problem on location is one of them.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the lighting setups with a big soft light suspended well above the subject to create this gorgeous top light, but today I want to show how I deal with trying to get a large top light above my subject…. without having the room to place a big top light above my subject.

The Setup

As always, let’s first look at the setup and then I’ll break down exactly what’s going on.

TL;DR/ADHD/Artist Setup Explanation

• Set up white background behind model
• Suspend large silver reflector above model with C-stand and boom
• Place projection attachment on floor in front of model
• Angle Projection Attachment straight up at reflector above model
• Position large umbrella behind you
• Assign gels or hue values to lights accordingly

Kit Used

Camera Settings

• Camera – Nikon D850
• Lens – 24-70mm f2.8
• Shutter Speed – 1/125th
• Aperture – f2.8
• ISO – 160
• Kelvin – 4700K
• Focal Length – ~50mm

The Results

Click to enlarge any of the shots below.

Featured Model: Esmeralda_gb

Breaking it Down

This is only a two-light setup, so most of this is fairly straightforward to many of you now that you’ve seen the lighting diagram. However, I do want to elaborate on a couple of aspects that may not be immediately obvious.

The core idea being employed here is the bounced light acting as a top light. This is kind of odd in principle, as the top light is actually at the model’s feet, and in these shots, I’m shooting directly over that light to achieve the look. Had we had smoke or haze in this shot for example, all we’d see is that big red beam of light shining up from the bottom of frame.

Top-Light on the Floor

That red light is positioned on a floor stand and pointed straight up into that silver reflector above the model. The reflector is up as high as it will go, which in this situation, is only around 240cm. I’m using one of those large pop-out silver reflectors, and I’m sure you have a bunch of them as we all have at least one 5-in-1 reflector tucked behind the studio door somewhere. I’m supporting it up against the ceiling with a C-stand and a couple of booms mounted in a cross with a knuckle (see picture).

With this reflector in place, we want to ensure that the spotlight below only strikes the reflector and does not light the model on its way up first. If you’re catching the model with light from below, move the light slightly further away and angle it back onto the reflector.

Failing to keep the light off of the model before it reaches the reflector will completely ruin the effect.

The White Background

The next consideration is the background’s position in relation to the model. In the shots I’ve shown you here, you can see that I’m allowing some of the red light to spill onto the bottom of the background behind her. You can choose not to do this and to avoid the red spill entirely. To do this, just move the background further away.

This red-to-blue gradient behind is personal preference, but I liked the extra colour separation at the bottom of the image, so I actually brought in a white sheet behind the model to allow more red light to bounce up the white background.

The Projection Attachement

This is a serious piece of kit from Nanlite, and although I love this modifier and use it a lot, not everyone will have access to it. This modifier’s core job here is to accurately keep a small pool of light directly above the model on that silver reflector. There are other modifiers that can do this, and grids/honeycombs, snoots, and even barn doors on a light will achieve a similar controlled pool of light up there. As long as you can keep the light only on that silver reflector above and not strike the model before it reaches there, you should be fine. Even Cinefoil wrapped around a light and reflector dish will work in a pinch.

The Blue Light

This is an easy one to set up, and although I used a large umbrella here, a very large softbox will also work. The only advice you need, is to keep the power low, as this is technically our fill light.

Alternative Points to Consider – The Art Lens

Some of you may have noticed a couple of very, seemingly ‘blurred’ images from this set, and I wanted to clarify how I achieved them. As many of you know, I love to play around with a bunch of ‘art’ lenses where I can, and these shots were the result of one such lens, the Lensbaby Edge 35 and the Edge 80. I’ll provide links to all products used at the end.

These lenses are obviously not required for the setup, but with more abstract shots like these that utilise a lot of very heavy colour, doubling down on the creative nature of the final image can be worth playing around with.

Thanks so much for reading guys, if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below. Catch you in the next one.

Products Used

• Nanlite FC-500C: Full colour RGB LED 500w head.
• Nanlite Projection Attachment: S-fit lifting modifier that utilises masks and gobos to control a very focused beam of light.
• Lensbaby Edge Lens: Art lens that creates a very thin slice of focus – available in both 35mm and 80mm.
• Large 5 in 1 Reflector: This one here is 120cm by 80cm and should be big enough for this setup, although I think the one I used was slightly larger than this.