Highlighting side profile with strobe - Advice needed

[macadphotos]

Any strobist enthusiast out there? I'm trying to replicate the image below but to no avail. I'm using a strip box at about 90-110 degrees off axis but somehow, I can't seem to get the highlight to form a line. Instead, I get an area that is highlighted. I tried to increase the angle of the stripbox (120 to 145), but I end up capturing the box in the photo. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[macadphotos]

Photo can be found on High-Key and Low-Key Photography – 32 « Photography news, equipment and camera reviews and tutorials.
Courtesy of dphoto.

 

[Rashkae]

No need for strobes, a simple light in a bathroom or evening light at a window will do. Just remember to dial down your compensation. You are using too much light.

You can see the light is at 90 degrees to the photographer. The light source is sufficiently distant and dim. The exposure in the camera is well controlled.

 

[kandinsky]

Are you using any modifiers? My guess: Use grids/flags to help you better sculpt and control the light.

 

[catchlights]

Any strobist enthusiast out there? I'm trying to replicate the image below but to no avail. I'm using a strip box at about 90-110 degrees off axis but somehow, I can't seem to get the highlight to form a line. Instead, I get an area that is highlighted. I tried to increase the angle of the stripbox (120 to 145), but I end up capturing the box in the photo. Any advice is appreciated!

yes, the light is coming from about 1.30 o'clock position, all you need to do is you have bigger space, place the light much further from your subject, and use a longer focal length lens to get narrower field of view.

 

[shockingpants]

Haha, I figured this part out when i woke up. You are right, it has to come from almost behind, else the highlight will be more diffused, especially on the cheek. I guess if I wanted to do a full body sculpt, I'll have to place the subject all the way to the right (in this set up) of the photo to eliminate the light source, and add negative (black) space via ps after.

Set up I am thinking of.

yes, the light is coming from about 1.30 o'clock position, all you need to do is you have bigger space, place the light much further from your subject, and use a longer focal length lens to get narrower field of view.

 

[shockingpants]

The photo I am getting before is similar to the following:

(Courtesy of someone from flickr)

This is at 90 degrees, and I got a lit surface like in the photo, instead of a line.
Also, I did use a grid. In this case, it didn't help too much.

Thanks for the help, i'll try it tonight and see how it goes!

 

[sjackal]

The 'light line' is actually a wrap around from a light source behind the subject, hitting the OTHER side of the subject actually, so maybe 135 degrees or thereabouts vs the camera, or like catchlights said 1:30 o clock

It is also very tightly controlled, most likely a grid spot.

The second example you see, although similar, is totally different in that it is from 90 degrees side lighting or thereabouts (see the texturing on the nose), AND that light's transition from highlights to true value of subject, to the shadows, are gradual and smooth, and it falls off quickly, so we can guess the distance is close, unlike the first example which the transition from highlights immediately goes to shadows very sharply, with very little or no midtones, thus the 'light line' effect. How not to also light the other parts of the face is only possible when the light is coming from behind the subject and the wrap only affects the contours of the face.