Videos & Articles

Using V-Flats as Negative Fill in Fashion & Beauty Photography | Lindsay Adler

Using V-Flats as Negative Fill in Fashion & Beauty Photography | Lindsay Adler

Today I'm going to share 3 reasons why I love using v-flats to create negative fill in fashion & beauty photography. You might not know what a v-flat is, or what negative fill is...but fear not, I'll explain. A v-flat is typically a foam-like object similar to poster board (but often thicker) that is used to block light or channel it. It's another form of a modifier. You can DIY your own, or do what I do, and get quality made ones from V-Flat World (link below) that fold up and generally are easy to use. If a fill light adds light to your photos, than negative fill is it's polar opposite. It removes light (aka blocks it) in order to create contrast, and can even absorb it! This is super important, especially if you're in a space where light likes to bounce all over the place. The v-flats become a great way to control that spill of light. I use v-flats all the time, in the studio, on location, you name it. I find them to be a very versatile tool. They don't require power, yet themselves are quite powerful! Here are 3 ways that I use negative fill with v-flats: 1. Emphasize cheekbones & jawlines This helps to carve out the features because it helps to absorb any bounced light that ordinarily would fill in those shadows, so you get more of a contrasty look. Try this out yourself, it's an interesting way to carve out those details! Check out the before/after in the video at 2:27. 2. Define edges In mid length and full length fashion shots using negative fill is a great way to add definition to the side of the body and sides of the subject. I like using this technique when I'm shooting in high contrast black and white especially since it creates s sharper edge on my subject. Check the before/after at 3:21 to see the major difference adding v-flats can have! 3. Control the background This last example is more about flagging the light, than negative fill, but that's also a very important thing. As I mentioned, v-flats are great for blocking light. I use v-flats for controlling the tonality of the background. A lot of people get various colored backdrops, but don't realize they can actually change the color in real-time by how much light hits it! Check out the differences starting at 4:00.

Using V-Flats as Backgrounds on Location | Lindsay Adler

Today I want to share with 3 differents setups where I use V-Flats as backgrounds while shooting with natural light on location. If you follow my work you know that I like to create clean, bold imagery. I often gravitate toward using hard light, and there's no better hard light source than the sun! When I shoot on location I often try to use shadows, shapes, and other things that I can use even as gobos to create those bold hardlight images. ✅. Setup one: 1:47 Probably my favorite use of a v-flat on location is using it as both a fill light and a high key background. This is a pretty simple setup as you can see. I place the subject in direct sunlight, right in between the v-flat folded behind her, with the white side facing towards me. With all this beautiful light bouncing off the v-flat it created this wonderful wrap of light on her. A simple setup, with a little bit of interestingness added through the use of the hat with shadows. ✅. Setup two: 2:42 Now we're going to flip the v-flat around and use it to create negative fill and a low-key image, something a bit more dramatic. Because of the shadows on the model's face and the high contrast look, I decided that this would make for a good black and white image in post. More often than not, high contrast lighting make for great black and white photos. I also added a small white reflector just so that the shadows under the model's chin weren't too dark. ✅ Setup three: 3:11 This time I used the v-flat to create interesting and compositionally graphic shadows on the background and the model. All I did was move the v-flat into a 90 degree angle so that the sunlight cast a shadow across everything. I love using graphic shapes in my work, so experimenting with this was fun because it was unexpected but definitely my style. This lighting setup again made for a great black and white processing. So 3 different setups, all similarly bold and graphic, yet different in their own right. If you get the opportunity to spend some time outside this summer and looking to do some natural light photos, definitely experiment with putting your subject in direct sunlight and using either something like a v-flat or other object to define hard shadows on them, you may like the results!