Issues with hair shadows in rim lighting

I really like using a kicker at a 45 degree angle behind my talent to really give them great separation. I keep running into an issue though.

With women and some men, the rim like creates weird forward facing shadows from hair on the face. Sometimes the ear too. What do you guys do to remedy this?

Thanks!


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I really like using a kicker at a 45 degree angle behind my talent to really give them great separation. I keep running into an issue though.

A kicker at 45 degrees isn't really a "rim light", more of a three-quarter back-light which can sometimes catch the tip of the nose or indeed cause other problems. The only real answer I know of is to narrow the angle more to get it closer to being a true back-light, right behind the subject. Harder to do, if you've only got standard lighting stands at your disposal and are trying to keep them out of shot, but a lightweight lamp head like a Dedo can be mounted on a boom to move it "in & over", or if you're in a building with a suspended ceiling a scissor-clamp works well with more or less any light (even a red-head with an inline dimmer can make a usable backlight).

Maybe a touch of eye light can help too, to fill in some of the shadows you're getting.

Jules

Maybe a touch of eye light can help too, to fill in some of the shadows you're getting.

Jules

No I don't think that will work, I'm going to agree with Martin Kay 100%

Moving the light behind the subject more helped a lot. Thanks for the tip. Still had a shadow on the ear ring though. I'll keep testing different placement to see what works best. It's clearly just a delicate balance between getting the look, exposing properly, not getting lens flare and not getting weird shadows.


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