Day Forty-Two: One Light Portrait

Tonight our small local photo group gathered in my studio (those not currently infirm at least) for a short tutorial on one light portraits.  While portrait lighting setups using 3,4 or 5 or more lights are not uncommon (in modern or classic portraiture) they are certainly not necessary to good portraits. 

When I work in the studio I typically use 2 to 4 lights depending on the look I am trying to achieve.  But on location, one light and a reflector is almost all I ever use.  Increasingly, that one light is a flash on top of the camera that is bounced in a way to give soft directional light.  Honestly, anyone who has a hot shoe flash and wants to learn how to take better pictures should start by reading Neil VanNiekerk's blog and/or his book, On-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photographers.

While there are many sites and blogs dedicated to teaching use of OFF camera flash (Strobist and Lighting Essentials being, in my opinion, the two best) they really appeal to serious hobbyists.  In some cases, mine for example, they can lead to becoming a serious hobbyist and beyond.  But a lot of people have neither the time nor inclination to deal with the triggers, wires, and light stands it takes to do that kind of work.  If you own the most rudimentary DSLR and a dedicated system flash (e.g. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, etc,) you can vastly improve your photography quickly reading Neil's blog and book. 

But the studio is about setting up lights and backgrounds and being creative with light.  And even with one light, you can get quite a few different looks.

Thanks to Jeromie (pictured above) who sat for a few quick shots just as we were ending the program tonight.  I'd planned on shooting more throughout the session, but we had a lot of discussion and not that much shooting.  But we learned techniques and approaches that will serve us all again and again. 

Teach a man to fish...

Please check out my main blog: http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/

Day Sixteen: Wendy

My friend Wendy came by the studio today to pick up a softbox I had for her and to get a look at processing in Adobe Lightroom. We spent about 5 minutes in the studio shooting two quick setups. I'd calibrated my lights with Molly earlier in the afternoon and when Wendy got there, I sat her down in the first setup (the one this picture comes from) and shot 10 or so shots, then moved to a second setup to shoot some 3/4 lengths portraits on black. I will post the others from the session to my main blog (http://bmcportraits.wordpress.com/) tomorrow.

Getting settled in to watch the Ravens-Colts game, so that's it for today.

Strobist: AB800 in AB beauty dish with blocker in place and diffusion sock on. The BD is high and about 18 in from Wendy's face. Fill from a silver 48in reflector held just out of shot low. Kicker light, from the back at camera left is an AB800 with 20 degree grid and barndoors (keeping it from hitting the background and from creating lens flare.

Added Sunday: Here is my other favorite of Wendy yesterday. I had a hard time deciding between the two. Also, wanted to let the readers know that I need people to shoot for this project. Wendy told me she looked terrible in pictures...but I think our collaboration yesterday, which took all of 10 minutes, produced images she can proudly use on her Facebook page, in other social media, and on her website. If anyone wants to get 3-5 free digital portraits they can use for any electronic use they want, for FREE, just email me at bmcportraits@gmail.com and we can set something up...on location or at my studio. All I ask in exchange is the right to use an image of you on this and my other blog and Flicrk stream. So..if you need a new profile picture for work, Facebook, etc. get in touch.

Day Six: Mesa

This evening my friend Mesa came by to get some help with processing some images she took last week. She's far more accomplished in Photoshop than I am and I have the edge when it comes to Lightroom. We worked on the images together...me showing her ways to process in Lightroom...her showing me some Photoshop tricks I didn't know. Give and take. The community of photographers locally, nationally and even internationally is great at sharing techniques, advice and inspiration. There's always more to learn...no matter what level you're at. Me...I have plenty to learn and then some...but this project will certainly move me along the path.

Mesa and I found a combination of Photoshop actions for a grainy warm black and white look that we both really liked. We used it on two of her images, and I've used it on the image above I took of Mesa before she left this evening. I'd set the lights and background up this afternoon so I'd be ready when she was here and we shot for less than 5 minutes. I planned on black and white and finding a combination of actions that produced a warm black and white I really like was serendipity.

Strobist: 2 AB800 at 1/16th power on background. Key is AB1600 at 1/8th power in 24x36 softbox with a grid, high camera left. There is a 4x8 reflector camera right to add a bit of fill to the shadow side. It's also flagging the AB800 camera right to keep it from spilling on to the shadow side of Mesa's face. The AB800 camera left is spilling a little on the camera left shoulder.