Another Day Another Portrait Setup...

Another day another portrait setup in my little studio. This time my main light is an SB-910 shot through a gridded 95cm octobox, fill light is an SB-700 shot through a gridded 18cm reflector and the background light is an SB-600 shot through a gobo to provide a single ray of light. All speedlights are controlled wirelessly via Nikons CLS system useing an SU-800 Commander unit mounted to a D750. 

I really like the quality of the light from the octobox, it is large enough to give a nice fall-off of light around the face, has two diffusers to soften and even up the light and doesn't show any hotspots anywhere on the face.

Final image

Pull-back shot so you can see where the lights are placed

Three Light Portrait

 The plastic fantastic headshot model agreed to sit for another portrait session today (well she didn't say no...) and I decided to go with three lights this time around. The main light is an sb700 shot through reflector with grid attached from camera right. Fill light is an sb600 also through a reflector with grid attached. The background light is an sb910 shot through a gobo and fresnel lens system from MagMod. All taken with a D750 and 24-120mm f4 lens at 120mm & aperture priority f5.6. The lights were all controlled and fired wirelessly via an su-800 Commander unit.

The first image is the final shot, followed by a pullback set-up shot and then main and background light individually just to show the effect each light has on the image, with final shot to show the fill in the shadows.

Final image.

World's Most Patient Portrait Photography Model...

I have been taking portraits for many years, in fact the earliest photos I can remember taking were portraits with my old Box Brownie. I still have those photographs and they are some of my favourite pics of my family.

The biggest problem for me through the years has been finding patient subjects to experiment on while I try out poses, lighting configurations etc. ...but no more! I have found the ultimate model who never complains, whines that they are hungry or needs to go for a toilet break. Meet my new plastic fantastic cheapo headshot model from Amazon.

Now I can experiment to my hearts content without being pressured to feel guilty because they are tired or their neck hurts or the flash is starting to make them jumpy. (Bunch of whiners...) 😜  

Also, never blinks. It's an all round win!

These were all taken with my trusty D750 and either the 80mm f1.8 or the 24-120mm f4 at 120mm. The lights are three Nikon Speedlights, an SB-910, an SB-700 and an SB-600. All were controlled remotely in separate groups by my SU-800 Commander that allows me to adjust each light simply, easily and quickly. The light modifiers are all from Elinchrom and include softboxes, snoots, reflectors, grids, etc. and are mounted to Godox adapters that my Speedlights clamp into. I have rolls of coloured gels that I cut to size and insert to change the colour of the lights. Backdrops are either fabric mounted to a backdrop stand or the bare off-white studio wall, whichever takes my fancy at the time to achieve the look I want.

 

All photos were taken in RAW format and processed in RawTherapee on an iMac running Linux which is part of an experiment in seeing if I can adapt my workflow completely to an opensource software environment. So far it looks quite positive... more about that coming in a future post.

 

 

Plastic head is mounted onto an old mic stand from my singing days. Fully height adjustable!