Three Quick Portrait Setups

A quickfire portrait photo session in order to do three different looks in succession by just adding, changing or moving a few speedlights. Always fun to keep the old hand in by way of this type of practical exercise.

I used a Nikon D850, Nikon 85mm f1.8 lens, four Nikon Speedlights all triggered wirelessly via a Nikon Speedlight Commander SU-800, ISO was 64 and aperture at f1.8 to get that shallow depth of field.

First off a single light shot through a snoot:

Contrasty and dramatic

Snoot was high, right and slightly behind of camera

The second shot I retained the snoot and added two lights aimed at the background, the light to camera left had the standard included incandescent filter attached and the light to camera right had the standard included fluorescent filter attached, both to influence the background in different ways. The light in the snoot was filterless.

More textured interest on the background

The snoot was left in the same position as the previous shot

The final photograph I used four lights and changed out the snoot for a shoot-through umbrella, I also brought it much closer to the subject. This had the effect of giving softer light. I also turned the two lights I used for the background in the previous shot and highlighted the side of the subjects head from slightly behind while shooting a gobo strip of light at the background.

Much softer light with lots of sculpting, depth & interest

All lights visible in this shot

The final setup I had the lights in three groups, the main light (group A) was at standard exposure, the side lights (group B) at -3 & the background light (group C) at -2.5. This gave a pleasing balance of light, at least for my taste.

All the light modifiers are from Elinchrom attached to Godox adapters to be able to let me use my Speedlights, except for the gobo which is from Magmod. I find that the Elinchrom studio lights are great in a bigger room but in such a small space they are way too powerful forcing me to stop down a lot more leading to me not being able to use the narrow depth of field that I prefer.

Below are some pics of the Godox mounts with Speedlights inserted. This is a budget conscious way of being able to use one set of modifiers for both the larger studio lights as well as the much smaller Speedlights.

Snoot

Umbrella

Reflector

How Does Focal Length Influence Portrait Photos?

Just a quick test to see how portraits look at vastly different focal lengths. I used two lenses for this starting off with the 24-120mm for the wider to "normal" portrait pics and then the 70-300mm for the two longer focal length pics. I tried out the following focal lengths: 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, 120mm, 135mm & 200mm. 

I would like to say at this point that I don't think there is any right or wrong in which focal length you prefer to use for portraits, it really is up to you and your own vision. Don't let anyone try to tell you different.

As you can see from the series of photos below the wider the focal length the more distorted the face and also more background. The longer the focal length the more compressed the face and background become.

I prefer fairly standard focal lengths for my own portraits, more specifically the 85mm for headshots and 50mm for half or full length portraits as well as environmental portraits if I have the space, otherwise the 35mm is great for environmental portraits as well.

The choice at the end of the day depends on vision, so everything goes because it's an art, not a science.

200mm

135mm

120mm

85mm

50mm

35mm

24mm

Snapseed Photo Editing App

My go-to photo editor on phone and iPad is the wonderful and surprisingly adept Snapseed app which is available for free on android and Apple devices. If you have not tried it out then give it a whirl and see for yourself what the fuss is all about.

I took a portrait of the plastic model head earlier today and then converted it to jpg via RawTherapee on Linux, transferred it to my Apple phone, played around a bit with Snapseed and then transferred them back to the computer and resized in the free GIMP photo editor.

 I have posted a random selection of various versions of the portrait below for you to peruse. 

Personally I am impressed by the quality of the output from Snapseed and also that it is so wonderfully versatile & handy to use to get some interesting looks. It isn't for everyone, but it's free and it just works.

The original portrait photograph

Six examples of the Snapseed treatment:

Rare Selfie Time...

It's not often that photographs get taken of me, mostly because I am always behind the camera. Today, just for once, I wanted to try out the portrait set-up that I have been shooting with the plastic head but using a real human head for a change and the only available (read "willing") sucker human at home today was me. So for better or worse you get to see my scruffy face today... 😱

First shot is a colour version of my scruffy face, second is the whole set-up but with the plastic head in my place, third shot is a 100% crop to show the totally insane resolution of the D850, and finally a B&W version of my scruffy face. B&W doesn't make me look any better though...

Colour version

Set-up shot

100% crop

B&W version

Final Fun With the Plastic Head (for now)

 Ok, just one more post featuring the world's most patient head-shot model. At least for now... it has been fun though.

As before I used my D750 and three Speedlights controlled wirelessly. The only change was using an Elinchrom softbox for the rear fill instead of the reflector I used before. 

Just two pics (plus one bonus pic...), the final image and a pull-back shot. You get the picture.

In the "bonus" pic below I just substituted some Christmas lights in the place of the Speedlight powered gobo used above to provide a somewhat sparkly background for a change.
 

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!

Cat Portrait

A quick natural light portrait of our cat Sweetiepie taken with a Nikon D750 and the wonderful Nikkor 50mm f1.8 G lens.

A Freckle Portrait

Occasionally I take a portrait that simply stands out from the rest. This was one of them.

Olympus OMD EM5 mk2, 12-40mm f2.8 pro lens, lit by some led panels on light stands. Edited in DXO PhotoLab 3.

Wedding shoot in France

I had the opportunity to shoot a garden wedding in France and the couple were wonderful!

Geisha with Fan

Same lighting as the previous post.

Geisha Warrior

I got to photograph a geisha for an assignment yesterday that involved props and a lot of makeup. The lighting was simple enough. Main light is a Nikon SB910 from camera right and about two feet higher than the model's head at 1/1.7th power bounced into a black backed umbrella. The background light was a Nikon SB700 at 1/64th power mounted on a really tiny light stand I got off Amazon which was flagged to stop spill onto the back of the model and faced sloped up towards the black background. I changed things up a bit by mounting a tungsten filter on the SB910 and setting the camera white balance to tungsten as well, which means the background light shows up a beautiful blue while all is perfectly normal with the light on the model.

Sweeney Todd does his thing...

Another from the Sweeney Todd photo session.

Lighting the same as previous photo, i.e.:
I had my main light, a Nikon SB700 shooting through a 1/8 grid at 1/20th power from high to camera right, and to fill the shadows I shot a Nikon SB910 into a black backed umbrella at about 1/40th power to camera left and just about level with the camera's height. Both Speedlights were triggered wirelessly via Nikon's awesome CLS wireless triggering system.

Sweeney Todd portrait

Took an interesting Sweeney Todd portrait yesterday that required a more "stage lighty" type look. Having worked on stage lighting many years ago I know that it can often be a little more hard and direct than we like in most photographic portraits. I had my main light, a Nikon SB700 shooting through a 1/8 grid at 1/20th power from high to camera right, and to fill the shadows I shot a Nikon SB910 into a black backed umbrella at about 1/40th power to camera left and just about level with the camera's height. Both Speedlights were triggered wirelessly via Nikon's awesome CLS wireless triggering system.

Middle-Eastern themed Portrait

A three light portrait with a Middle-Eastern style theme.

Three Nikon Speedlights used, one gridded from camera left as main, one snooted from camera right slightly behind the subject and higher, one through a brolly to camera right for slight fill. All controlled and fired via Nikon's excellent CLS wireless trigger system.

Film Noir Style "Strobist" Portrait

Decided to try something a little more dramatic today and shot this film noir style portrait with a snooted Nikon SB 910 shooting from high camera right directed down to Ellie's face and a snooted Nikon SB 700 splaying some light onto the background from camera left and slightly lower than Ellie's head. Both Speedlights were triggered via Nikon's fantastic CLS wireless trigger system.

I am rather satisfied with the dramatic atmosphere of the portrait and I think it harks back quite well to the early Hollywood film noir movies.

Nikon 85mm f/1.8 AF-S G still my favourite Portrait Lens!

Every time I shoot this gem of an 85mm lens it embeds itself more firmly as my favourite portrait lens regardless of whether I am shooting head and shoulders or full length portraits. (For full length I just stand further back...) This portrait was shot at f2.8 on my crop sensor Nikon D300s and the backgrounds are just wonderful!

It is also not at a ridiculous price point and would generally be within affordable reach of most people who spent much more than the price of this lens on a new Nikon dslr body anyway. The small(ish) expense is certainly worth the jump in IQ that it provides.

Have speedlights, will Portrait...

The best way to improve your portrait photography is to invest in a Speedlight... or two, and a wireless trigger system to be able to fire those flashes off camera. I use a cheap but reliable Phottix Strato system combined with two Nikon Speedlights and it has never let me down. Just make sure to have the batteries fully charged before you start and keep some spares handy too.

In this shot I have a Nikon SB700 to camera right shooting through a 105cm white umbrella set to 1/16 power and behind the model I have a Nikon SB600 on 1/64 power with no light modifier at all. My camera is at 1/200s, f2.8, and iso 200, handheld. I hate trying to shoot portraits on a tripod preferring to be able to adjust to my subjects movements freely.

Keeping the Lighting Simple for a Street Portrait

When you have a lot of lights and like to work in a studio set-up utilising at least three of those lights for portraits (sometimes more...) then it can be very liberating to get out into the open air and do some portraits on the streets of LA (affectionate term the locals give to our small town of Landskrona) and be restricted to using a simple single Speedlight set-up. I have a Nikon sb700 on a light stand shooting through an umbrella to camera right and a little higher than the subject. Everything is on fully manual for consistent control. The sb700 was set to 1/64th power and triggered wirelessly with a Phottix trigger system. Camera was set at 1/200s, f2.8, iso 400 and I used my favourite portrait lens, the Nikon 85mm f1.8. For good measure, here is a pull back shot of the scene showing the light firing: