I’ve decided I wanted to show you all a little insight into my last photoshoot. Two different looks, two different setups. Both fairly inexpensive, with one of them costing ZERO dollars (besides your camera and lens, but, I figured you had that).
Setup #1 – $0
Nice, soft portrait. This is how it was done:
Window light! That’s it! Granted, the window is quite large in my studio, about 9′x5′.
For the next setup, I only used speedlights (hot-shoe flashes that can mount on top of your dslr – run on batteries) on some stands with inexpensive modifiers.
Here is the look:
Nice beauty headshot. Here’s the setup:
A little more complicated than the first. 3 lights, one reflector and two flags. The flags block the lights from behind, so they don’t interfere with your exposure. I fired the rear lights one-stop higher than the main light, and dropped a reflector under the main light to fill in the shadow. Another reason I used the speedlights was to be able to shoot at f/2.8 – I wanted a dramatic depth of field and if I were to use strobes (My Alien Bees), they would be way too powerful to allow for this aperture. Also, focus on the EYES! If the eyes are out of focus, the whole photo looks out of focus.
I must note that the makeup and the model are very important in all of your photo sessions. Loryn Pretorius did a rockin’ job on this Makeup (as always) and Yana is such a great model to work with. Thank you both!
I hope you enjoyed the tips.. keep shooting!
-Brian James
Saint Petersburg, Florida Fashion and Portrait Photographer, Brian James.