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Monday, February 9, 2009

Things You Can Do in Your Living Room

Who needs a studio?















For this shot, I hung a fluffy, deep-red blanket from the top of our TV armoir in the living room (anchored it with Julie's dumbbells, actually), stuck a small stool a few feet in front of it, and my daughter, ham that she is, took center stage while I set up the lights. At camera right is a speedlight about 7-feet high into a reflective umbrella (probably about 1/2 power), and at camera left is another speedlight through a Stofen Omnibounce at about 1/8th or 1/4. I don't remember the exact settings and didn't write them down. Flashes were triggered by Cybersync triggers.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great example of using whatcha got. I'll be doing something very similar for a head shot Stephanie needs. Will let you know how it turns out.

brian said...

I've been slowly building a little kit. I now have 3 flashes and 2 radio triggers (at least one of the flashes has an optical slave so it doesn't need a trigger). I really need another light stand and a shoot-through umbrella. Or better yet, a speedlight softbox!

One of the most underrated accessories in head shots is a reflector. Even a piece of posterboard will work. If you have some light, use the reflector to bounce it back and fill shadows. Although I didn't think too much of it, I have assisted a pro who used bookends (big sheets of foam core hinged together) as tall as the subject to reflect back from a big softbox. Not really soft, but workable.

Lady Robin M said...

I love resourcefulness and adapting to environment!

brian said...

Hey Robin! Thanks for looking. This was one of those days where I was under pressure to have a family shot made and it was cold (and dreary) outside and had to come up with something. Being near Valentine's Day, I thought the red was appropriate.