Strobist

There is a blog I read called Strobist written by David Hobby, a professional photographer who knows everything about lighting! Anyway, he has a "Bootcamp" on his site which is basically different assignments for us aspiring photographers to complete and then post to Flickr for comments.

So tonight I decided to try the first two assignments. The first was to take a basic headshot of someone and the second was to find a cool background to take a portrait in front of. All assignments have to use off-camera lighting.

I set up the first assignment in Braxton's room since it had a nice blank corner where I could accomplish what I wanted. Here's a couple of pictures of my setup:





It's one strobe (flash) camera left shooting through a Lastolite Tri-Grip Diffuser and using the right side of the wall to reflect a little light back to the shadow side of the face. For the model I used my beautiful bride, Brooke, and came out with this:



No make-up, mother of two and she still looks incredible! So first assignment was done and I was satisfied with my results.

Assignment #2. Leaving Brooke with both kids to go find a "cool" background somewhere in town during bath time and bed time was not an option. So... when I left Rolling Hills they gave me this really cool Nashville print with a guitar on it. I was standing in that room at sunset and the sun was coming through our window and putting a great looking light right on that frame. I rushed to set everything up but by the time I took the first picture, the sun was gone. Then I thought, I can fix this! I put a strobe on a light stand outside and put a warming gel on it (instant sunlight). Aimed it right through the window the way the sun had previously come through and vwala! I put another strobe to the right of the camera shooting into a white reflector to light my face. Put my camera on a timer and got the shot. Very cool.