How to Take Great Business Headshot Portraits
Headshots are a necessary part of commercial photography. There will always be people who need headshots for their company, online profile, or modeling comp card. While there are myriad ways to shoot a headshot, I will go over the basic setup. It’s a great starting point and will always get you a great photo.
4 Light Headshot.
My basic setup is with 2-5 lights and light shapers depending on the situation. If you’re in a confined space and only shooting one or two people, using all small flashes/speedlights is fine. The larger the space and the more people you have lined up, the wiser it is to use large flash units that can run all day and have a higher output. But as I always say, there is no ‘right way’ to do anything in photography. You can bounce, you can use natural light, you can shoot through cloth. This is just one way to do it.
4 Light Headshot Portrait.
My main/key light is usually a softbox to camera left. Unless the client says otherwise I have the subjects turn their bodies about 45 degrees to their right, showing me the left side of their face (traditionally the ‘more beautiful side’). The main light is about 45 degrees to my left, at head height or higher (depending on ceiling height. The secondary light is either a gridded spot or a softbox (the deeper the baffles the better) coming from the back camera right to highlight the shoulder, separate the subject from the background, and give a little rim light to the hair. My third light is a gridded spot or a snoot raking across the background at an aggressive angle from back camera left to give a little variation to the background. The fourth light can be powered or just a white reflector under the subject, camera front/low right. If you’re using a reflector get it as close to the edge of the frame as possible to fill the shadow created by the key light. When the reflector isn’t enough, I will push a little light through it with a small flash. If the shadows are still too deep, you can bounce yet another flash off the ceiling (Assuming it’s white) to fill in the shadows or run a large umbrella camera right at a lower power to fill the shadows.
Headshot lighting setup.
4 light Headshot Portraits
This setup is assuming you A.> Have enough lights. B.> Are working in a space large enough to fit all the lights.
3 light headshot.
With all photography, as soon as you get on site, all the rules go out the window. Many a time, I have been called to do headshots and ended up squeezing into a room the size of a small closet. If the walls are white, you can always bounce off them, especially for the key light, which lessens the space needed. Sometimes I get lucky and the client likes the color of a painted wall and a backdrop isn’t necessary, but most offices are sadly painted beige, not the best photo background.
3 light, one reflector headshot.
With this basic setup you can adjust how much contrast there is, and how dramatic the lighting is just by changing the distance and position of the lighting from the subject. This same setup can be used outside or in another setting. If you’re outside or in a well lit location, you can get away with using just the main key light, balancing it with the surroundings.
One light portrait.
Take these idea with you the next time you shoot a portrait. Start from a place you know and then start to stray into the unknown.
How to Take Great Portraits with One Flash
Although I always bring a whole bag, well, really a few bags full of flashes of all sizes and powers, many times I find that using one flash is an easy way to get the right lighting while still being flexible enough to follow the subject and make corrections quickly.
I recently shot a senior portrait session with a variety of lighting setups. I always try to be flexible and give lots of options in terms of lighting, background, and ‘looks’. While I am always working towards a thought out end photo, I will happily stray from that as light allows, or when things come up during the shoot, which they always do. As we went through the shoot, I was moving back and forth from flash to available to bounce and all combinations of the two. On these wide ranging shoots, I find that working with the different combinations of lighting helps me keep fresh perspective throughout the shoot. Each small change of lighting can lead to a new idea.
For this setup I was using a Nikon SB-800 Speedlight with a 24″ softbox and a 48″ circular reflector with the gold side bouncing a bit of warmth back on the subject and filling in the deep shadows. The SB-800 was triggered by radio. I do use Nikon’s iTTL with commander and remote flashes, but for this set up I was moving back and forth, changing cameras and lenses and needed to be sure the flash would be triggered. The bright sun has played tricks on the communication between commander and remote flashes in the past, meaning you need a pretty direct line of sight between the two. So for this I did do some minor tweaks to the flash, set in manual mode, increasing or decreasing the power as needed. Yes, it’s an extra trip to the flash, but we were moving around quite a bit and it didn’t seem to break up the flow too much. The movement and small break in shooting will also give the subject a little space to catch their breath before getting back into it. I find that with professional models you can get away with more sustained shooting, but with amateurs a little break is always helpful, if only for a few seconds.
The Nikon SB-800 had the dome diffuser off, but the wide angle flap down. I generally use the dome diffuser to give a slightly softer light through the softbox, but due to the intense sun I needed that extra bit of power that the dome diffuser takes away. I was running the SB-800 between 1/4 and full power. Having blown a few SB-800’s running on full power in the past, I generally try not to use it too much, but if I have to, I try and slow my shooting down to allow the flash to safely recycle without frying. The amount of ambient light and strength of the sun also kept me using the SB-800 instead of my SB-900 which will shut down if it starts overheating. Yes, it saves the flash, but a flash that stops working mid-shoot, while under normal circumstances is frustrating. I’ve heard good things about the SB-910’s thermal shutoff. Hopefully they have extended the range of heat allowed, or figured out a way to get rid of the heat more efficiently.
I could have just as easily used a battery powered monolight such as my SP-Systems Lancerlight 160 or an Elinchrome Ranger. I choose to use a smaller flash only for ease of movement. The larger monolights are just that, larger, so if you’re running around moving the light every few exposures, having the small flash helps keep the hassle to a minimum.
How to take great photos with studio and small flashes
(Wedding dress model lit with one flash. SP-Systems Excalibur 3200 flash with a 32" octagonal softbox, camera right. Nikon 17-35mm 2.8, Nikon D2x. The shutter was fast enough to eliminate the ambient light, creating the deep shadows and dramatic lighting.)
(Doctor and patient with MRI machine. Multiple flashes light this scene. Two Nikon SB-800 Speedlights provide the purple to light the foreground. A SP-Systems monolight with a hex-grid camera left adds a little pop. A SP-Systems Excalibur 3200 with umbrella, camera right, fills in her back, the wall and gives a little rim light on her hair. A SP-Systems Excalibur 3200 soft box camera left lights her face. Triggered with a combination of radio and light slaves. Nikon D2x, 17-35mm 2.8.)
(Model lit with one flash. Balancing the ambient light with the flash (off to camera left). Both the model and I were on helper's shoulders to get the right perspective and include the amazing frozen chandelier. Monolight flash with softbox, Nikon D2x, Nikon 50mm 1.8.)
(Models standing in a river, lit with one flash. One flash, SP-Systems Excalibur 160 with battery pack and umbrella, camera left. Triggered with a radio trigger. Nikon D2x, Nikon 70-200mm 2.8. Moments later the umbrella caught a tiny gust of wind and fell into the river! Note to self only use an umbrella outside with someone holding it. Not to worry, after a thorough drying, I still use the flash to this day.)
How to take great photos of a ballerina at sunset
I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph ballet dancer Sarah Steward dancing along the shores of Lake Champlain the other day. After the crazy rain we’ve been having, the skies cleared and a magnificent sunset gave us just the backdrop we were looking for. The balmy weather quickly changed to strong winds and 38 degree water soaking us, but I think the results are worth the temporary discomfort.
As always, all the photos are available for sale as prints or digital stock here.
The setup for these photos is fairly simple. The main shot we were looking for was a silhouette of her dancing with Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains in the background at sunset.
The main thing about shooting silhouettes is to watch out for lens flare. It can sometimes look nice to incorporate the lens flare into the shot, but I was looking for a clean silhouette and the less flare the better.
Lens flare is from unwanted light striking the lens glass. It manifests itself in two basic forms, a haze that can wash out the deep shadows of a silhouette, and dots of rings of light coming from the direction of the light source. If you’re shooting directly into the sun or another light source, there’s really nothing you can do about it, but if the light is just out of frame, you can shade the lens to reduce the flare.
Using the lens hood is a good place to start. I had my assistant holding a reflector just over the end of my lens to cast a shadow on my lens and cut out the flare.
All of these photos were shot with Nikon’s D2x camera with it’s ISO set to 100. The D2x may not have the most sensitive sensor, but at 100 ISO it produces some of the smoothest and best files I’ve seen out of any current digital camera.
Nikon D2x, 50mm, f1.8, 1/2500 sec
Nikon D2x, 50mm, f7.1, 1/1250 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f7.1, 1/180 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5.6, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f7.1, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5.6, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5.6, 1/500 sec
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f3.5, 1/100 sec, SB-900, 16″ softbox, radio transmitter
I decided to add a little light to really make things pop. I was using a Nikon SB-900 with a 16″x16″ softbox, camera left, tightly held by my assistant as the wind was really picking up. I would have used the Nikon i-TTL, but there was too much light, and the wind was really whipping, so I decided to trigger the flash with a radio transmitter to ensure it would fire each time. The flash was set to M 1/4 power.
I was trying to balance the ambient light with the flash. I had to keep the shutter speed below 1/160th for the radio transmitters, and wanted the sunset to be darked a bit more than the flashed area to get some real deep colors in the sky and mountains. The ambient it about 2 stops under normal exposure, and the flash is right on.
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5, 1/100 sec, SB-900, 16″ softbox, radio transmitter
Nikon D2x, 17-35, f5, 1/100 sec, SB-900, 16″ softbox, radio transmitter
More to come.
How to Take Great Travel Photos
Great travel photos are all about being in the right place at the right time. Does that mean it’s all luck. No way. You can ‘create good luck’ but doing a little research, talking to people, and generally saying YES to opportunities.
I love travel photography. It’s what pushed me towards pursuing photography (instead of silversmithing, which I was intensely studying), it has been the driving force in my professional life, and it acts as a rejuvenating activity to keep me fresh creatively.
Travel photography makes you think fast, observe closely, and generally helps to push you out of your comfort zone. When you only have one chance to get the shot, it should make you think just a bit more about the kinds of photos you want to create. When you are seeing things for the first time, you have the perfect opportunity to capture them in a creative way.
Nikon F100, 70-200, f3.2, Fuji Velvia 50, b&w processed in Photoshop
While riding around the countryside outside Kep, Cambodia on the back of my friend/fixer Rya’s rented moped, we had stopped so I could photograph the landscape, verdant green rice paddies leading up to dark green mountains. After a few minutes this old man came walking down the road. He was a 72 year old rice farmer that had survived the Khmer Rouge and the civil war in previous decades and was happy to chat and be photographed.
The light was hard from a late afternoon sun, but there was enough bounce from the light red dirt road we were standing on to not give super deep shadows. Although I shot a number of different angles of this man, I like the shallow depth of field keeping the focu on his weathered, kind face.
While traveling may begin as a search for place, it ultimately ends up being about people.
Nikon F100, 50, f4, Fuji Provia 100
Before children were to put on a traditional Khmer dances, there were filling a school room getting ready. It was slightly chaotic with kids running around, so I looked for interesting moments I could focus on to calm the scene.
When the action starts I find myself on auto-pilot, shooting instinctively, flowing really well. It’s these moments that I strive for, a photo-zen.
Nikon D2X, 17-35, f7.1, 30secs
As the chaos of the annual water festival swirled around town, I worked my way down the river, grabbing shots where I could. It was a sea of humanity, many sending floating candle boats down the river. From one of the bridges I made this long exposure of the candles blurring as they make their way down stream. I wasn’t carrying my tripod, so the camera is resting on the edge of the bridge, triggered by the self timer. I definitely had one hand on the neck strap, in case the camera decided to jump off the edge.
Traveling to countries while they’re having annual celebrations is an easy way to soak up the local culture and there are photo opportunities everywhere.
Nikon F100, 24-120, f5.6, Fuji Velvia 50
Traveling presents encounters that you don’t get in your normal life.
After driving all day through overcast skies, we reached our destination for the night, Oggi Noor Lake. We were sitting in our SUV, mustering up the energy to set up camp, when the sun dropped below the clouds and bathed everything in it’s golden light. I jumped out of the SUV and started shooting when I noticed a group of teenage boys on horseback on the beach below me. They saw me and waved me down. I clamored down to them. They were very excited and offered me a drink of vodka. After a few minutes of hand gestures we all made our way back up to where the others were. I shot a bunch of group photos and a few portraits before they headed off in different directions. In a few minutes, what had been a drab day turned into the best light I saw the whole trip.
Nikon F100, 70-200, f2.8, Fuji Velvia 50
After the young Mongolian riders left, I captured this shot that I think sums up Mongolia the best and has been a favorite of mine over the years.
Nikon F100, 24-120, f4.5, Fuji Provia 100
This was a grab shot while meandering through the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. It was tough shooting with the bright smoggy haze that blanketed the city. The city was hot, in late summer. Shooting in touristy places like the Summer Palace, it’s sometimes hard to find new and engaging images that haven’t been taken a billion times before. This image came about as I was shooting the pond of lilies behind her. She sat down and started fussing with her hat. I made a few frames before the crowds overtook me and I moved on.
Nikon F100, 24-120, f5.6, Fuji Provia 100
Getting lost is part of traveling.
If your aim is to get lost, are you really lost?
Nikon F100, 24-120, Fuji Provia 400
While in the process of documenting the small Muslim community in predominately Buddhist Cambodia’s city of Siem Reap, we were invited to join some of the community for a Ramadan meal. It was just after the time the USA was entering the war in Afghanistan and it was unclear how they would receive us. As with most people I meet traveling, they were exceptionally welcoming. I made this shot of an old man tentatively watching us from across the mosque, through a railing.
When I’m shooting I always look for things that can go in the foreground of a photo. I want to give depth and a sense of scale, add a bit of color, or just add a little framing. I couldn’t see over the railing, so shooting through it made more sense. You have to work with what you have.
Nikon D2H, 50mm, f4.5
If you really want the shot you might have to put up with some little annoyances.
The flies in Lake Mungo, Australia are persistent little buggers. You have about a minute from exiting the confines of your car until they cover you…or at least they covered me. I could barely handle it.
Nikon D2H, 24-120, f4.5
Forcing myself to not freak out over the flies rewarded me with this ridiculous landscape of one of Lake Mungo’s sand dunes with an impending rain storm that almost trapped us in the outback.
The weather can change in seconds. Those times can present stunning landscapes and colors. You may have to run for cover in a few minutes, but the leading edge of storms is a beautiful thing. Dark skies can also help to bring out the colors of the landscape.
Nikon D2X, 7mm, f1
There are times when you just get a feeling about which lens to use and how to shoot a space. When you’re in the golden orb at the top of the Bayterek Tower in the new section of Astana, Kazakhstan the time is right to pull out the fisheye. While I think that fisheye shots can be gimmicky, there is a time and place for every lens.
The need to keep changing things up when you’re shooting is key. Along with the fisheye photos, I also shot with a telephoto lens and a normal wide angle. This gave a whole range of images to work from. Knowing that I wouldn’t be back to this place again on our trip, I made a point of a taking a few extra minutes and making a few extra frames.
Take the time to stop and look around.
Packing the gear bag for the day in an unknown city is a tough exercise in preparedness, economy, and guessing. You want access to all your gear, but you don’t want to lug it around day and night. What I bring depends on if there’s a car involved or if I’ll be hoofing it all day. This day in Astana we weren’t doing too much walking, but we were still moving around too much for my huge backpack. I used a medium sized shoulder bag, carrying two Nikon D2X’s, 70-200mm, 17-35mm, 50mm, and 7mm lens, one SB-800 flash, and an extra layer of clothing. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but when creating images is what you do, you drag that bag around until your sore and tired.
I love all my gear, but there are days when it’s good to go super light, back to basics, one camera one lens. I usually go for the 50mm. Forcing yourself to work in that limited frame will get you thinking about your photos and lead to more creative shots. Going back to basics is a good thing to do, revisit what you know, push the boundaries a bit. One camera one lens, especially a prime lens forces you to move your feet, changing your angle and giving you a new perspective. Zoom lenses are wonderful, but nothing beats moving your feet.
Taking great photos is about patience when you’re waiting for the shot, then hustling to work the moment until it’s gone. Setting yourself up for shots is as easy as paying attention to your surroundings. If you see something that works well as the background, be patient and wait for something to come in front of it. Something invariably will. Pay attention to weather and lighting, sunrise and sunset times and put yourself in places to make the most of each. Some places that are ‘known’ for sunset might be just as stunning at sunrise without all the crowds.
Nikon F100, 24-120, Fuji Velvia 50, SB-80 Flash, tripod
This shot was made just after sunset at Phnom Bakheng temple, overlooking Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. The camera is on a tripod, the flash is being triggered manually from inside the temple. The exposure is a few seconds. While making this photo we were already being hustled out by the guards before nightfall. You can always get a few minutes out of guards by being nice, starting to chat with them, and generally being polite. You’ll eventually have to leave anyways, and who knows, they might give you a private tour or show you some special place off the beaten track.
An interested, kind smile is your best currency when traveling, it is universally accepted and sometimes priceless.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f18, 9 seconds
Try and get to places where you can have a view. This time lapse of the Bangkok, Thailand streets at night is from one of the many concrete pedestrian overpasses that are ubiquitous to South East Asia’s crowded cities. I wasn’t carrying a tripod, so I just rested the camera on the railing. It’s pretty hard to keep a camera still for 9 seconds, so find places to prop your camera. Time lapses are great for showing movement within a space. Is there crazy traffic? Are the crowds overwhelming? Go for the long exposure to convey the movement.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f2.8
Follow your nose (and other senses) to take great travel photos. Street food is an amazing thing. Cheap, easy, and delicious. The best part is that people congregate near food, there’s usually lots of good color, and interesting moments to capture. And afterwards (or before) can you eat some interesting food! Ordering food or a drink from street vendors is a great way to break the ice and get you on a good foot for when you go back and ask to take photos of them.
When I’m traveling, it’s very apparent that I’m not your normal tourist taking little snapshots. When you bring out the big cameras people notice. Most people are very open to having their photos taken and I try and ask people if it’s okay before I get to it. If someone says no, then I just thank them and move on.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f2.8
Traveling will surprise you.
Ok, so this isn’t a great photo, but it comes with a crazy travel story about getting lost in the Cambodian jungle on motorcycles. There are stories behind every photo.
How to frame and compose great photos
Great photography isn’t about what kind of camera gear you’re using. It isn’t about the mega pixel count. Great photographers can take great photos with any camera. I don’t think people are too concerned with the kind of camera Henri Cartier-Bresson used, and I’m sure someone like Joe McNally could bring home a winner with a simple point and shoot. A good example is Damon Winter’s photos of life in Afghanistan on his iPhone. That being said, I do love my pro DSLRs and the wonder of Nikon’s top-shelf glass in their lenses, but that’s besides the point. We’re talking about composition.
Great photos are all about composition, light and moment. In three earlier posts I talked a little about basic lighting, covering availablelight, flash, and mixing the two. In this post I’ll write a little about the importance of composition in a photograph and some easy tips on how to frame an interesting photograph.
Anyone can point a camera at something and press the button. It’s the people who look at that same thing and slightly alter the composition, making a striking photograph instead of a forgetful one.
That little box that is your viewfinder seems like a simple way to look at the world, but as you move it around viewing the scene slowly, adding some elements and subtracting others, it becomes clear that composing an interesting photo is a challenge that never ends. In school I was taught to constantly and obsessively pay attention to the edge of the frame. What makes it in and what doesn’t. Is something cut off by the edge, is it too centered, how much space do you leave around a subject and in what relation to the edge do you put it. How does the eye move around your composition.
Yes, you can crop things after the fact, but who wants to sit in Photoshop making simple adjustments that should happen in the camera. I’ve always advocated doing as many things in camera as possible, including lighting, moving details, framing, among other things, but I’ll write more about that some other day.
Back to framing a photograph. To start with, stick your eye to your camera and look around. Make sure you can see the edges of the frame. As you’re about to take a photo, look around the edges and see if anything is amiss. Is your model’s hand cut off? Is that group missing a few feet at the bottom? Too much space about someone’s head? Is everything looking too centered?
There is a push and pull between the edge of the frame and subject. The best photos are often the ones where the subject is off-center, creating a visual interplay with the open space on the other side of the photograph. Sometimes centering the subject will create a great photo, but generally you should be thinking of putting emphasis on the ‘thirds’ of the photo. If you break up a frame into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, where the lines intersect are strong visual points. That’s where you should be aiming to put your subjects. I’m not saying don’t snap a photo of the centered version as well, but start by placing your subject in those thirds and you’ll immediately get people commenting on your photos.
Just by simply moving your subject off center will help to create more visual tension and add some life to your photo. Obviously there are many instances when you don’t want to put something off center, but by adding this simple technique to your repertoire, you will start to see the world in a different way. So glue your eye to your camera and start moving it around. Practice by finding a simple subject, and take two photos (or two hundred), one centered, one off center and see which has more power visually.
There’s a reason why cameras have their focus points around the sweet spots of the thirds. If you shoot a lot of action or you like to use continuous focus, you can set up your framing so that you set your focus of one of those intersections and voila – an interesting photo.
Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Nikon D2x, 17-35mm, f3.5, SB-800 bouncing off ceiling
This was a quick grab shot of a bride’s maid at a recent wedding I shot. She was peaking around the door watching the bride get her makeup ready. The mood was light and everyone was in a good mood. I only got off one frame and had only a second to frame it, but as soon as I turned around I knew I wanted her hard to the right, leaving the open green of the hall wall to fade off to the left. If I had centered her, the door jam would have become a much stronger element of the photo when I wanted to keep it focused on the woman.
Nikon D2x, 70-200mm, f3.5
Here’s another wedding photo that I think illustrates the point of placing your subjects off center to add some depth and visual energy to the photo. Keeping them off to the sides lets your eye follow the mowing lines in the grass right up to them.
Of course, as they took this little stroll, I fired off about a hundred other shots of them, always trying to mix it up, move them around in the frame, working the depth of field, switching to a wider lens, basically everything I could think of to keep it interesting.
Anyone who thinks that cameras capture the world exactly as it is should think about this. With every photo that I take, I make decisions about what/who makes it in, and who gets left out of the frame. Some of the photos that have the calmest look, can actually be bits of a larger scene that might be total chaos, but left out of the photo. Each photo is filtered through the photographer’s eyes and cropped the way they see fit. Do you include the pile of trash next to an otherwise beautiful landscape? My answer is generally to make more than one photo, some of just the landscape, and some with that big, stinking pile of trash in one of my frame’s sweet spots, showing there’s always a story behind a photo.
Nikon D2x, 50mm, f2
Working with depth of field is an easy way to use composition to your advantage. With this photo of a newborn in the intensive care unit, I used a shallow depth of field to isolate the baby’s tiny fingers and hand. I placed the hand in the bottom third of the frame, allowing the out of focus ear and head to take up the top half. Instead of centering the hand, I chose to keep the photo simple and concentrate on two aspects, the hand and the head.
Nikon D2x, 17-35mm, f5.6
Working with what was in front of me determined how far I pushed this guard off center. After taking a few shots of the overall scene, (there’s a flame off camera left), I thought that by letting the vast expanse of the Kremlin wall take up a majority of the frame it would give a sense of scale to the photo. I would have gone wider, but there was distracting shrubbery off to the right.
Nikon D2x, 70-200mm, f4
Another quick grab shot of this woman talking on her phone in Moscow’s Red Square. By placing her off center it adds visual weight, showing a connection to St. Basil’s Cathedral in the background.
Framing is something that is a constant challenge for photographers. I know that I when I start to get tired, my compositions tend to lack that something extra. It takes mental energy to be constantly composing the world around you into a rectangular space. It’s why photographers can always take a better photo. Or at the very least, they can continue to try and create a better photo.
So take those extra seconds to really look through your viewfinder, scan the edge of your frame, and move the camera around.
To see more of my work or to contact me about a project or assignment, please visit my website, www.photovt.com.
Controlled and Studio Lighting
When you can control the lighting, you can control exactly how a photo will look and make minor adjustments all in the comfort of your studio, or wherever you’re shooting. While studio lighting is an endless experiment with endless variations, I’m going talk generally about the thought process.
Coming into a space that you will fully light, you have to think in terms of key lighting (main lights), background lighting, and highlights. You can control lighting with one light or a hundred. Each light adds a layer that you need to think about it’s direction, intensity, and shape (you can add color as well).
I won’t get too specific with which types of lights you can use. I use a mix of small flashes and large studio flashes depending on the location, subject, and how much I can carry to a shoot.
Let’s start with a simple one light studio setup.
Nikon D2X, 6omm, f20, 1 Nikon SB-800 no diffusion
This spider plant hangs over my desk and during a tremendous growth spurt last year was flowering like crazy. I taped some blue paper on the wall behind it, grabbed my SB-800 flash, tethered with a TTL cord, camera right and blasted away. It was challenging to get the light to only hit the flower and not the background. I ended up zooming the flash head to it’s max, 105mm. I had to shoot at f20 to get even a little bit of depth because the flower was so small and I was right up on it with my 60mm macro.
The whole thing about lighting is to make it look ‘real’ or believable, which generally means getting the flash off the camera to add depth and definition to the subject.
Nikon D2x, 70-200mm, f3.5, Excalibur 1600 with white umbrella
Although not in a studio, I had to take control of the lighting in this florescent lit basement laboratory. Nobody wants a dark green cast over your photos from the standard florescent tubes in most buildings these days. I set up an Excalibur 1600 Studio Flash with a large white umbrella to camera left, triggered by a radio slave. Shooting at 100/sec was enough to overpower the ambient light of the lab, eliminating the green glow, and giving me just enough light that I could still go as open as f3.5 to keep a reduced depth of field. I was trying to get something in the foreground and we had tried a number setups with various lab equipment, but here I’m shooting through a shelf that separated the room. I had to stand on a stool to get up high enough to shoot through the hole in the shelf. The flash is on the same side as the subject as I didn’t want much light on my side to keep the focus of the Dr.
Now to add more lights. The more lights you add, the more complicated a shoot becomes. When I’m doing quick portraits, I like to keep it simple and use 1-3 lights, usually just one, off camera. However, some subjects call for more than one. 
Nikon D2x, 6omm, f5.6, three studio lights
This was shot for an article in Vermont Vows Magazine, the premier wedding mag here in Vermont. The setup was outside, but under a roof, but I wasn’t really looking for any ambient light, so I set up three studio lights, one on camera left with a large umbrella. From this angle it would be my ‘key’ light. I had two more lights, one on camera right with a softbox on it. That was creating the highlights on top of the flowers. The other was straight across from the first light, again with an umbrella, this time to light the back wall and fill in some shadows.
Nikon D2X, 17-35mm, f5.6, Excalibur 3200 Studio light
This shot was made with only one light, a studio light, camera right with an umbrella on it. While this section is about total light control in a studio sense, the only other light source was the monitors which I had to include in the photo, which meant that this image was made at 1/15 sec. While that’s pretty slow, it was dark enough that the flash would freeze any minor movement. On a side not about shooting at slow speeds, I find it’s all about controlling your breathing and steadying your body. If that fails, take as many photos as you can, one will end up sharp. I had brought and set up a few other lights, but once I got going, I realized that if I wanted a more dramatic shot of the doctor and patient, I should par it down to one light, not to mention the comparatively dim monitors that were being totally blown away by the flash. By moving the flash off to camera right, I could avoid getting reflections on the monitors, while lighting both subjects and giving the background just enough to tell that it was in a hospital.
Nikon D2x, 70-200mm, f3.2, Excalibur Studio Light
Here’s a simple one light set up, a large umbrella, 45 degrees camera left provides all the light you’ll need. Enough to pop the main subject, and giving just enough to light the background. You could also do this with two lights, one for the subject, one for the background, but this is the simplest way. With only one light you can keep those deep shadows on the non-lit side, giving enough light at the right angle to show real depth. I was also using a long lens to compress the depth of field and to blur out the background a bit.
To see more of my work or to contact me about a project or assignment, please visit my website, www.photovt.com.
Available lighting
In this post I’m going to talk a little about lighting and how it relates to taking great photos.
Lighting one of the big three that makes a photo great; lighting, composition, and subject matter. I’ll discuss each of these in other posts.
Photos need light. It’s what makes them a photo. In the old days it was a chemical process, now it’s a digital one, turning light into a photograph. Within lighting there are basically three options, natual/available, flash/controlled, and a combination of the two. We’ll start with the original light source, our sun. It’s big and bright and comes in an unending variety of colors and intensities depending on what’s diffusing or reflecting it. While direct sunlight has it’s place, and the golden hours around sunrise and sunset are a magical time, it can create blinding hot spots and black holes in your photos if you’re not careful. Cameras are not equipped to deal with the capturing the range from hot highlight to deep shadow. They’re much happier with either one of the other, which means moving your subject into some shade, or evening out the light a little bit. Yes, there’s the new craze of high dynamic range (HDR), but I’m a purist and think people take it too far and it ends up looking like a velvet painting. Used properly, there is a place for HDR, basically replacing filters of yester-year. However to get great photos, it’s easier to take a few seconds and think about what the lighting is, and how you want to use it, then to spend countless hours in Photoshop massaging a bad photo into a mediocre one. Let’s take a look at a few photos that give examples of different types of natural light.
Nikon F100, 50mm f5.6, Fuji Velvia Film
This boy was photographed just before a hazy sunset outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia. You can tell that the light is very low on the horizon and therefore very directional, leaving part of his body in shade. I had him turn slightly towards the sun so his face wouldn’t totally be in shadow and to give a little definition to his body and to pick up that golden light.
Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm, f2.0
This photo of Amy Redford, film maker and daughter of Robert Redford, was shot under the eave of a porch to block out the harsh late afternoon sun. Although I did make some images of her in the direct sun, this setup worked best, with the soft light filtering in.
As a photographer, I’m always scanning my surroundings for proper lighting and background options. When shooting, I’m always aware of the direction and intensity of the available light as it determines what to do next. You can see in both of these shots that I have the subjects turned slightly from the light source to give more depth and definition to their faces.
Nikon D2X, Nikon 50mm, f1.8
This portrait was made in full shadow outside of my studio. After working with studio lights, I wanted to get some totally different lighting options, so we headed outside. With the soft even light when I’m out of the full sun, I like to shoot pretty wide open, softening the light even more.
When you’re shooting in available light, you really have to work with what you’ve got. You need to think outside the box and try create interesting vignettes. There’s always a little corner here or there with acceptable light. Work the light coming through a window or door, or if it’s bouncing off a white wall, even better.
To see more of my work or to contact me about a project or assignment, please visit my website, www.photovt.com.
