Three Lights

Although it's not Friday yet, I thought I'd play catch-up and post some previously created images over the next couple of days while we wait for Friday night to arrive.

As such, the next couple of posts deal with pictures I created with the group over the last two weeks.

We ran out of models last Friday night - well, that's not quite true... kind of hard to run out of models when we never had any to begin with! Why no models? Well, would you stay late at the office on a Friday night just to have your picture made? Hmmm, thought not. I know, I know... get a life! May have to do that. In the meantime, I may propose to the group that we move our meetings to another night.


After last week's bounce light assignment, I assigned myself this assignment: Using three strobes, create a pleasing portrait of someone. Unfortunately, due to a dearth of models, co-Friday Night Flash member Tim volunteered to fill the role (which limited his behind the camera time) as I worked out the details of this three light setup.

The setup:



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Corporate conference room
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Strobe 1:

One SB-800; camera right; 1/16 power; snooted into a 45" white shoot-through umbrella.

The snoot creates a hot spot in the center of the umbrella, which focuses most of the light on Tim's face and and upper body. It also limits the amount of diffusion on the outer edges of the umbrella, which lets you control the placement of the spill. In this case, I controlled the lighting on the lower portion of his shirt. Notice the fall off on the lower half of his shirt. This was by design as I wanted him lit with a soft spotlight effect.

I placed this setup just above eye level and placed it at about a 40 degree angle to his face. This placement created shadows on his face, which I wanted to fall from right to left. Adding the shadows gave his face some three dimensional depth.
By the way, why did I use a shoot-through umbrella instead of a traditional style? Because I wanted to move the key light as close to the subject as I could, letting me make the light source as large as I could. Had I used the umbrella in the traditional way, the umbrella's metal shaft would have endangered my subject's eyes as I attempted to move the light in tight.

Trigger: Pocket Wizard

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Strobe 2:

One SB-26 flash; camera left; slaved; 1/64 power; snoot.

I pointed this snoot at the left side of Tim's hair to create a bit of separation between his head and the darker pattern in the background. I used the snoot to narrow the strobe's beam to prevent spill over on his shoulder.

Trigger: SB-26 built-in slave

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Strobe 3

One SB-80dx; camera right back; 1/32 power angled off the wall; snoot with a red gel; cookie.

I used a potted fern as a cookie in front of the strobe. The fern's shadows added rich texture to the background.

Trigger: Pocket Wizards

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Portrait lighting: Small flashes using diffusion, snoots and gels.

Exposure: f/4.5 @ 1/250 sec at ISO 200

White balance: flash