Jeff Carouth :: Beta

Ashley: Black Background and Cheesy Portraits

Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 14.06

Last night Michael Cummings, Ben Bailey, and I had a chance to arrange for Ashley to join us in Michael's photography studio located in historic downtown Bryan. This is the same girl that battled the cold forty degree wind on the roof of a parking garage on Texas A&M west campus. For nostalgia's sake here are two shots that I captured from our first meeting.

For more photos from that shoot check out Michael's photo set.

This time we put her in front of a black background and used a single Alien Bee 800 in a softbox as the light source. Here are the results of this segment of the shoot...

The setup for these shots more-or-less matches this shot. Michael added in the light you see on camera right fired into the umbrella.

I did learn that in choosing a background and lighting for a particular subject, it is very important to give consideration to the clothing they are wearing. For example, in this shoot Ashely is wearing black pants which disappear in several of the shots because the lack of separation from the background which, correct me if I am wrong, could have been provided with a rim light. I added that to my list of things to not forget for the next shoot.

I also learned that I should trust my instincts and use a reflector so that we don't lose her left eye in some of the poses. I do like the shadows, but I think the loss of the eye could be fixed without compromising all of the "drama" the shadows provide.

After the black background segment we headed into a different room and set up what I can only describe as cheesy senior-portrait-like photos where Ashley is laying on a white cloth. We were trying to blow out the background completely while maintaining the subject. I think I got close to the goal, but I do need a little work on the exposure. Here is what made it to the "final cut"

All said it was a productive shoot and I learned a little more about lighting in a studio and also worked on interaction with a model.

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