Portrait of Bryan and Yvonne
Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm, SB-28 Flash, Homemade Bounce Card, Stroboframe flip bracket
This was taken during a family portrait session with their entire family (3 generations). You may recall that I posted some pictures from this session before.
They were so happy with this one that they ordered an 11x14 to be mounted and framed for their wall.
--Warren
posted by Warren T. at 6:41 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Is anyone interested in hearing some more background information about this session? ...just checking to see if anyone is paying attention here :)
Yep, your portrait really impressed me - I didn't have a chance to reply at that time though, so here are my thoughts :-)
Wow! This is a great portrait! That's something I'd really like to learn more about - can you tell us some more about how you lit this shot? The lighting looks perfect.
Regards,
SteveR
Thanks Steve. The requirement for this portrait session was that we had to do it at my friend's parents' house because her mother had recent hip surgery, so it was hard for her to go outside of the house. Gail is my partner when we do "serious" photo sessions (read: pro quality). She has followed me around so often during my wedding photography days that she has become very good at posing people. It really helps to have a second person there to help move things around and to double check the poses.
We scouted out the location a week before the scheduled session. I decided that for the small group shots (one to four people), I would pose them in the entry hall of the house and position them with the dimly lit dining room in the background. I did this because I wanted the strobe light to fall-off behind the subjects in order to provide a less distracting background. I don't own a portrait background so I had to improvise.
Also prior to the session, I worked out all the lighting options and combinations. Again, I do not own any professional quality portable studio lighting, so I had to make do with what I had available. For the large group shots (6 to 12), I used a stand mounted umbrella armed with an old Honeywell Strobonar flash and an optically slaved Nikon SB-24 as the main light. I tested the umbrella for use on head & shoulder shots, but I found the light to be too harsh so I needed to figure out an alternative.
I borrowed a Gary Fong Lightshpere from Benson. It was a bit unwieldy to use, and the results were not bad, but I kept looking for another solution.
I eventually came across a do-it-yourself alternative called "A Better Bouncecard". You can read all about it and watch the videos at this website: abetterbouncecard.com
I recommend it highly, and of course, you can see the results for yourself on this picture that I posted. Be sure to review the demo videos on that website.
I would like to reiterate, and I'm sure that many of you already know this, but you need to work out all the technical details before the day of the session. Scout the location, props, furniture, and think about the group posing options and permutations before the day of the shoot.
You have all these details resolved beforehand, so that during the actual session, you will be able to concentrate more on the posing and on capturing the expressions.
On this picture, I used the Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm lens, Stroboframe Quick Flip flash bracket, Nikon SB28 strobe, and a homemade bounce card (design: abetterbouncecard.com). The flash bracket does two things, first, it moves the flash away from the lens, and secondly, the flip part allows positioning of the flash above the camera in both portrait and landscape modes. The flash was set on automatic mode (non-TTL).
So as you can see, there was nothing really tricky or complicated about lighting this shot. We had so many different poses and people to shoot that day (with limited time) that it was best to keep it simple. Most people find it hard to sit still while waiting for the photographer to get equipment ready.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
--Warren
Hey! Has anyone else tried the "better bounce card" or watched the demo video yet?
--WT
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