Johns Mini Portrait Shoot

Well this was something really quick I did a while ago that should be shown as some examples of people since I been showing more and more cars. This was something simple using chairs in the living room and clamping to them to light John from 5 feet to his left and right. The flashes of choice are the SB-28's on manual and all of this was direct harsh flash and wanted to experiment with it.

Many photographers find direct light too harsh, but I like it to some degree. With some people, it works out very well because their skin can handle it and not look too shiny or blown out. To make it even better is to not have the flashes in line with the camera lens, this always makes light look more natural or dynamic than the on camera method. Give it a try once and a while, it can lead to some really cool shots.

To start things off is with a light test I changed flash setting a few times but it was about 1/8th or 1/6th in a 1:1 Ratio.

 1/60 f2.8 ISO800 

Note: was allot more blown than it is now due to me forgetting about my ISO

John was so animated he wanted to get a indoor jump shot so I quickly closed the aperture to get a better exsposure at 800.

1/200 f7.1 ISO800

Note: Totally frozen in time

Now to get more serious about the shots. I reduced the ISO first to get cleaner shots and asked John for something serious and boy did I get it, or something like it. First shot is with the shutter open long enough to register the room behind him giving you an idea where he is. 

 1/60 f5.6 ISO200

Next I cut most of the lights, increased shutter to almost make it a black background the room behind him and close the aperture to reduce my flash.

 1/200 f7.1 ISO200

This attempt I liked the look but wanted less background and less flash so I closed even further to f10.

 

 1/200 f10 ISO200

For this last shot I cranked up the shutter to the max sync speed  and threw on some gels for some mood.

  1/250 f10 ISO800

Called it a day and went back home to have fun editing them.

Stay tuned to see more of what I do!