Well, looks like it’s that time of year again. David Hobby over at Strobist has started up the next installation of Boot Camp, rightly named: Strobist Boot Camp II. I missed all of the previous participation activities on Strobist, just from jumping it at the wrong time, so I was really looking forward to a new one that I could follow along with.
The first assignment of Boot Camp II, just like the first assignment of the original Boot Camp, is a headshot. Awesome! I love doing portraits, so this one shouldn’t be too bad for me. I’m a big fan of environmental/editorial style portraits (like the great Joe McNally’s work), so rather than do a tight headshot for this assignment I decided to go with something that shows a little more context to the subject.
I’ve had this setup bouncing around in my head for a while now so I figured this would be a great time to bust it out. The idea was to show the subject next to a computer. Fairly simple concept. One of those shots that you get tired of shooting in the corporate world, but if done right can be a really interesting shot. I wanted to be in control of everything, so I went to my office on a Sunday afternoon when no one would be around since there is some open space that would work well for this set up. I knew that this shot would work great for anyone in the tech industry: bloggers, programmers, photographers, graphic designers, etc. Since most of those describe me it was a great shot to use for this assignment, because part of the assignment is to submit a self-portrait using the same lighting setup.
I originally brought Josi along with me to shoot, but luck was on my side and when I got to work I ran into fellow blogger and programmer at “The O,” Hal, so I decided to use him for my shot instead. He fit within boundaries of the assignment better, plus he’s lost a lot of weight recently and looks pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, Josi looks great in front of the camera as well:
But I wanted to stay within the spirit of the assignment: providing a much needed headshot for someone (and myself). I think it worked out for the best too; my favorite shot above (the one at the top of this post) might be incorporated into one of the error pages for my company’s new public website. Ok, so let’s get to the technical details.
This was a three light setup. One light for the key, one for fill and accents, and one for the background. I probably could have used one more, but I only have 3 lights, so I had to make do with what I’ve got. It turned our pretty well. Let’s go through each light and the setup.
For the key light I used the Nikon SB-800 on it’s little stand that it ships with. It was bouncing off of a couple of sheets of white paper stuck in front on my MAcbook Pro’s screen. At 1/16 power this flash was more than enough to light up the models face and provide the perfect illusion of working late (that’s what all tech people do, right?). It gave a nice glow around the laptop for an added affect. It left a lot of the environment dark though, so we needed some fill.
For the fill I used the Vivitar 285HV. It was also set at 1/16 power. I wanted something less harsh than straight flash, but not something as soft and spreading as an umbrella, I needed some control for the fill, so I went with the Lumiquest Softbox III. This is such a versatile little light modifier, and highly recommend by David himself. It worked great here, providing some illumination to the back of the laptop as well as accenting the side of it with some specular highlights. It did cause one problem though – it created a bad shadow on the wall of our subject. Time for the final light.
To kill this newly created shadow and to add some separation from the background I used the Nikon SB-24. I wanted one of those halo backgrounds, so I used a homemade straw grid. After messing with the position a little I got it right where I wanted it, providing separation, killing the shadow, and creating the illusion of monitor glow in the wee hours of the night. I even did some shots with a couple light blue gels on this background light, as seen in the top photo.
Here are two setup shots to help explain the setup even more. These diagrams were inspired by Dustin Diaz’s 365 Photo Project as mentioned on Strobist.
So that’s it for my first Strobist Boot Camp II assignment. I really like the first shot in this post, but I decided it wasn’t quite good enough to be used as a headshot, so I picked a different shot of Hal to use from the shoot, and also the best one of me since you have to turn in both photos. Here is the final shot as submitted:
Don’t laugh too hard, there’s a reason I’m a photographer and not a model. Watch for more posts as Strobist Boot Camp II continues to put me through the paces…