Christmas Portraits using a red gel

Mike J

I had the opportunity to shoot some family portraits at our church's Christmas party. This was a perfect opportunity to experiment with some gels to try to create some Christmas themed colors and learn more about BG lighting in general. Boy, who knew lighting a BG can be such a pain...
Basic setup (a no I didn't take a pull-back shot to my dismay):

• 9 ft black seamless for the background
• AB800 as main in 60" softliter II - about 45 degrees camera left
• AB400 as fill in 45" shoot-thru umbrella - about 45 degrees camera right
• AB800 with red gel for background light

What I found difficult to do was to position the BG light. I really wanted to put it right behind the chair but I knew that I would have groups from 1 to 6 and would require people to stand behind the chair. So... I played with positioning the BG light to the side of the BG. I had a heck of time with spill back onto folks though. I think I really needed a flag to help out here but didn't have anything I could use for one. I finally found a spot for the light that seemed to work.
The party theme was a Journey to Bethlehem so folks came decked out in their best period attire - mostly bathrobes and scarves

#1 My test subject the night before hamming it up...


#2


#3 Now isn't this a perfect shepard?


#4


#5 I didn't spend a whole lot of time with folks but I need to get better at slowing down and seeing the obvious problems with poses - like the big back of the hand here.

EphTwoEight

I like em!!

Tinstafl

Yup background lighting is always fun but it makes for great shots. Well done.