Some recent work

divamum

Sneak peek from yesterday's marathon of mini-sessions with a pianist (center) and 4 singers. Bottom left wanted shots for teaching/lecturing, hence why it's a bit more casual and less "diva". All natural light except lower left, which was 60" Photek Softliter.

Sam

Very nicely done! clap

Sam

michaelglenn

Awesome!!

Reflections By Brian

These are all fabulous!

Wiren

Nice stuff. I assume that the natural light images were done by a nice big window and reflectors ~ may I ask, how many reflectors did you use on those if more than one? Also, by the way you stated it, I am assuming only one softliter...., I am making the assumption that you used a strobe (being that it was 60"'s) and not a flash gun? I was browsing your site quickly, do you use strobes in studio, or do you try to stay with natural light for the most part. I bet these ladies were thrilled to diva's over these great shots.

divamum

Wiren wrote: »

Nice stuff. I assume that the natural light images were done by a nice big window and reflectors ~ may I ask, how many reflectors did you use on those if more than one? Also, by the way you stated it, I am assuming only one softliter...., I am making the assumption that you used a strobe (being that it was 60"'s) and not a flash gun? I was browsing your site quickly, do you use strobes in studio, or do you try to stay with natural light for the most part. I bet these ladies were thrilled to diva's over these great shots.

Hi, Wiren -

Amazingly, although I had a reflector, it wasn't doing much and once the light moved around I pulled it to one side as it wasn't necessary. I just had them facing a bank of windows behind me and got really lucky that it was bright winter light that worked beautifully.

This is the on-location space at the church where this multi-session event was held:


The furniture couldn't be moved out of the room and it was a major pain! I also could only turn them one way (to use the grey doors as a background); the other direction was awful. This was problematic for short lighting for the way that most of them had their hair parted. Fortunately, they all had faces that looked find with broad or beauty light (from the front), so for the most part I went with it; when I needed something more directional, I took them out into the hallway to work with the Softliter instead.

I only have speedlights - this was a YN 600 (Youngnuo's version of the Canon radio flash) in the 60" softliter. It's actually the first time I've used the larger one; I've had a 45" for years, but I knew I wanted a LARGE light source I could put behind/beside me (and didn't know I'd have a room with windows to use until I got there). I flanked the subject with black foamcore to either side (in a triflector holder) so I could shape the face a bit. I haven't "perfected" it yet, but one of my goals is to come up with a light pattern that combines the benefits of front beauty lighting (enhancing skin texture and minimize wrinkles), with modeling the face (to minimize under-chin area and full cheeks). This is en route to that, although I think I can still improve it. Working on it!!!

At home, my "studio" is my living room for indoors, and my front porch for natural light (porch isn't quite as good as a garage for magic light, but not far off!). One of the reasons I stick with speedlights is because I have such limited space to work in, and their size - plus no cables to trip over! - is very helpful.

Thanks for the kind words!

Gary752

divamum wrote: »

I flanked the subject with black foamcore to either side (in a triflector holder) so I could shape the face a bit. I haven't "perfected" it yet, but one of my goals is to come up with a light pattern that combines the benefits of front beauty lighting (enhancing skin texture and minimize wrinkles), with modeling the face (to minimize under-chin area and full cheeks). This is en route to that, although I think I can still improve it. Working on it!!!

Diva...Have you watched any of Joel Grimes's classes on Creative Live? In one of his classes he uses a beauty dish on a boom arm above and a reflector below to get what your looking to get. Peter Hurley uses 4 LED light banks to form a square ring light, and shoots through it. Peter's posing is very simular to Sue Bryce's, but instead of saying "chin forward and down" He says "forehead forward and down". Either way, that usually takes care of a double chin.

GaryB

divamum

Gary752 wrote: »

Diva...Have you watched any of Joel Grimes's classes on Creative Live? In one of his classes he uses a beauty dish on a boom arm above and a reflector below to get what your looking to get. Peter Hurley uses 4 LED light banks to form a square ring light, and shoots through it. Peter's posing is very simular to Sue Bryce's, but instead of saying "chin forward and down" He says "forehead forward and down". Either way, that usually takes care of a double chin.

GaryB

Yes, very familiar with those posing techniques (all of which were used in the above shots!), but i want a bit more than that. I'd have loved to boom a light overhead for fill, but not always practical (depends on your space); here, it wasn't. I didn't want the harsh edges of a beauty dish - while it does indeed blast light from the front, the hard edges of the light transitions are not part of the look I'm going for. I have also used a variant of Hurley's lighting setup with a pair of 24x36" softboxes - I like it for what it does to skin texture, but it is not always flattering for contouring the face to slim or otherwise minimize flaws. Trying to figure out a ilghting pattern I like that does ALL of those things #lightingunicorn

Hackbone

Outstanding.!!!!!!!!!

Wiren

Wowsers.... how refreshing to see that i'm not the only one who shows up to these kind of shitty conditions to shoot in!

I must say, you did such a stellar job!! I appreciate you showing your working conditions and limitations....

As I quit my local Art Gallery after they raised the membership fees and I hadn't sold any Landscape Art in over a year... I decided that since I had made a couple thousand dollars in portrait photography last year off of portraits and family shoots, and that I am down a vehicle at the moment... I would focus on Portrait shooting this year so that I could hopefully afford a new car for the wife (so I can steal her current 14 year old junker.... ) and maybe, just maybe the new camera i've been wanting to replace my 8 year old decaying one....... we'll see what happens :photo.

I had used some of the money I made last year to acquire some Alien Bee's from a friend who closed down his business and bought a few Paul Buff softboxes and some Amazon stands and a beauty dish.... Now (especially after seeing your stellar work) I am wishing that maybe I just bought a couple new flash guns and some Rogue lighing equipment for them and saved a few bucks. Since I have about as much studio space as you describe inside my small home and rely on green screen trickery for my backdrops...... I probably could have done better......

Anyhoo, I may go ahead and purchase a couple new(er) flash guns, the Rogue stuff and sell my AB800's and larger softboxes... that way I can be more travel ready for those shoots... of course.. the large 48" SB's I have do work well with large family groups.....

I'll have to put some thought into this. I was watching some product videos for the Rogue stuff that looks interesting and very travel compact for head shot shoots (which is what i'm hoping to concentrate on this year....)

Appreciate the share about the set up and shooting condition info.... thanks

kdotaylor

Wow. All lovely, especially like the angle where you're looking a bit down on her. Natural lighting is gorgeous!

Mitchell

Quality DM shots. Any horizontal crops to share? I'm usually partial to those.

divamum

Thanks, guys! Mitchell, surprisingly I don't have so many landscape orientation - funny how sometimes a space/light/face pushes you to one or the other, and for whatever reason, here I wound up shooting 98% vertical!

Mitchell

Yes, with all that clutter, it was a very vertical space.

divamum

Hadn't thought about that, but you're right - also, that I was trying to use the blue doors and I had to line them up/frame them in betwee to get the effect. Good point!