Here’s a fun head-shot of Margaret that I took during an introductory off-camera lighting lesson. Margaret’s going to be doing head-shots at work soon, and she asked me to show her some basic portrait lighting techniques. I was more than happy to oblige.
The lighting setup for this is pretty straightforward. The main light is a Nikon SB-600 at 1/4 power in a shoot-through umbrella up high and at camera right. The fill light is a second Nikon SB-600 at 1/16 power in a shoot-through umbrella down low and at camera left. If you look at the catchlights in her left eye, you can figure out exactly where the lights were positioned. The background is an empty wall in Margaret’s apartment.
I shot the image on my Nikon D300 with a Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens. The exposure was 1/125th second at f/8. Only minor post-processing was done in Lightroom (drop the exposure a tiny bit, add a bit of fill, boost contrast a little). For the most part, the final image is only slightly changed from the in-camera version.
I’m really happy with how this photo turned out. I was actually doing some lighting and exposure tests, and Margaret made faces the entire time. I just happened to snap this one at the right moment. It’s fun, spontaneous, and a fairly accurate representation of Margaret’s goofy and quirky side. What was originally a test shot is now the keeper of the session. I love it when that happens.
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