Dan Perovich's Cyberfront Property

Photo365-20091217 – Portrait Practice, originally uploaded by HokiePerogi.
1/250 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 200, 70 mm (EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM)

Today I wanted to put the new gear to the real test.  I decided to add a background and reflector to my gear so that I can use them to take corporate head shots for my company in February.  I left myself plenty of lead time to iron out any kinks in the setup or my technique.

I set up the background and paced off eight feet to where I would be standing for the portrait.  I placed one of my light stands on the spot to mark it for the time being.  I then paced off eight more feed and set up the tripod.  I used the light stand place holder as a focusing point.  Next, I placed the background light on a small table a foot behind where I would be standing.  The Apollo softbox was then placed at camera left and in close.  The last piece of the puzzle was setup up the new reflector and stand.  Once it was all hooked up and angled properly, the reflector was placed camera right and in close.  (I have included a setup shot at the end of the post.)

For the first few frames, I had the circular reflector with its white side exposed to the softbox.  The result from this setup was a heavy shadow on the subject’s left side.  Mid-shoot, I flipped the reflector over to expose its silver side and reflect more light back into the shadows.

I like the way the final images came out of the camera.  I did, however, open up the exposure a bit more in Lightroom during post processing.  The next time I practice these shots, I have to remember to open up the exposure more in camera.  What looked great on the back of the camera turned out to be a bit too dark on the computer screen.