Under The Bridge

 Under the bridge

Near my house there is a wide bridge that goes over the Mississippi river. There is a small park there and there is always lots of open shade there. I like to use the bridge supports as a background. I used flash here but I didn’t want the picture to look flashy. I just wanted a kiss of flash, just enough to open up the shadows. It metered at ISO-200, aperture f/2.8 and shutter speed at 1/125. I set my flash at f/2.8 to match the ambient light. The light was a Godox AD360II in a 90cm Triopo softbox. Camera was a Canon 5D-III with a Canon 70/200-f/2.8 lens and a Godox Xpro controller. Scene was metered with a Sekonic L-308 light meter.

Portrait Lighting Setup

 My favorite portrait lighting setup

It seems that in my old age I have developed a real passion for photography, especially Portrait photography. Below is a drawing of a lighting setup that has became my go to setup for portraits of all sorts. My gear is not the latest and greatest, most of it is several years old. My main light is a Godox AD360II, bare bulb flash unit, it’s about 7 years old. It has never run the battery down and has never failed. The other two lights in this setup are Godox V860II’s, about 6 years old. They to have never failed me. The main light is a 24” x 36” Glow softbox that gives a nice soft light. the Hair/Rim light is a Glow 10” x 24” softbox that gives a nice soft light. Both softboxes are easy and quick to setup and take down. The two reflectors are simple white foam-core 20” x 30”, I get mine from Walmart but they are available in any office supply store. The background light is another Godox V860II in a Rouge grid, this allows me to use colored gels to control the color of the background. The background is a collapsible unit that is white on one side and black on the other. The Sekonic light meter is almost 20 years old and still works great. The Camera and lens are both over 10 years old and still sharp as a tack. The setting that I use 95% of the time for studio portraits is ISO-100, Aperture f/8 and Shotter speed at 1/160. In the pictures below I used a black background and feathered the main light to kept it off the background. I used a Dusty Rose gel to put an accent light on the background. The model was a very attractive young lady named Shay. She was wonderful to work with.   

Granddaughter again

 

How do you say no to your granddaughter?
 
When she was younger.
Main light: Godox AD360II in a Triopo 90cm Softbox.
Background light: Godox V860II in a Rouge grid.
Camera settings: ISO-100, Aperture f/9, Shutter speed 1/160

Clam Shell Lighting

 Clam shell lighting

With my granddaughter Carley I wanted to do a high key type headshot. I wanted to use a clamshell lighting setup, but I didn’t have a boom for the overhead light. So, I used two Godox 24” square softboxes with two Godox V860II speedlites. This allowed me to shoot between the light stands. The bounce card on the bottom is a 20” x 30” piece of white foam-core, as are the two reflectors in the back. The back light was another Godox V860II in an old InterFit gel holder.

My settings were:

ISO-100

Shutter speed 1/160

Aperture f/8

Indoor Portrait

 Natural light indoor portrait

My granddaughter (Carley) and I took a few natural light portraits yesterday evening. We used the light coming through a sliding glass door, the door faces south and there is a small deck above the door, so there is not much light coming through. We used a light gray collapsible background and a couple 20” x 30” white foam-core boards as reflectors.

Camera: Canon 5DII

Lens: Canon 85mm, f/1.8

Settings were: SS – 1/60, Aperture f/2.2, ISO-3200

(Anybody in the St Cloud area who wants to do a natural light shoot please message me)