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)

Bounce Cards

We are in this quarantine thing now and I get tired of watching television all the time. So, I did a little test today with two bounce cards.

One was the MagMod, Mag Bounce

Mag Bounce $44.00

Mag Grip $25.00

Total cost $69.00

Total weight 1.42 pounds (a little heavy for on camera)

The other was the Demp Saucer Flip-It

Flip-It $37.95

Weight 1.6 oz (much less weight)

For the test I set up a meter (the meter was set for ISO-100, shutter speed 1/160) and flash 72” apart. With a Godox V860-II flash at full power, the Mag Bounce metered at f/6.3-1 and the Flip-It metered at f/6.3-3, slightly higher that the Mag Bounce but not enough to matter. I have been using the Flip-It on camera because of the weight.  

Behind the scenes

Meter

Mag Bounce

Demp Flip-It

Mag Bounce Test

Flip-It Test

Sample pictures with Canon 5D-III camera, Canon 35mm f/1.4 lens, Godox V860-II flash and a  Demp Saucer Flip-It bounce card.

Tabletop photography

I’m struggling through this quarantine for Covid-19. To pass the time I have been trying my hand at tabletop photography. I actually came up with two setups. One setup was with three softboxes and three Godox V860-II speed lights. The other setup was with two umbrellas and two inexpensive Godox TT520-II speed lights. In both cases I used a Canon 5D-III camera and either a 24/105mm or 100mm macro lens. Settings were ISO-200, F/16 aperture and 1/160 shutter speed.

Three light setup with examples.

Two light setup with examples. 

I hope this was helpful to someone. Let me know if you have any questions I will help if I can.