[ Nikon D3;  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S .. 1/160th @ f3.5 @ 1250 ISO ]

More and more I find myself turning to using video lights when I use additional lighting for portraits in a more static environment. 

In this case I also liked how the difference in the color temperature between the tungsten video lights and the available light added even more drama to the lighting.  In this case the available light was fluorescent lights, as described in this previous posting. Since video lights are fairly hard light sources, I had to make sure that the way the model turned and looked, was in relation to the light.  In other words, the way that my friend Steve Z was holding up the two video lights, had to make visual sense in relation to how Priscilla was posed.  I wanted the light to fall onto her face from an angle that opened her features, but not be flat lighting as it would be with the light coming from the camera’s direction.

There is a fair amount of play in working like this, and every image will vary slightly from the others since the video lights aren’t static on light stands … but are instead being held up by someone else.  This means the lights do vary slightly in position as the other person tires a little, or follows the model …  or simply changes position because they either listened to my direction, or intuitively changed the positioning of the light as I might need it.  I described some of this way of working in a previous posting on using video lights.

This is exactly where the video lights become an interesting and creative lighting tool – since it is WYSIWYG in use, you can easily make small adjustments on the go.  The video lights also come with barn-doors which help a lot in containing exactly where the light falls.

For the image above, Steve Z held up two video lights – one in each hand.  He lit up Priscilla’s face with the video light in his left hand, and with the video light in his right hand, gave some rim light on her hair and lit up part of the background.

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