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video: Creative studio portrait session – two perspectives

January 16, 2019 Neil vN 7 Comments

video: Creative studio portrait session – two perspectives

Continuing with the loose theme of ‘Two Perspectives‘, I invited my friend Dave Block into the studio during one of his visits to New York from Seattle. The concept behind the initial Two Perspectives video was that I get to meet upwith a fellow photographer, and that something might be revealed in the contrasting styles and ideas during some kind of photo shoot – hopefully informative and of wider interest. The 1st video was the intimate male portraiture shoot-out with my friend Cate Scaglione. The 2nd video was with Tracy Bosworth Page, and we had a look at on-location headshots. This time we were in the middle of winter, and we kept all toasty warm in the studio.

As I mentioned in the video, and in other articles here, the biggest challenge for me when working in the studio, is in figuring out ways to make that rectangular “box” interesting, using only lighting. And that’s where you have to become creative with studio portrait sessions. My studio has a wide range of light shaping tools, all based around a Profoto system. However, the studio doesn’t have much in terms of props. For the most part you really have to work it with light and lighting! In all the photos shown here, the background was a plain grey wall. The simplicity of that means all attention will be on your subject, and how you light and direct them.

For our starting setups, both Dave and I went for fairly straight-forward setups, with only a hint of the dramatic in the final look. For our second round, we both went for a dramatic look, but with completely divergent approaches. The specific lighting gear used for each of the four sequences of photos, are listed below.

Oh, and to keep everything fresh, I contacted a model I hadn’t ever worked with before – Sarah Osman. She was delightful to work with. I kept a lot of footage to show how we worked with her and instructed her. With workshops, I have found that many newer photographers are completely unsure about themselves when they have to direct a model. Hopefully, this video will give a little bit of insight into that – just talk to your model. Somehow it comes down to that basic advice.

As always, comments and questions are very welcome.

 


 

Camera settings & photo gear (or alternatives) used in this session

  • 1/125 @ f/5.6 @ 200 ISO
  • Nikon D5
  • Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E VR  /equivalent Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II
  • Profoto D1 Air 500Ws studio light
  • gridded Profoto 3-ft RFI Octa Softbox  (B&H / Amazon) for the main light
  • (2x) Profoto B1 flash (B&H / Amazon)  w/ gels  for the colored rim lighting
  • Profoto OCF gel kit  (B&H / Amazon)
  • (2x) small Profoto umbrellas
  • Profoto D1 500Ws studio light  w/gel, for the background light

 


 

 

Camera settings & photo gear used in this session

  • 1/125 @ f/5.6 @ 200 ISO
  • Nikon D5
  • Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E VR 
  • (4x) Profoto D1 500Ws studio light
  • gridded Profoto beauty dish  (B&H / Amazon)  as the main light
  • (2x) gridded Profoto RFi 1’×3’ softbox  (B&H / Amazon), for a bit of rim-lighting
  • gridded Profoto 3-ft RFI Octa Softbox  (B&H / Amazon) for the background

 


 

 

Camera settings & photo gear used in this session

  • 1/10 @ f/4 @ 400 ISO
  • Nikon D5
  • Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E VR  
  • Profoto B1 flash (B&H / Amazon)  w/ CTO gel
  • Profoto OCF gel kit  (B&H / Amazon)
  • Profoto Deep Small Umbrella (white)  (B&H / Amazon)
  • Profoto D1 500Ws studio lights
  • gridded Profoto beauty dish  (B&H / Amazon)
  • Manfrotto 025BS boom w/ stand & casters  for the light with the beauty dish

 

 


 

 

Camera settings & photo gear used in this session

  • 1/160 @ f/5.6 @ 200 ISO
  • Nikon D5
  • Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E VR lens  (B&H / Amazon)
  • (2x) Profoto B1 flash (B&H / Amazon)  w/ gels
  • Profoto OCF gel kit  (B&H / Amazon)
  • Profoto 7″ reflector  (B&H / Amazon)

 


 

Related articles

  • Other videos in the Two Perspectives series
  • For more videos, follow me on Vimeo | YouTube
  • Instagram: neilvn  |  Dave Block
  • NJ Photography Studio

 

Filed Under: lighting, Profoto, studio photography, two perspectives, video clip, video tutorial Tagged With: BTS studio photo shoot, dramatic studio lighting, studio lighting setup, studio lighting tips


 

Help support this website

If you find these articles of value, please help support this website by using these B&H and Amazon affiliate links to order your photo gear.

I also offer photography workshops and tutoring sessions, whether in person, or via online video tutoring sessions.

Stay informed via the monthly newsletter.

Please follow me on Instagram for more.

You can also join our thriving photo community in the Tangents group on Facebook, where we show our photos and discuss all things photography.

Thank you,

Neil vN

Books by Neil van Niekerk


 




7 Comments, Add Your Own

  1. 1Josephine Donatelli says

    January 16, 2019 at 1:38 pm

    I really enjoyed this! Very enlightening.

    Reply
  2. 2SB says

    January 21, 2019 at 12:30 pm

    Love this series – keep em coming.

    Best for 2019.

    Reply
    • 2.1Rog says

      January 22, 2019 at 4:57 am

      +1 to what SB said above. :) Keep it coming!

      Reply
  3. 3WEF says

    February 23, 2019 at 6:06 pm

    Enjoyed this video! Like the informal less structured presentation of longform video like this. Thanks Neil!

    Reply
  4. 4Baart1980 says

    February 25, 2019 at 4:51 pm

    I love this series :-O

    Reply
  5. 5Valent Lau says

    March 8, 2019 at 3:29 am

    Great to get different perspectives and ideas.

    Reply
  6. 6Ww says

    April 22, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    Always worth the wait

    Reply

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