![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_032_sq.jpg\")
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Shooting portraits in the studio has a challenge all of its own compared to shooting out on location – you are limited by the confines of the rectangular box that is the studio. You’re also limited by your imagination\u00a0of course. Part of the challenge is that when you photograph a new client, you have to shoot consistent with your style – that’s why a client chose you – but at the same time, you have to bring some variety to the sequences of images.\u00a0Even if it is just a slight tweak, I feel there has to be something else that you offer during\u00a0every portrait session, even if just to keep it fresh for yourself.<\/p>\n
I had the pleasure of photographing RJ Harper who is a professional scuba diver. Charismatic and with a big personality, RJ was fun to photograph. You can check\u00a0one of his underwater video clips<\/a> here on his FB page. He is\u00a0certified with PADI as a Rescue Diver which means he’s experienced in saving people underwater. That skillset is the third level of professional certification in America.<\/p>\n With me in the studio was my friend Yasmeen Anderson,\u00a0a\u00a0\u00a0fitness photographer in NJ<\/a>, and together we collaborated\u00a0\u00a0on\u00a0matching the brief given (photograph him with some products that he use and endorses), and also expand his portfolio with photos of him.<\/p>\n With this article, I want to walk you through four of the lighting setups we used\u00a0in the studio. I need to mention that my studio is available as a Rental Studio in NJ<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0I also present\u00a0Studio Photography Workshops<\/a>\u00a0where we explore studio lighting.<\/p>\n For started the shoot with a straight-forward lighting setup for portraits. (The pull-back shot is shown below.)\u00a0The photo shown at the top was one of the initial portraits, but with\u00a0the smallest of changes … I asked RJ to shake his head to and fro. Gentle movements turned out better. We\u00a0did about 40\u00a0frames out of which 4 or 5 worked, and this was the best of it. (Most of the\u00a0photos\u00a0had some of the dreads in the way of his eyes or mouth.) I also love his expression here – it shows confidence and pride, but with a calmness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The main light was a gridded 3-ft Profoto Octa softbox. Gridded softboxes are my staple light modifiers. This video clip shows some of\u00a0how I\u00a0use gridded strip boxes in the studio<\/a>. The back-lighting\u00a0helped etch the strands of hair to separate them better from the background. The glow on the background wall is from a 7″ reflector dish with a grid on it.Again, the grid on this smaller light modifier helps control the spread of light.<\/p>\n One thing that I often have to explain to photographers using the studio – that grey wall in the back can be any shade of light or dark that you want. It isn’t the way it appears to the eye when you enter the studio. The lighting changes everything! \u00a0This is true, even for a\u00a0grey wall.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For this next sequence\u00a0was to\u00a0show some of the products that RJ endorses as a diver.\u00a0The lighting remained very similar to the previous setup, but with a change to the background. We wanted to hint at the diving element, and used a blue gel from the MagMod2 Basic Kit<\/a>\u00a0(B&H<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/\u00a0Amazon<\/a><\/em>), which we projected on the wall with a gobo included in the\u00a0MagMod MagBeam Kit<\/a>\u00a0 (B&H<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\/\u00a0Amazon<\/a><\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0This gave that abstract blue pattern, which hopefully is reminiscent of water.<\/p>\n The MagMod system is versatile and with the magnet fastening, really quick to change.<\/p>\n I marked position of the\u00a0gridded\u00a0Profoto 3′ RFI Octa Softbox<\/a>\u00a0o better show how it was angled more to the side for more dramatic light. The image at the very top had more even \/ flat light since the light was coming directly overhead from the photographer’s position. Moving the light to the side, created a more dramatic effect. Just that – the position of the light in relation to our subject. This\u00a0simple idea also relates to this:\u00a0Change your position, change the direction of light<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For this sequence, we wanted to go even more dramatic, and minimize the elements in the frame that would take your attention away – we wanted RJ and the relevant products.<\/p>\n Here I didn’t use the studio\u00a0flashes at all, instead opting for continuous lighting. We used 4″\u00a0LED fresnel lights with barn doors to control the spill of light:\u00a0Litepanels Sola 4 LED Fresnel Lights<\/a>\u00a0 (B&H<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Amazon<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n The light on the background had a 1\/2 CTO gel on it for a slightly warmer cast to the background highlight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The pull-back shot shows how the two LED Fresnel lights were positioned. I marked the rear light in this image\u00a0for clarity. The highlight on the wall is only lit by that LED light. None of it from the main light on RJ. This light’s effect and how it fell across RJ, was controlled by a set of barn doors. (As an aside – this set of lights is also available for use as part of the\u00a0Rental Studio<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The beauty of continuous lighting of course is that you can see the effect of the light immediately. This makes it easier to sculpt and shape the light for your needs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This next lighting setup is going to need some extra explaining. RJ is the subject of a proposed new superhero comic book series, created by\u00a0John Jones. The motive behind this aquatic superhero is to\u00a0inspire young people, and to promote ocean conservation.<\/p>\n Yasmeen had a specific idea in mind here in what she wanted to do with the final images. She wanted to mostly rim-light our subject, with the intention of manipulating the selected photographs in Photoshop, to show water cascading\u00a0over RJ.<\/p>\n The lighting setup involved 4 studio lights with various gridded softboxes.\u00a0The two lights overhead were easier to position on booms. The main light in front of RJ was just as fill-flash. \u00a0The three stripboxes on the side (and overhead) were the dominant light sources in order to give the rim-lighting we needed. We intentionally under-exposed his face. We really just wanted the outline of his body and arms.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Studio portrait lighting ideas Shooting portraits in the studio has a challenge all of its own compared to shooting out on location – you are limited by the confines of the rectangular box that is the studio. You’re also limited by your imagination\u00a0of course. Part of the challenge is that when you photograph a new Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[790,511,136],"tags":[798],"yst_prominent_words":[2684,1116,2675,2568,2563,2678,1115,1021,1509,2562,2566,2569,2564,2676,2683,2674,2680,2677,2565,2679],"class_list":{"0":"post-38012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-in-camera-special-effects","8":"category-profoto","9":"category-studio-photography","10":"tag-studio-lighting-setup","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38012"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38882,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38012\/revisions\/38882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38012"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=38012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_001.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPhoto gear and lighting\u00a0used during this photo session<\/h2>\n
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\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_095.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_096.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPhoto gear and lighting\u00a0used during this photo session<\/h2>\n
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\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_106.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_108.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPhoto gear and lighting\u00a0used during this photo session<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_110.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photo-session\/rj-harper\/RJ_Harper_122.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPhoto gear and lighting\u00a0used during this photo session<\/h2>\n
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