![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/oktavia\/D7T_2888.jpg\")
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The photo above is one of my favorite images. It was also subsequently chosen as the cover image for my book about off-camera flash photography<\/a>. Oktavia is a professional dancer and we both wanted some photos to extend our portfolios. Of the number of places we used as a backdrop, I really liked this place – an art gallery in Manhattan where we were kindly allowed to use as a setting. \u00a0What I’d like to show, is some of the images leading up to this final choice – how a combination of positioning Oktavia and changing the light, culminated in this photograph.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The lighting was once again very simple – a speedlight in a softbox, wirelessly controlled by the on-camera Master flash. \u00a0The slaved flash was set to Manual output.<\/p>\n camera settings: 1\/60 @ f3.5 @ 640 ISO Here are 8 other images – picked to show some of the changes in posing; and positioning of her hands; body posture … and changes in the position of the softbox. \u00a0Click on the image for a larger version.<\/p>\n You can also see how I changed my own position to hide the flash glare on the background. By dipping lower, I was able to hide the glare spot behind the chair. \u00a0But this caused her gaze to the camera to cause heavy shadows under her eyes. \u00a0I therefore asked her to look up towards the light. \u00a0This immediately gave clearer more ‘open’ light on her features.<\/p>\n With the initial images, I had the softbox on my right-hand side, but I didn’t like how that caused her body to be cast in shadow. \u00a0By changing the light to the other side (camera-left), and directing her gaze towards the light, the lighting pattern on her body changed completely.<\/p>\n I also asked Oktavia to move her hand resting on her lap slightly so that her fingers are slightly more hidden from view. \u00a0A subtle change, but an important one.<\/p>\n I started this session with the flash gelled with a full CTS gel. \u00a0I took it off to see how that would change the background .. and I didn’t like the deep orange tones of the background now. \u00a0So for the final choice, I had placed the CTS gel back on the speedlight in the softbox.<\/p>\n Finally, the image I chose as my favorite is a culmination of having a patient and cooperative subject; an interesting background; how my model was posed; the lighting; and other choices of equipment used. With portraits it is most often a case of a number of adjustments that are made until everything falls into place.<\/p>\n More articles on off-camera flash …<\/a><\/p>\n Equipment used during this photo session: Sequence of photos in posing a model The photo above is one of my favorite images. It was also subsequently chosen as the cover image for my book about off-camera flash photography. Oktavia is a professional dancer and we both wanted some photos to extend our portfolios. Of the number of places we used as Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[15,24,110,622,31,125],"tags":[147,506],"yst_prominent_words":[1493,6908,6899,6909,2629,6104,6903,2238,1330,1140,2064,6907,1120,1580,6891,1142,1315,2074,1146,3170],"class_list":{"0":"post-4384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-flash-photography","8":"category-models","9":"category-off-camera-flash","10":"category-oktavia","11":"category-photo-shoot","12":"category-posing","13":"tag-posing-people","14":"tag-posing-techniques","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384"}],"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=4384"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50305,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4384\/revisions\/50305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4384"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe settings were chosen such that the background would register – incandescent lighting on an art piece.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/oktavia\/oktavia-sequence-lrg.jpg\")
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\nNikon D3; \u00a0Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S<\/a> (B&H); \u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/a> (B&H)
\nLastolite EZYBOX 24×24 softbox<\/a> (B&H)
\nManfrotto 680B monopod<\/a> (B&H);
\nbrass stud to attach softbox to monopod<\/a> (B&H)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"