Brent needed a quick photo for a newspaper article about a local boy, him, who’d advanced to great things. Now the Director of Communications for the Arnold Sports Festival, Brent’s hometown newspaper’s article about his ascendancy to greatness needed a photo to complete the layout.
Choosing the spot for the shoot was easy. The office conference room is lined with framed posters marking the more than 30 years of fitness, bodybuilding and weightlifting events it has run. Most of the posters along one wall include photos of Arnold, the namesake for Brent’s employer.
Lighting the portrait was not difficult but did require one modified light source.
The main light was an SB800 bounced into a silver umbrella. The light was placed to my right just above Brent’s eye level. I wanted the stronger light coming from a silver reflector instead of a softer light through or into a silk reflector. The stronger light source gave his face more contrast for a more masculine look.
The second light, another SB800, was at camera left, about 12 feet away. it was aimed at the wall of posters and modified with a small Honl snoot slightly opened on the side facing the camera. The light was not close enough to cause lens flare.
The snoot focused the light onto the wall behind Brent keeping it from directly striking his right side. I wanted just a little light on his side to rim light his face and shoulder. Opening t4he snoot just a few inches gave me just enough light to fill the shadows from the main light.
Both strobes were fired with Nikon CLS. The main light was on a different channel that the second light so I could separately modify the strength of each. The snooted strobe needed more output than the main light because it was further from its intended subject, the wall.
The entire shoot took no more than a few minutes. As usual, it took more time to set up the lights than do the shoot.
