Three lights on Pop

The picture to the right was taken with three lights.  Technically four flashes, but only three produced the light in this particular portrait. The fourth worked as the master controller for the other three.

Our goal was to show the beard – a near-year’s worth of growth, which is about to be chopped off.  We wanted to show the full size and fuzziness (this is a lot for this guy), so that later photos can accurately show the contrast.  There  were several poses that we ran through, all of which did pretty well.  This was my favorite, I think – it shows that the hair in the back grew (pony tail, yeah!), as well as the beard effect.

So, how it was done: we started by running through the house.  We needed a background that would be visually interesting if we chose to light it. It also had to be in a room large enough so that we could use light to isolate details if need be.

In the end, we chose the main living room.  It’s large, has dark walls, and a natural-stone fireplace (barely visible in this background).  Unfortunately, a few shots in & we realized that the mantle cuts right through an adult’s head from virtually any angle.  So, darken it we shall!  Take the rear light, turn it around & give the subject rimlight.  This was at 1/32nd power.

For the main light, I opted for an umbrella.  This was not because I wanted to – there was too much spillage for this room with an umbrella.  I only have one softbox, though, and it’s a small one.  So the primary light came from an umbrella.  To keep the splash to a minimum, I choked up the umbrella and zoomed in to 70mm on the flash.  That was going at 1/8th power, so it created a good, but dramatic light.

Too dramatic.  In comes the third flash with the softbox, to camera left.  That was also at 1/32nd by the end of the test shots. It helped give some definition and reduced the severity of the shadows.

Layout of the final shot:

Setup of lights