New Year, New Lighting, Old Pose... but what the heck.

This is our youngest son, Owen.  He looks so calm, patient and... stationary.  Well, those of you who know him, know that is NOT Owen!  Shirley would drop him in place, quickly get out of the way, I'd shoot, he'd run, then we'd start the sequence all over again. 

Anyway, this is the result of a high key lighting technique for white seamless paper I learned in the 1980s from THE best lighting teacher ever... Dean Collins, but hadn't done it until recently (OK, I learn slow...ly).

Thanks Owen for holding still for the 1/125 second it took to get this shot.  (Ain't he CUTE?)  Yeah, the pose is a bit traditional, but for a studio portrait I like that look.  I do plenty of casual, candid, real stuff outside of the camera room.

 

Comments

[Twila Davis Reed]

Perfect! Kids are perpetual motion machines...some run faster than others!

Gonna share the technique?

[Fuzzy]

Sure.

I have a 4x6 white panel attached to the ceiling. I fired a 500 watt second strobe at it. That light bounces off it, and strikes the background and floor. They are the same distance from the panel, so they receive the same amount of light.

They get 3 stops (reflected reading) more light than the subject's incident reading. So the white seamless is clean and even.

[Twila Davis Reed]

Thanks!

Is the panel angled or flat to the ceiling? And are you using any modifier on your light or just, say, the parabolic reflector that comes with it?

I purposely painted my studio ceilings neutral white (not superbright)so that I could use the ceiling and wall (painted neutral light gray) behind the camera as a large fill source. So if you bounce it off the ceiling towards the background, it should work similarly, you just need more power.