I've had a busy few days in the studio with three sessions in the last few days. All were different, which was good for me, ranging from professional promo shots, family shots with seventeen and five year old boys followed by a final high and low key prom shot session.
I had access to a studio room that's qite a bit larger than the room I normally hire and its suprising the difference that made. It certainly made for a more relaxing environment and gave me more room to experiment with the lights. I'm finally getting the hang of the high key lighting in order to get the look I'm after. It seems like everyone has their own way of setting the lights. I've experimented with three or four different setups now but I was really pleased with some of yesterdays results.
I've resorted to using a large softbox as my key light, used close in and at forty five degrees to my subject. That's balanced by a second light set further back, fitted with a large shoot through umberella and metered at one stop below the key. I'm using the new Bowens High Performance reflectors to light the background, set at one to one and a half stops over the key light. I've tried two stops as recommended by lots of people but I just end up with horrendous flare problems. Some of the backgrounds need a bit of whitening in post process but I'd rather that than trying to fight the flare.
All in all though it was a great weekend and I'm really pleased with specific shots from all the sessions. My posing skills are developing although I still struggle a bit with the family groups. I'm not sure if that's me or just trying to get young kids into set poses that never really work. I'm more inclined these days to set the parents and let the youngsters do their thing around them, within reason. I think the end results look a bit more spontaneous and fun. It was quite the opposite with the prom shots, I had two willing models and felt like I guided it through from start to finish, balancing what I wanted with some input from them as to what they were looking for. I think I provided a bit more than they'll get from the standard events shots on the ir prom night, which is what I was hoping for at the start of the session.
