Travelling Light: Single Strobe Sessions

Arlene

In the universe (well, the one we’re in at least), entropy is king. I know the liberties that I’ve taken with that re-statement of the second law of thermodynamics would be enough to make any physical chemist quizzically raise an eyebrow (and I do know one who just might do so). But, entropy, disorder, chaos or clutter is pretty much a part of life as we know it.

I have constantly made futile attempts at keeping clutter from taking over my pictures (and my desk), and yet it has always found a way to creep back in.

Cue internal dialogue:

You know what would push this shot from good to great? A hair light! No, make it two!

Hmmm, maybe we could amp this shot up by having the model dress up in Filipiniana…

Or maybe a full band can be blurred in the background to give it a ballroom-like atmosphere?

In the course of shooting portraits, it is so easy to forget that it should be about your subject (or subjects) first — always.

Thus, armed with a single strobe, I am off to beat the chaos back into the darkness from whence it came.

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Before anything else, let me just declare that this series of posts will revolve around portraits shot with a single strobe (triggered off camera). I will be employing a variety of light-shaping tools on the strobe and a reflector (or a suitable reflective surface) to bounce light off of. Of course, I’m throwing in ambient light to the mix (from the sickly green glow of fluorescent lamps to glorious golden sunlight). And with the parameters set, I go out to shoot my first hapless victims volunteer subjects.

The first person I shot was Arlene, our new department secretary. I chose to do an impromptu shoot. During such a shoot (or on any shoot for that matter), I always start by asking the person politely if they would let me make a picture of them. I ask for a few minutes to set my camera and the light, and let them know when we're ready to start shooting. I thank them for their time afterwards and usually ask them for an e-mail to which I can send a digital copy of their photo to. I caught Arlene a little off guard when I asked her, but I was happy that she agreed to my request anyway.

I’m all for a planned shoot. One that starts with a great concept and comes with a small group of people who dedicate themselves to doing it right. But, I also like to freestyle every now and then, and see what I can get. What I love about an on-the-spot shoot is that most often you’re able to capture elements of your subject’s personality because they didn't practice their poses and expressions a couple of days before the session. Predictably, there will be a number of shots that will show that the subject is feeling a little awkward about the whole thing. In my opinion, that’s normal. After a few shots, your subject gets a lot more comfortable and her expression and body language will be a lot more relaxed.

And before I forget, the above shots were achieved by:

• sticking a flash (at 1/8th power) on a light stand placed on upper camera left at an angle of about 45° relative to the subject’s nose (at least to where it’s pointing),
• placing a 1/4 CTO gel on the flash to warm the subject’s skin tone up,
• shooting the light through a white umbrella, which produces clean and well-diffused light (a modifier that I decided to use to prevent her braces from catching too much light and becoming a distraction),
• filling in the shadows on camera right by having an assistant hold a white circular reflector not more than two feet from the subject.

This is pretty basic stuff, lighting-wise. But, you can never go wrong with mastering the fundamentals.

If you have single strobe portraits of your own to share, kindly add me as a contact on Flickr and drop me a line. And before I forget, thanks to my good friend, Queenie, for assisting me during the shoot.

More to come…