On-Location Executive Portraits, Lighting Setup

[deluco]

Here's a couple of the ten portraits I did today on location at a local company. They needed some portraits for their brochure. The lighting setup is also shown below. It's a four-light setup, all fired on radio slaves. Although, in a controled environment like this, you could get away with optical slaves.

[PetersenPhotography]

Hey - really nice work here. Thanks for posting a photo of the set up for our reference!

[Brooks]

Jim,

Nice clean lighting, maybe a bit flat. Probably excessive spill from using umbrellas so close to the wall on camera left. Soft boxes might help with that.

A grid spot on a monolight or pack and head system with modeling lights would give you more choices in how you light the bkgd. A small softbox for the hair/kicker light using a strobe with a modeling light might help in aiming that light and help control the specular highlight brightness.

Maybe moving the man a bit to camera left might help too.

I know this is being picky but every little detail helps. Still, a nice job that I'm sure the client will like.

[Songman45]

If I may offer a suggestion. Keep a careful eye on the head size, this time literally. Both of these images work fine independently of each other. However, if they are going to be displayed say in a gallery area or along the walls of a hallway or if they are going to be published in the annual report the heads need to be relatively uniform. In my long-roll film days the camera's ground glass had a hair line and a circle guide. I'd think a grid focusing screen might be a good thing for this sort of work.

[deluco]

Originally Posted by Songman45

If I may offer a suggestion. Keep a careful eye on the head size, this time literally. Both of these images work fine independently of each other. However, if they are going to be displayed say in a gallery area or along the walls of a hallway or if they are going to be published in the annual report the heads need to be relatively uniform. In my long-roll film days the camera's ground glass had a hair line and a circle guide. I'd think a grid focusing screen might be a good thing for this sort of work.

Thank you for the comments. These are only samples for display here. They are not the final crops for the client. I agree with your suggestion. Re the comments on the lighting ratio, this is the ratio I aim for and is between 2-1 and 3-1. I do agree that a softbox is more appropriate for this application.

[Austen]

Excellent !!!

Thanks for the setup photograph !!

I gave you a "K"....I just wish I could give you two !!!

Austen.

(Did I mention...Thanks !!!!)

[Digital Hands]

So the main light is about f/8 while the fill is about f/5.6?

What is the f/stop for hair light?
Thank you for the info.
Denny

[deluco]

Originally Posted by Digital Hands

So the main light is about f/8 while the fill is about f/5.6?

What is the f/stop for hair light?
Thank you for the info.
Denny

The main is about f6.7 (f5.6 and 1/2), the fill is at about f4, which will total about f8 on the highlights, f4 in the shadows..about a 4-1 ratio..sometimes it's more like 3-1. The hair light is at about f8, as is the background light right behind the subject's shoulders. The background at about the head height might be at about f5.6.

I use my meter to get the ratio's correct and to get the lights close. Then I use a digital target to set the camera more precisely and to set the white balance.