Rock star

Rock star

I was trying out a new "modifier" for one of my flashes called a (homemade) beauty dish on this one. I'll write a little more on it and what it does to the light coming out of the flash on another picture where it is more obvious to see, but for a homemade lighting tool I'm just learning to use, I can say I really like it! Kids really seem to like seeing the gear dragged out as well. They can tell that something more than just a snapshot is being attempted. But at the same time I only hope they can't sense that the photographer doesn't really know exactly what he is doing too!

Beauty dish discussion aside, I also used a large white piece of posterboard to camera right to reflect some light back onto him to fill in some of the shadows but got a little unanticipated bonus in the process. The vertical part (to camera right) of the shiny black chair reflected the posterboard back towards the camera creating a nice but subtle specular highlight which helps define the edge of the chair and separate it from blending into the dark background. I wish I thought of doing that intentionally but I didn't. My attention was constantly being required by the demands of the "rock star" himself!
Strobist info: SB-800 with 1/4 CTO gel high to camera left in a homemade beauty dish on ~ 1/4 power. White posterboard bounce card to camera right. Snooted SB-25 on ~1/16 power at back camera right raked across seamless backdrop (blue blanket clamped to chairbacks).

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