Photo Shoot!

I was reading the f-stops here a few weeks ago, and I really like the way David Tejada took this photo:


In the next few pictures and in the post David talked about how he had set up the picture.

I really like the light that he got from the overhead umbrella, and the reflector below, and I decided I was going to try something similar.

So when Rudy, Jamie's fiancé, came for a visit two weeks ago I knew I was all set to take some pictures.

I don't have a C-stand like they used to get the pictures above, so I used a regular stand and had Rudy hold it above Jamie's head while I took her picture. I gave Jamie a piece of poster board to hold like a tray right below her chest to act a reflector. Rudy's arms got tired a lot, so we took several breaks.

I started off by under exposing the background by about a stop and a third. Then Rudy held the light up over Jamie and I started firing away! It took a few tries to figure out just where to put the light over Jamie, but we eventually figured out that if the light was more in front than exactly right above we got better results.We moved to the park across the street, and took a few more pictures. It was starting to get dark out, but who cares? We brought our own light!



I also wanted to take a few pictures with a direct main light, and soft fill light so I dialed the light on the umbrella way down and tried a few pictures with the light stands standing normally without any modifier on the main light.
you can see the shadows are very defined and sharp, but I still like it!


Jamie doing a model pose

and I liked the way the wind caught her hair!

I passed the camera around, and we all got to take some pictures of each other. It was pretty fun, and I always love getting to practice on someone new. Thanks Rudy!

I still need to practice with things, especially working on setting the fill light. I always set it after I figure out how the main light should be exposed, but I really should start with the fill light, then the main light. Oh well, that's why its called practice!