This is the quickest, cheapest and simplest portrait setup available, and especially effective for more mature clients.
Whilst I’m a fan of the more creative portrait looks, they can work against the older client. Dramatic portraits rely on dramatic lighting, which in turn relies on quite strong shadowing to provide depth and texture to the subject. Clients who have very good skin and complexions tend to love the “pop” afforded by dramatic lighting. However, those of us with wrinkles, bags and scars would rather they weren’t emphasised in quite an eye catching manner!
Meet Bob Perrin, a good friend of mine who happens to be the other half of Lesley Perrin, both of whom are Wow Photography from Darwen. A lot of Bob’s character shows in his face, he’s quick to laugh 🙂
Here, I wanted to soften his skin but keep him “interesting”, without becoming bland. I used a classic clamshell setup. A Nikon SB900 speedlight at 1/4 output firing through a shoot-through umbrella just below the camera. A second speedlight firing through another shoot-through umbrella at 1/4 output was just above the camera and slightly right. I used a higher shutter speed to reduce the ambient, and basically render the white wall to grey.
Dead easy to setup, and very pleasing results for an older client.
Nikon D3 1/200th sec ISO200 24-70mm Nikkor F10
