The Many Moods of Marcus

My much-anticipated shoot-through umbrella and stand arrived yesterday and I didn't hesitate to put it to use in part II of my portrait shoot with Marcus Turner (Shots from the first shoot here). So here's "Accordion now for benefit of proletariat"



The shoot-through makes for a nice big soft light source, and I'm looking forward to using it for some more portraits. I love the idea of balancing flash with the background ambient light, and when I saw the view of Otago Harbour from Marcus's living room, I really wanted to get a few shots with the view as his background. Some of the other shots in this series were better in terms of light - a little more shadow, but I like Marcus's pose best in this one. He reminds me of a Stalinist propaganda hero. I quickly moved onto a few shots with the Orbis ring flash:



Then I moved on to try a more moody setup,with a high-placed flash aimed down through a gridspot to constrict the light path, and another coming from the side.







Painting with light. I think I'm starting to get it now. This pretty much completes the little portrait job Marcus asked me to do. It's been a lot of fun and a great learning experience. Hope you like 'em Marcus!

Everythng I've learned about lighting so far has come from David Hobby's Strobist Blog. It's an amazing resource, and if you go there now (the link is on the right), you can join up for David's Strobist Boot Camp II. I intend to be part of it!

Now, do me a favour and leave a comment, or sign up to receive regular updates when there's something new to look at here!