How It was shot: A Personal Portrait
Last week I posted a very special portrait that I took along with a short narrative describing how it was such a rewarding experience. Since it was the first time using this type of lighting setup, I wanted to share some details and explain how and why I lit the shot the way I did. I have also shared another personal piece of the history behind this portrait below as I found it to be very fitting.
I have been waiting a long time to use this style of lighting, and I was finally able to make it happen with my recently purchased Alien Bees Ring Flash (ABR800) and two JTL-160’s. I have had three lights long before getting the ring flash, but I needed to wait until I got one in order to get the exact look that I wanted.
I placed a JTL-160 with a softbox on each side and slightly behind the front of the chair. This was done to create the side light or rimming effect that you see on the edge of the chair and his pants. Like you’ll notice in the photo below, I placed them so that the bottom edge of each softbox was touching the floor. I did this to light the floor enough to add good separation between it and the chair. I also did not want to light his upper body with these lights since I planned to do that with the ring flash.
I used a 20 degree grid on the ring flash. By doing so, the light coming from the ring flash was directed towards the center of the camera frame. As a result, I got the great vignette accomplished in camera instead of having to rely on doing that in the post production. The grid also kept the amount of light hitting his legs to be very minimal allowing the rim light on his legs and chair to really stand out.
On a more personal note, I thought I would share this photo of my grandparents after reading some of the comments the original post received. In the post, I mentioned how my pappap was a pilot and how he would fly to visit my grandma who lived states away while dating. Since publishing the original post, I remembered that I have this photo of the two of them standing together at the tail-end of an airplane. It certainly brings to life all of the fascinating stories that I have heard throughout the years about them being together in their younger years.
