Thank you for reading the first blog post on this website!
As several lockdowns and travel restrictions are in place, I decided to give studio portrait photography a go.
As I am not experienced with the genre, being able to experiment in a small home studio gives me a good place to start.
I found myself lost in researching the vast scope of studio equipment and based my purchases on the “Swiss knife principle”: Multipurpose, space efficient, easy to use and budget friendly.
After watching to much YouTube content, I decided to place an order:
– 2 light stands with support for the backdrop.
– 2 light stands with each a 60/60 softbox and 2 Godox speedlite V860II + X2 trigger.
– Several speedlite modifiers. (Color gel, snoot, grid,…)
Although this set up wil not be top notch, or excel in any particular area, I consider it to be a good starting point with multiple growth possibilities.
The studio space is not big enough for full body shots, so the first shoot I’ve tried was a self portrait headshot.
I’m not so keen on being on camera but luckily I had Rudolph (my test model) come in to set my exposure.
The camera settings for the image above are: 1/100s, F2,8 at ISO100, with a focal length of 90mm.
3 lights were placed as seen in the image above. 1 Key light, 1 fill light and 1 background light.
From there on I tinkered with the manual flash output settings, as TTL didn’t seem consistent enough.
Having the subject fairly separated from the backdrop gave me a dark background due to light fall of, meaning my key light does not effect the exposure of the background. Adding an extra background light gave me individual control over it, creating a halo effect.
Once I found a look I was pleased with, I’ve changed places with Rudolph, and made a self portrait.
I was pleased with the result, considering this was my first attempt in making a studio portrait.
It sparked my creativity once again and I got excited for more shoots to come.
Je hebt geen idee hoe blij ik ben dat je terug met fotografie bezig bent. Ik volg!
Zalig om te horen, bedankt!
Dit ziet er geweldig uit Steven. Ik wens je veel succes maar vooral veel plezier toe in jouw fotografie journey. Je hebt er een enthousiaste volger bij !
Bedankt !