Refining the New Lighting Set-up

Refining the New Lighting Set-up

I have been tinkering with the new lighting set-up when work allows it.

I started by trying to use my giant soft box in my living room. 

This resulted in me having to position it left of the camera which just felt wrong to begin with. 

God knows why. 

I even went online to see if there was a preference for one side over the other.

There isn’t.

I got used to it pretty quick, I wonder if I will return to the right side when space permits.

The other main change is the hair light I experimented with a large  3 by 1 rectangular soft box. God what a pain. 

The light-stand I have for this is massive and even then the boom arm was pretty unstable so I returned to a much lighter stand but with a small flash and grid, this was still precarious and flexed so much that even at full height it still risked bending enough to be in shot.

Anyway I had to shoot some more images for a client and had to make them match those from before.

I decided to go with the new setup which would seem like a compromise, but the results are much better!

Shooting on a dark background also removes the need for one light, though I have an idea to incorporate one in the future to add gradation to the backdrop.

Anyway… I like these images a lot, with a little care you can do more with less lights than going overboard with more.

I have even found myself thinking I would like to shot portraits for pleasure to experiment more but it would be nice to have more space, more flexibility… a bloody studio? 

If I could justify it economically sure but I don’t feel confident this will ever be the case in Barcelona.