Jazzing Up a Boring Computer Portrait
SuperDave Tejada is back, this time showing you how to pump up a typical, boring person-at-computer shoot using a couple of SB's. Dave is shooting corporate here, which means that (a) he can direct people all he wants, and (b) he makes lots more money than you do.
Stuff to watch for:
1. He gets good contrast and fill from two opposing light sources - left and right.
2. He has the hard-vs-soft thing going, too. Hard camera left vs soft camera right.
3. He also uses a warm-vs-cool scheme, working a CTO against a CTB for good internal separation.
You can see the final pic here.
p.s. For the viewers in the UK, "fanny" means something different over here.
-30-
Get the Full Monte: Follow Strobist on Twitter.
Now Shipping from USA and UK: Strobist Lighting Seminar DVDs
Feed your brain: My Favorite Lighting/Photo Books
by David, at 9:22 AM.
13 Comments:
Can you please provide the link for the images.
--Tanveer
that's great - very bold going for such blue vs. orange light - I would have been too moderate there! It works great, tho'
I like how he can see how the pose will translate onto the final image. That's one (of many) areas I have to really work on.
Nice catch on the 'fanny', too. Reminds me of an (BBC = good) Office episode....
'rotate your fanny' snigger
i dont like this :(
As great as he is with lighting, directing, and shooting, his style just screams late 80s early nineties. It was also very apparent in the last shoot (on the oil rig) with the gels.
Not to say all "new" styles are the best (I'm actually not a fan of the over produced HDR images) but there are photographs with lighting that never goes out of style.
Seeing how "real" photographers work is very instructive, and he obviously knows exactly what he is doing. Me, I can't light myself out of a wet paper bag.
That said, I found the orange to be rather too much in the final image, and I'm no fan at all of the resulting orange patch on the wall behind the subject.
Don't know why he turns off the light in that office. I think the two SBs are more than enough to overpower the office lights. it'll just make focusing that much easier. May be I am missing something here.
OT - But who would like to hazard a guess when we'll be allowed to play 'strobist' in Scrabble?
(I kid you not, I have the letters sitting in my rack in a game of Scrabulous as we speak!)
Anonymous and anyone else with the same question: My guess is that he's turning off the overheads because he's using a slow shutter speed to pick up the ambient screen light (notice how he also reminds her to sit very still to avoid motion blur.) With the lower shutter speed, he'd likely get contamination from the overhead light. Further, focusing once with a moderate aperture should work fine as the distance to subject is not changing throughout the shoot.
@ Anonymous: James is right. Slow shutter allows for the monitor to come through. That's why the overheads must be turned off. I just did a shoot in an operating room Friday, same scenario. David Texada's work is great and well suited for his clientele. He is also generous to share with all.
Oh the fanny comment was priceless.. For anyone outside the U.S, it must have got a grin ;)
Great tutorial as usual. Thanks!
Post a Comment
<< Home