The scary story
As I have shared before, this year I am trying to improve my story telling ability, my use of multiple planes, and my on-location lighting. This evening I did this portrait of my son to continue to exercise these abilities.
The title is “The Scary Story” because this is what I told him the book was about, and he gave me this expression 
Some technical details about the shoot:
Nikon D700 with 24-70mm at 62mm, f/3.5, 1/250 sec, ISO 200
The background was a 9 ft roll of seamless paper, reddish brown color, extended behind the couch in my living room. I did this because there are windows with blinds behind the coach and I wanted a simpler background. The lamp with the flash inside and the vase with orchids were moved there to break the background and add some night time feeling to the image.
Lighting:
- Key light was a WL X3200 in very low power with a 20 degree grid to camera left, triggered with a PW. This light was flagged with a piece of black card board, preventing the spill from causing a shadow behind the lamp. You can see there is still a shadow there, but it doesn’t bother me much.
- There was an SB800 flash inside the lamp, also triggered with a Pocket Wizard. The lamp shade was modified to be a warmer color in post processing, as I didn’t use a gel this time.
- No fill light for more drama.
The scare story
Minimal postprocessing, no cropping, no color adjustment, just warming up the lamp, which was a bit too white and bright. Just resizing and sharpening for the web.
This is a case where a spot light works great. A softbox would have ruined the night mood, as it would have filled the place with light.
Comments welcome!
Category: Photo Sessions