Daytime Artifical Light to Create Dramatic Portraits

I especially enjoy location shoots. They provide an almost never ending array of backdrop and light, plus it allows one to get out of the house and enjoy being outside. We recently were involved in a shoot at a new location for me. It proved to be a spectacular day with a gentle breeze, fall-like temperatures, and lots of puffy clouds.

Here is one photograph from the shoot where a combination of using onsite speedlights, a stunning model, and some simple post processing created a dramatic portrait. The shooting conditions were somewhat difficult with broken clouds accented with a bright sun. Shooting in anything except a full shade was pretty much out of the question.

The setup for this image was rather simple. It was shot in the shade of porch area using two speedlights fired remotely. On the key light was attached a 24x30 softbox and it's power setting was reduced to about 1/4 power. It was placed about 4 feet from the model at somewhere between 90 and 60 degrees inline with the head and was adjusted to just above eye level. This allowed the softbox to extend slightly above and below the models head and shoulders and to also provide some soft wrap around light. Behind the model about 10 feet away another speedlight was setup dialed down to about 1/8th power. It was a bare light raised to about head level and pointed directly and the model.

It was shot on manual set at ISO 100 at f/9 at 1/200th with the lens zoomed out to 200mm.  This setting produced a well exposed portrait with a sharp drop off of contrast and some wrap around from the key light and nice separation highlights on the hair from the second light.

Post processing included convertion to black and white using a film noir process which generated a dramatic contrast without blowing out the highlights. The midtones were dropped to darken the background and the resulting image became a stunning example of how artificial light can be used to make a natural looking, yet powerful portrait...even in daylight.

V-Slats and Artificial Lighting

As I have stated numerous times photography is all about light. It doesn't matter the source of the light. It could be natural or artificial, how you employ the qualities of that light determines to a large degree the final value of the image. I recently started exploring in more detail the use of artificial lights both studio guns and smaller speedlights. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but both can also provide a spectacular array of lighting potential. One technique I find intriguing is the use of what are known as V-Slats. They are most often employed in a studio environment and provide a wonderfully soft and compelling light.

First of all V-Slats are very simple to construct, there is nothing fancy about them. I used two sets of two 3x4 foam boards joined along one edge with tape to end up with two V-Slats. The idea is to bounce your light into the V of the folded slats facing away from your subject. The light is then bounced off a larger white wall a few feet behind them. The White wall in effect becomes your light source.

The light coming off the wall presents a huge flood of soft light that envelops your subject. Combine it with say 400 watts of constant lighting set behind and to one side, you end up with an interesting and dramatic soft light effect.

Playing with the exposure values also allows you to introduce motion into the equation without sacrificing the clarity and sharpness required for your subject.