One umbrella, one gel, one reflector, girl's portrait

[Derrel]

One umbrella, a 40 inch Lastolite Umbrella, camera right and angled downward toward the subject. One background light, with a 7 inch reflector, a mylar diffuser, 4-way e-Bay "universal" barn doors, and a piece of very old reddish-pink gel filter taped to the front of the mylar diffuser. The gel had a WHITE, worn-out patch that I placed at about 10 o'clock, to create a natural gradient, with some light pink, and some darker pink. I placed the background light at a 40 degree angle to the family's living room big-screen projection screen, to create brighter light on the left side of the frame, and deeper pink on the right hand side, to go with her dress bow. I also closed the barn doors, TOP and BOTTOM, a bit, to create a natural gradient. I had her father hold my ancient 42 x 72 in ch white fabric and PVC "LightForm" reflector--one I got back in the Dean Collins days!!! This shot was for a beauty pageant entry form that wanted an 8x12 aspect ratio shot. It also made a nifty B&W old-fashioned conversion using LightRoom 3.6's pre-sets.View attachment 16264 This was shot with 100 Watt-seconds going through each flash head, at around f/10 and ISO 100. I hope she does well in her very-first pageant!

 

[bunny99123]

I love it! It shows how happy she is, and the pink just seems to fit her. Can't speculate on the equipment lighting, because I am still learning, but noted the diffusing trick. The picture expresses to me a beautiful girl with spunk

 

[tirediron]

I like the image Derrel, but I'm puzzled about the choice of a reddish gel. Given the colour of her belt, hair and hair ornament, I would have gone for a green-blue to contrast. As-is, it seems those details are a little lost.

 

[Trever1t]

On a roll! I think I need to see a diagram of that BG light and reflector setup

 

[Jaemie]

Very nice. At first I thought her facial skin had too much pink, but on closer inspection of the enlarged image I see only normal coloured skin - no pink. What a charming photo of a charming girl!

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Nice!

 

[Derrel]

On a roll! I think I need to see a diagram of that BG light and reflector setup

Here you go, a scan of my setup diagram. As noted, I have a reddish gel that turns pink when the main is equal to the BG light on gray, and I have a deep purple gel that makes a lovely blue when shot onto gray. I went with the pink gel to harmonize with the pink "traditional little girl colors" of her belt and hair bow.

 

[Jaemie]

Did you shoot while comfortably reclining on the couch?!

 

[Derrel]

Did you shoot while comfortably reclining on the couch?!

No, but I did shoot from a sitting position! It was not especially roomy, shooting across the short dimension of the room. The frame before the one above, I framed a bit looser, and this is the B&W conversion of that frame:

 

[Trever1t]

On a roll! I think I need to see a diagram of that BG light and reflector setup

Here you go, a scan of my setup diagram.View attachment 16281 As noted, I have a reddish gel that turns pink when the main is equal to the BG light on gray, and I have a deep purple gel that makes a lovely blue when shot onto gray. I went with the pink gel to harmonize with the pink "traditional little girl colors" of her belt and hair bow.

Fing awesome!

 

[cgipson1]

Very nice, Derrel! Glad to see you posting some of your work!

 

[Desi]

Very cool Derrel. Thank you for posting the diagram. That is a lot of information there to learn from (and I've got a lot of learning to do). Stupid question: the background color is just from a gel rather than a colored background? Why a gray background rather than white if you are going to project a color onto it?

 

[mishele]

Thanks for sharing!! Love the drawing!!

 

[jamesbjenkins]

Nice work, Derrel! I second Charlie.

 

[Juice]

You had me at the "One Bourbon..." reference. :mrgreen: