Portrait lighting.

ronlane · Feb 15, 2017

Decided in January to move up to a 38" octabox to go along with my streaklight 360. I am using the Phottix Oden system for radio triggers. The things that I really like about this system is that it is battery powered and it lasts me a long time. It is light weight and I can take it and use it just about anywhere. Here are a few shots that I have taken with it. A couple of these I may have also used a 5-in-1 reflector to help with fill.

The first half hour after getting it.

lighting at maybe 30-40 degrees to camera left.

closer to 10 degrees camera left, maybe closer to the camera than that.

At least 45 degrees camera right and I tried to use a reflector and speed light to help fill in a little. (Not really successful)

tirediron · Feb 17, 2017

Nice! I think it's maybe a tad hot in the first one of your daughter, but it looks like you dialed it in pretty well after that. 2 and 3 are nicely lit, and #4, if the light were a bit lower would have been almost a textbook Rembrandt light. This looks like a modifier really worth investing in!

ronlane · Feb 17, 2017

Thanks. Yeah that first one was probably a little hot. I tried to meter it but she kept moving. I was trying to be within 3-4 feet from her head to see how it would react. This is all experimentation for me.

I am glad that I got it and am really excited to learn how to use it.

#4, I went too high? Wow, that's almost never been the case with me and lighting. lol

Derrel · Feb 17, 2017

The quality of the light that the Streaklight and that modifier creates is nice. It has what I call "fairly crisp" light quality. On the rounded parts of the face/head, it leaves a slight but small highlight, like on the cheeks, or on the edges of the eye orbit, or the forehead, depending on the subject and the angle of the light to their face. That little tiny bit of sheen on the face reveals the shape of the face. If you wanted to, this light could also be shot through a layer of thin, white transparent nylon material held on a frame, or just draped over the front of the modifier, the way Tony Corbell demonstreates in his video about 10 Ways To Use a Single Softbox.