I thought I would add one more picture of the small studio, and how it works.

This consists of:

• A grey background
• A main (“key”) light: a Bowens 400 Ws monolight, fired into a Bowens 60×80 softbox.
• This light is activated through a PocketWizard; all other lights have a photocell that follows this light.
• A fill light, 250 Ws fired into an umbrella
• A 100 Ws background light with a yellow gel
• A 250 Ws hair light with a snoot
• A stool for the victim to sit on

The camera is set to manual exposure and has a Pocketwizard on it which drives the flashes. Don’t forget to set your camera to manual low ISO, and to check that your exposure time is under the synch speed (e.g. 1/125th second). Then meter for the right light (meter key and fill lights individually).

And this very vanilla setup leads to:

Photographers will know: the biggest challenge is to focus on yourself. That is why we are always hassling people to model for us.