The Royal

The last few days, and the next eight days, I am taking portraits at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. Family portraits.

To do this, my colleague Paolo and I use this simple setup:

Setup at The Royal

Setup at The Royal

Two strobes in umbrellas, and a backdrop. That is it!

So you need a camera plus:

  • Two monolights, 45 degrees off to the side, high
  • Two stands and two umbrellas
  • A light meter
  • A backdrop
  • A way to connect the camera to the lights: perhaps pocketwizards, but a cable will do.

That is all. And every picture is reliable. Like this:

Family Portrait

Family Portrait

Friends

Friends

Friends

Friends

More tips:

  • People skills and compositional insight both help greatly.
  • Positioning (not “posing”) is the most important thing.
  • “Straight on” poses are not normally pleasing.
  • Telling people to “Smile!” is not a guarantee for nice photos

The moral of this post: simple light, two umbrellas, can do very well in giving you reliable images.

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