To see that you can keep portraits simple, just look at this shot of Gaurav Sharda, an up-and-coming photographer from Brampton:
This photo was taken with a 430EX flash in an umbrella to our right, fired from a Canon 1D MkIV camera with a 580EX II to drive the slave flash.
Shutter speed was 1/200th second and aperture f/5.6, at a sensitivity of 100 ISO. The lens was a 70-200 f/2.8 set to a focal length of 90mm.
Wat is simple here?
- Available white wall, no backdrop.
- I used TTL, no complicated metering. Of course the white wall necessitated a Flash Exposure Compensation setting of +1 stop (check your histogram to be sure).
- One white shoot-through umbrella, nothing else (the umbrella throws enough light elsewhere into the room to also give you some fill). The umbrella also gives us a nice circular catchlight.
- Standard “studio” settings for aperture and shutter.
- I converted to black and white in Lightroom.
- Nothing else needed to be done!
So for portraits, sometimes simple is enough. Do not start with lots of lights if you do not need them.
Hey Michael
Do you shoot with a 70-200mm IS or no IS?
Many thanks
Daren
Daren: with IS. But in a studio setting, it makes little difference. It’s when I shoot in ambient light that it makes a huge difference.
thanks!