New photography technique for portraits – thanks Scott

I’m always looking for new techniques to improve my photography – there’s so much to learn! Recently, I’ve been concentrating on portraiture, and that ‘studio’ look. I’ve been reading a book by Scott Kelby in which he provides some fantastic tips.

On Sunday afternoon a friend of mine, Scott, agreed to play the model. After lunch I pushed the dining room table aside and set up a couple of soft boxes. I placed a flash (Canon 430EX) at floor level, behind where Scott would sit, and pointed it at 45° up against the white wall. This was in manual mode on full power.

Scott sat in a chair, about 6 inches behind the flash and I moved the soft boxes in as close as possible, each on a 45° axis to him. The beauty of soft boxes is, whilst not as powerful as studio flashes, you can see how the light’s falling as you move them around.

This shot was taken at ISO 100 – 105mm – 1/40 sec – f/5.6.