A few weeks ago I got myself a portable background stand and a 6-foot wide roll of seamless white paper with the aim of doing some high key portraiture without needing to bring subjects into a studio. After a quick practice using my wife as a model after it arrived, I looked forward to my first chance to try it out properly, and last Sunday afternoon Donal, who turns 1 on Friday, obliged and helped me create what is possibly the cutest photograph you will see today.
The ideal scenario for a photoshoot is where the photographer is in control of most elements – the lighting, the posing, the expression of the subject, the duration of the shoot for instance. When your subject is not yet one year old however, those rules change. Neither I nor Donal’s parents knew exactly how long we were going to have for the photoshoot, or how cooperative Donal would be, so it was essential to have the lighting setup tied down before he arrived.
I used a fairly standard 4-light high key setup for this shot – very similar to one I used to photograph my nephew previously, but this time all lights were strobes: namely an SB-800, an SB-600, an SB-20 and a Vivitar 283H. Because I was going to be photographing a toddler, I needed to keep the set-up fairly child-friendly, and so triggering the flashes wirelessly was important. I have a Skyport transmitter, which I put in the camera’s hotshoe, and two Skyport receivers, which triggered the SB-20 (via PC cord) and the Vivitar 283H (via a hotshoe adapter). To trigger the SB-600 I connected it to a small optical slave unit, and it would then fire whenever any other flash in the room went off. The SB-800 was similarly slaved optically, using it’s built-in slave by putting it in SU-4 mode.
I placed the SB-20 and Vivitar 283H as two background lights at either side of the background, about 5 feet from it, each pointing at the opposite edge of the seamless paper to feather the light evenly across the background. To determine their power I first chose a working aperture of f/11 to give me a good depth of field, expecting that Donal wouldn’t be staying very still. The SB-20 and in particular the Vivitar doesn’t seem to be as powerful as my SB-600 and SB-800, and I found to get the background nicely over-exposed (for that pure white look), I was close to full power on the Vivitar. I opted to open up the aperture to f/9 to buy back a little power in the hope of keeping my recycle times reasonable.
So my background is set up and lit. Now it’s time to light the foreground where my subject would be. In his place I used a small green suitcase, and setup a main light and a fill light (the SB-800 and SB-600), both fired through shoot-through umbrellas to soften the light. The SB-800 was placed as the main light on camera left, 45 degrees from the subject and about 3 feet from him. The SB-600 provided fill from camera right at the same angle, and slightly further back. Both were set to 1/4 power (remembering the SB-800 is more powerful than the SB-600, and also a little closer). Finally I just marked an X where the suitcase was to indicate where I should try to sit Donal.
All of this was done before Donal even arrived to the house. When he did, there was time for him to relax to his surroundings and the rest of us to enjoy some cake, and when he seemed comfortable we brought him into my dining room studio.
What happened next surprised us all. I took a quick natural light shot of him and showed him the image on the back – that got a smile so we were off to a good start. Next I lifted him onto the X on the paper white floor of the studio set up, and took a shot, half expecting a bad reaction to the flashes going off. Instead, more smiles. For the next 20 minutes he played a blinder and made this one of the easiest photoshoots you could imagine. Before we finished, we used a toy box to allow him to support himself standing, and it was then that I got this photograph. I absolutely love it. It required almost no post-processing, and I think the lighting really works. I’m sure there’s room for improvement with it, but I wouldn’t change a thing with this photo.
I think that the pose, all Donal’s doing, makes the shot – it is a classic corporate headshot pose from a toddler who has yet to turn 1, but who already has the CEO look sussed. Don’t be surprised if he goes on to achieve big things!
That’s one cute kid, and a great photograph. Did you drive the background flashes hard enough to completely blow out the background, or did you have to come back and touch up the corners?
In my own setup, 95% of the background ends up at 255 white, but in the corners I usually see just a little falloff. To get the corners fully white, I have to pump a lot more light in, resulting in “splashback” onto my model and vanishing blond hair at the edges. So, now I tone down the lights just a bit and just plan on retouching the corners.
Here, you have a nice clean background and even your model’s fine, light hair is clearly defined. Well done! Looks like I have to work a little more on my own setup.
What a beautiful boy! His parents must be thrilled to have this portrait!
I have been following your blog for several weeks now, but this little guy has finally inspired me to say hello. I really appreciate what you are doing here — I’ve been learning lots from you. Thanks!
Thanks Milan and Christine. His parents kinda like the photo alright!
Milan, regarding the background – in this shot yes it was completely blown out… didn’t need any touching up. Not so in other wider shots using the same setup and it’s something I find challenging too, but as you said, isn’t hard to fix in post production. My main challenge is with floor shadow for full length shots. If you’re just battling the corners, as well as pumping more light, move your lights further from the background – this will give a more even spread across a wider surface. To avoid the splashback, also move your model further away from the background. And if the background lights are not well behind the model you may want to gobo them – i.e. put something between the lights and the model to block light from them falling on the model. This particular shot for me was probably the best lit of my set of shots from this shoot because of the tighter crop due to a longer lens.
Christine – glad you’re enjoying the blog and learning from it. I’m learning as I go too so it’s good to be able to share the info as much as possible.
Cracking shot Ronan, really inspiring me to get a white background, the high key look works brilliantly here. Very clever use of all of the portable flashes too, my flash lights are soooooo untransportable! Great work as ever Ronan.
Thanks Henry. Everything just came together nicey on this one. Speedlights are great for portability all right – and no cables for power which is a big plus for a toddler shoot. I look forward to doing more of this kind of stuff.