For this lesson, we wanted to use the Photoflex StarFlash 1000 Mercury 5' OctoDome Kit with the extra StarFlash 300 strobe head to show how to create a dynamic living room portrait.

Built-in Flash Lighting
Before setting up any of the lights, we first took a compact digital camera set to Auto and took a snapshot of our model, Rohan, playing his guitar. As you'll soon see, this "before" shot helps to illustrate the lighting differences between it and our final result shots.

In this first result, we see that the built-in flash of the camera was really pushed to its limits, as it fell short of providing adequate lighting for the subject. More importantly, however, the quality of light it produces is flat and uninteresting - typical of this type of lighting (figure 1).

Figure 1

Disabling the Flash
Next, we decided to use an Olympus EVOLT E-510 digital SLR with the pop-up flash deactivated to try and capture a more natural-looking result. Here's how we set the camera:

• Resolution: SHQ+RAW
• White Balance: 5600K (dialed in manually)
• ISO: 100
• Aperture: f/4.0
• Shutter Speed: 1/10th of a second
• Focus: Manual

To learn more about these settings in the Olympus EVOLT E-510, check out the following lesson: EVOLT E-510 Basic Startup

Once the camera was set, we took a shot. As you can see, the lighting quality has improved significantly over the previous shot, but with the aperture set to its widest opening (f/4 at a midway zoom setting), we had to use a fairly slow shutter speed (1/10th of a second) to render a good exposure.

Using a slow shutter speed here, however, resulted in significant motion blur. Notice Rohan's hand strumming the guitar (figure 2).

Figure 2

Adding a Soft Main Light
To improve the overall lighting and freeze any such motion, we decided to add some additional lighting to the scene. We first started out by setting up the 5-foot OctoDome and attaching it to the 1000 W/s StarFlash strobe and LiteStand (figure 3).

We positioned the kit in the adjoining room facing Rohan and powered up a Quantum FreeXWire wireless transmitter and receiver to sync up the camera with the strobe (figure 4).

Figure 3

Figure 4

The Exposure/Motion Blur Compromise
Once this light was in place, we decided to adjust the shutter speed. We knew that we wanted to have a slow enough shutter speed to allow for a good exposure of the ambient light coming through the windows, but we also didn't want to render motion blur again. What's the solution? Well, it's a bit of a compromise.

Shooting with strobe lighting allows you to freeze any motion that may be occurring, but if you also have a slow shutter speed, the camera will record that motion as well. Fortunately, however, the frozen/lit elements of an exposure tend to overshadow, or minimize, the effects of motion blur so that they are not so apparent, especially if the areas in motion are underexposed. Knowing this, we decided to set the shutter speed only a stop faster (1/20th of a second) and took another shot.

The result shows a significant improvement of lighting on our subject. The soft box has illuminated Rohan softly and evenly, which balances well with the ambient light coming through the windows, and there is no apparent motion blur (figure 5).

Figure 5

Adding a Rim Light
In reviewing the result, however, we realized that we wanted to make the lighting a little more dynamic by adding a "rim" light to the scene. This rim light would provide highlights to the edges of Rohan's body, as well as help increase the separation between the background and him.

So we attached a small LiteDome and set of Grids to a Photoflex StarFlash 300 W/s strobe, mounted it to a LiteStand, and placed it directly behind Rohan.

NOTE: To keep the contrast high with this light, we did not attach the front diffusion face (figures 6 & 7).

Figure 6

Figure 7

Once this rim light was in position and powered up, we attached another wireless Quantum receiver to it so that it too would sync with the camera.

When you're building a set that uses more than one light, it often helps to look at the effects of each light individually. Once you see the effects of each light, you'll know better how to adjust each one when it comes time to fine-tuning them.

To see how the rim light affected our shot here, we first disabled the main light and then took another shot at the same camera settings (figure 8).

Figure 8

The result was just as we'd hoped for. The rim light helped to add distinct highlights to both Rohan and the chair and helped to lend a more engaging mood to the shot.

With our rim light positioned and powered where we wanted it, we then powered up the main light once again and took another shot with both lights (figures 9 & 10).

Figure 9

Figure 10

We were very pleased with the results. The combination of the soft light coming from both the OctoDome and the window light, as well as the relatively hard rim light from the rear strobe, helped to make this living room portrait visually engaging.



Comparisons
To give you a sense of how far we'd come with the lighting, compare out first shot with the built-in flash against this most recent one (figures 11 & 12).

Figure 11

Figure 12

After we had our final lighting set-up in place, we asked Rohan to try some alternate poses. This one happened to be one of our favorites (figure 13).

Figure 14

Using a Specialty Lens
For a different look, we decided to replace the zoom lens we were using with a Lensbaby 3G lens (figure 14). This lens is unique in that it allows you to tilt, shift and lock down your plane of focus and create a very shallow depth of field, similar to that of a large format view camera.

As you can see from the result, this specialty lens helped to create a meditative quality to the shot (figure 15).

Coming In Tighter for Head Shots
After the guitar portrait, we then decided to take some head shots. Rowan is an elementary school teacher who also writes and illustrates children's books. His first book is due to be published this fall (November '07) and he needed a good headshot for the inside sleeve. This was a perfect opportunity for such a photo.

We put the standard zoom lens back on, and without changing the lights at all, we simply came in a little tighter. Rohan put down his guitar and turned slightly for a 3/4-view pose. We took a few shots and came away with some good ones. Here is one of our favorites (figure 16).

Figure 16

Next, we had Rohan change his shirt for a different look and this time, we shot him straight on. Upon reviewing the results, however, we noticed that the rear rim light was powered up a little too high, as was evident by the overexposed areas on left side of his forehead (figure 17).

Figure 17

Finally, we decided to change the shirt once more to create more of a color contrast with the back wall. After powering down the rim light by half a stop, we took another series of shots until we felt we had some good ones. Here's one of the outtakes from this series (figure 18).

After the shoot, we took a few minutes to pack up the camera and lighting equipment, downloaded the images to the computer, and selected the favorites with Rohan. Our lighting set-up was simple, easy to set up and a breeze to work with. It just goes to show that you can create pro-level indoor portraits with just a few simple camera and lighting tools and a little know how.

Keep in mind that the lighting configuration illustrated here is just one of many you can create with this dynamic lighting kit. Remember to experiment with your lighting set-ups and lens choices, and above all, have fun!