Rick’s Rants and Raves

Since my last post on the Strobist Boot Camp 102, I’ve done two more assignments. First the Umbrella Specular Portrait.

The idea here was to make a portrait using just a single flash that serves to light the subject and cast a pleasing halo on the back ground. The light around Emily’s head on the wall behind her is actually the reflection of the umbrella that my flash shot through. A number of people found this assignment pretty difficult. It didn’t take too long for me to make this picture, but I think I might have gotten lucky. Emily didn’t really care for it that much, and instead wanted something a bit more moody.

Next was the Balancing Twilight assignment. I’ve got two different shots of Emily, and I’m not sure which I like best.

(see the comments on the photos on Flickr for more technical detail)

The two shots were taken 7 minutes apart (and a minor wardrobe change due to the chilly wind) but demonstrates just how dramatically different portraits can be with the rapidly setting sun behind them (or a bit of open sky, for that matter).

Nathan let me make a few pictures of him after Emily was done. He quickly got bored with a sitting pose and wanted to be more dynamic. This, of course, is very difficult with light stands. But I made one fun shot.